A Critic at Large: the American Beast

Accounting for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

- By Jill Lepore

The Government Publishing Office’s eight-hundred-and-forty five-page report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is divided into eight chapters, makes eleven recommendations, attaches four appendices, and includes four thousand two hundred and eight-five endnotes. Its executive summary, which at nearly two hundred pages can hardly be called a summary, provides a numbered list of seventeen key findings, the first eleven of which have, as the subject of the predicate, the forty-fifth President of the United States:

1. Donald Trump purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud. . . .

2. Donald Trump refused to accept the lawful result of the 2020 election. . . .

3. Donald Trump corruptly pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes. . . .

4. Donald Trump sought to corrupt the U.S. Department of Justice. . . .

5. Donald Trump unlawfully pressured State officials and legislators. . . .

6. Donald Trump oversaw an effort to transmit false electoral certificates. . . .

7. Donald Trump pressured Members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors. . . .

8. Donald Trump purposely verified false information filed in Federal court. . . .

9. Donald Trump summoned tens of thousands of supporters to Washington for January 6th. . . .

10. Donald Trump purposely sent a social media message publicly condemning Vice President Pence. . . .

11. Donald Trump refused repeated requests over a multiple hour period that he instruct his violent supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol. . . .