The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress made four criminal referrals for Donald Trump to the Justice Department including "inciting an insurrection."
Refuting the accusations on his personal social media site after the report was released, Trump said that it was impossible he could be convinced of that because in his speech he asked the protesters to "fight" but "peacefully." The committee didn't use the speech to prove incitement, however.
In Chapter 7 of the report the committee walks through the timeline that reveals Trump returned from the speech at the Ellipse and was told about what was happening. He then sent out a tweet egging the mob on.
"By 1:21 p.m., President Trump was informed that the Capitol was under attack," the report explains. "He could have interceded immediately. But the President chose not to do so. It was not until 4:17 p.m. that President Trump finally tweeted a video in which he told the rioters to go home. The 187 minutes between the end of President Trump’s speech and when he finally told the mob to leave the U.S. Capitol was a dereliction of duty. In the U.S. military, a service member is deemed to be 'derelict in the performance of duties when that person willfully or negligently fails to perform that person’s duties or when that person performs them in a culpably inefficient manner.'"
The committee explains that as commander-in-chief, Trump could have done anything using the power of the government to stop the crowd, but he refused.
"Instead, President Trump reached out to Rudolph Giuliani and friendly Members of Congress, seeking their assistance in delaying the joint session of Congress," the report continues. "And the President tweeted at 2:24 p.m., at the height of the violence, that his own vice president lacked the 'courage' to act—a statement that could only further enrage the mob."
It goes on to cite Gen. Mark Milley, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified that Trump did "nothing," "zero" to stop the attack and that it was Vice President Mike Pence who stepped in. Pence made two or three calls" with Gen. Milley and other military officials. Pence was called "very animated" and "issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders."
The fact that Pence was the one calling the shots on Jan. 6 was a serious issue and chief of staff Mark Meadows knew it. The committee reveals that he was working to cover it all up.
Milley recalled Meadows saying. “We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable."
Milley described it as a “[r]ed flag.”
"You know, you’re the Commander in Chief," Milley said of Trump. "You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America, and there’s nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero? And it’s not my place to, you know, pass judgment or—I’m the, you know—but no attempt to call the Secretary of Defense? No attempt to call the Vice President of the United States of America, who’s down on the scene? To my knowledge, it wasn’t—I just noted it."
Even before the attack, aides Hope Hicks and Eric Herschmann were telling Trump he needed to order his attackers to be peaceful, but Trump refused.
Trump sent another tweet at 2:38 p.m.: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
According to White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, Trump really didn't want to use the word “peaceful.” It was only after Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase that he agreed. Even Donald Trump Jr. began exclaiming that it had to stop. “He’s to condem [sic] this sh*t. Asap. The captiol [sic] police tweet is not enough,” Trump, Jr. wrote to Mark Meadows.
During the public hearings, the Jan. 6 committee showed videos of rioters seeing Trump's tweet at 4:17 p.m. and saying that Trump was calling them off. They then left, as ordered.
