House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that the United States Congress will establish an independent external commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the deadly January 6 uprising on the United States Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in the last days of his presidency.
Pelosi said in a letter to members of Congress that the commission would follow the model of a similar commission convened after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on Washington and New York.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers had made calls for a 9/11 style bipartisan commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement officials failed to stop the attack on the Capitol in January, while the two chambers of Congress were involved in the certification process of the election of Joe Biden win.
The calls came after Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial, in which he was accused of inciting insurrection after months of stoking his supporters with exhortations to try to topple the election result and an inflammatory rally on the same day, outside the House. Branca, when he asked furious supporters to march on the Capitol.
Pelosi said on Monday that the panel will also look at the “facts and causes” behind the catastrophe, in which five people died on January 6, including a police officer, many were injured and two police officers died of suicide in the days that followed.
There were new calls from both parties on Sunday to such a commission.
“We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again, and I want to make sure the Capitol footprint can be better defended next time,” said Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator from South Carolina and Trump’s close ally who voted to absolve the former president on Saturday. “His behavior after the election was overblown,” Graham said of the former president on Fox News on Sunday.
Delaware Democrat Chris Coons agreed. Speaking at ABC’s This Week, he said a bipartisan commission would “make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward and that we uncover how responsible and abjectly violating his Trump constitutional oath he really was.”
Pelosi’s statement on Monday referred to an ongoing review, led by retired US army general Russel Honoré.
Pelosi said: “In recent weeks, General Honoré has been assessing our security needs, reviewing what happened on January 6 and how we must ensure that this does not happen again … It is clear from his conclusions and the impeachment trial that we must discover the truth of how it happened. “
She continued: “Our next step will be to establish an independent 9/11 external commission to” investigate and report the facts and causes related to the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the United States Capitol Complex … and related to interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes related to the preparation and response of the United States Capitol Police and other federal, state and local law enforcement officials in the National Capitol Region. “