January 6th Committee

The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives established to investigate the U.S. Capitol attack.
After refusing to concede the 2020 U.S. presidential election and perpetuating false and disproven claims of widespread voter fraud, then-president Donald Trump summoned a mob of protestors to the Capitol as the electoral votes were being counted on January 6, 2021. During the House Committee's subsequent investigation, people gave sworn testimony that Trump knew he lost the election. The committee issued a subpoena requiring Trump to testify, identifying him as "the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power". He sued the committee and never testified.
On December 19, 2022, the committee voted unanimously to refer Trump and the lawyer John Eastman to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution. The committee recommended charging Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and attempts to "incite", "assist" or "aid or comfort" an insurrection. Obstruction and conspiracy to defraud were also the recommended charges for Eastman. The committee simultaneously released a summary of its findings, and it published the remainder of its 845-page final report three days later. That week, it also began publishing interview transcripts.
The committee interviewed over a thousand people and reviewed over a million documents. Some members of Trump's inner circle cooperated, while others defied the committee. For refusing to testify:

Two people were convicted of contempt of Congress and were imprisoned for four months: Peter Navarro in March–July 2024, and Steve Bannon in July–October 2024.
Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino were also held in criminal contempt by Congress.
Representatives McCarthy, Jordan, Biggs, and Perry were referred to the House Ethics Committee.

The committee was formed through a largely party-line vote on July 1, 2021, and it dissolved in early January 2023. Its membership was a point of significant political contention. The only two House Republicans to vote to establish the committee were also the only two Republicans to serve on it: Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. The Republican National Committee censured them for their participation.

History

On May 19, 2021, in the aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, the House voted to form an independent bicameral commission to investigate the attack, similar to the 9/11 Commission. The bipartisan Bill passed the House 252–175, with 35 Republicans voting in favor. Minority Leader McCarthy had initially deputized Representative John Katko to negotiate for Republicans but then reversed course and whipped against the proposal; the 35 House Republican defections were perceived as a rebuke of McCarthy. On May 28, in the Senate, Republicans defeated the proposal by filibuster.
Anticipating the defeat of the proposed commission, House speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that, as a fallback option, she would appoint a select committee to do similar work.
On June 30, 2021, H.Res.503, "Establishing the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol", passed the House 222–190, with all Democratic members and two Republican members, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, voting in favor. Sixteen Republican members did not vote. The resolution empowered Pelosi to appoint eight members to the committee, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could appoint five members "in consultation" with the Speaker. Pelosi indicated that she would name a Republican as one of her eight appointees.
On July 1, Pelosi appointed seven Democrats, including Bennie Thompson as committee chair, and one Republican, Liz Cheney.
On July 19, McCarthy announced his five selections, recommending Jim Banks serve as Ranking Member, along with Jim Jordan, Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong, and Troy Nehls. Banks, Jordan, and Nehls had voted to overturn the Electoral College results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Banks and Jordan had also signed onto the Supreme Court case Texas v. Pennsylvania to invalidate the ballots of voters in four states.
On July 21, Thompson announced that he would investigate Trump as part of the inquiry into the Capitol attack. Hours later, Pelosi announced that she had informed McCarthy that she was rejecting Jordan and Banks, citing concerns for the investigation's integrity and relevant actions and statements made by the two members. She approved the recommendations of the other three. Rather than suggesting two replacements, McCarthy insisted he would not appoint anyone unless all five of his choices were approved. When McCarthy pulled all of his picks, he eliminated all Trump defenders on the committee and cleared the field for Pelosi to control the committee's entire makeup and workings. This was widely interpreted as a costly political miscalculation by McCarthy.
On July 25, after McCarthy rescinded all of his selections, Pelosi announced that she had appointed Adam Kinzinger, one of the ten House Republicans who voted for Trump's second impeachment, to the committee. Pelosi also hired a Republican, former Representative Denver Riggleman, as an outside committee staffer or advisor. Cheney voiced her support and pushed for the involvement of both.
On February 4, 2022, the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Kinzinger, which it had never before done to any sitting congressional Republican. The resolution formally dropped "all support of them as members of the Republican Party", arguing that their work on the select committee was hurting Republican prospects in the midterm elections. Kinzinger had already announced on October 29, 2021, that he would not run for reelection. Cheney lost the primary for her reelection on August 16, 2022.

Members

The committee's chair was Bennie Thompson, and the vice chair was Liz Cheney. Seven Democrats and two Republicans sat on the committee.

Majority	Minority
Bennie Thompson, Chair, Mississippi Zoe Lofgren, California Adam Schiff, California Pete Aguilar, California Stephanie Murphy, Florida Jamie Raskin, Maryland Elaine Luria, Virginia	Liz Cheney, Vice Chair, Wyoming Adam Kinzinger, Illinois

In July 2021, Thompson announced the senior staff:

David Buckley as staff director. Served as CIA inspector general and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence minority staff director.
Kristin Amerling as deputy staff director and chief counsel. Served as deputy general counsel at the Transportation Department and chief counsel of multiple congressional committees, including Committees on Energy and Commerce and Oversight and Government Reform. She also served as Chief Investigative Counsel and Director of Oversight for the Senate's Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Hope Goins as counsel to Chairman Thompson. Served as top advisor to Thompson on homeland security and national security matters.
Candyce Phoenix as senior counsel and senior advisor. Serves as staff director of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Tim Mulvey as communications director. Served as communications director for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In August 2021, Thompson announced additional staff:

Denver Riggleman, senior technical adviser for the January 6 Committee. He previously served as a Republican U.S. Representative from Virginia and was an ex-military intelligence officer.
* Riggleman left the committee in April 2022.
Joe Maher as principal deputy general counsel from the Department of Homeland Security.
Timothy J. Heaphy was appointed as the committee's chief investigative counsel.

In November 2022, Thompson disclosed the existence of a subcommittee to handle "outstanding issues" including unanswered subpoenas and whether to send transcripts of interviews to the DOJ. The subcommittee had been established about one month earlier with Raskin as chair, along with Cheney, Lofgren, and Schiff. Thompson said he selected them because "they're all lawyers".
On January 20, 2025, hours before President Biden left office, he gave a preemptive pardon to all committee members and staffers, given President-elect Trump's threats against them, as well as to the four police officers who testified.

Investigation

The investigation commenced with a public hearing on July 27, 2021, at which four police officers testified. As of the end of 2021, it had interviewed more than 300 witnesses and obtained more than 35,000 documents, and those totals continued to rise. By May 2022, it had interviewed over 1,000 witnesses; some of those interviews were recorded. By October 2022, it had obtained over 1,000,000 documents and reviewed hundreds of hours of videos. During the pendency of the investigation, the select committee publicly communicated some of its information.
The select committee split its multi-pronged investigation into multiple color-coded teams, each focusing on a specific topic like funding, individuals' motivations, organizational coalitions, and how Trump may have pressured other politicians. These were:

Green Team investigated the money trail to determine whether Trump and Republican allies, knowing they were spreading false claims and misinformation about the 2020 presidential election, defrauded their own supporters.
Gold Team investigated whether members of Congress participated or assisted in Trump's attempted to overturn the election. They also examined Trump's pressure campaign on local and state officials and on executive departments — like the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and others — to try to keep himself in power.
Purple Team investigated the involvement of domestic violent extremist groups — such as the QAnon movement, militia groups, Oath Keepers, and Proud Boys — and how they used social media including Facebook, Gab, and Discord.
Red Team investigated the planners of the January 6th rally and other "Stop the Steal" organizers and whether they knew the rally participants intended violence.
Blue Team researched the threats leading up to the attack and how law enforcement shared intelligence and prepared. Blue Team had access to thousands of documents from more than a dozen agencies.

The select committee's investigation and its findings were multi-faceted.
A reform of election certification procedures was passed in the December 2022 omnibus spending bill. Committee members had begun collaborating on this reform in 2021.
The select committee's findings may also be used in arguments to hold individuals, notably Donald Trump, legally accountable.