Committee News
Over the past six months, the House Select Committee on Intelligence has interviewed more than 300 witnesses, announced 50 subpoenas and obtained 35,000 pages of records and tips. The committee has also conducted multiple public hearings and released two reports on its investigation.
The most recent report, which was released Monday, alleges that Trump and his supporters worked to commit fraud in order to overturn the result of the election. The 845-page report was based on more than 1,000 interviews, emails, texts and other documents collected by the committee during its year-and-a-half long investigation.
While the investigation was underway, Trump and his team attempted to enlist state election officials and lawmakers as part of their plan to replace bona fide electors with fake ones, the committee found. They encouraged them to ramp up pressure on state legislatures to appoint an alternate slate of electors in states they lost. The president, according to the report, also made threatening statements to local officials and used false allegations about election fraud in his fundraising emails.
Some witnesses, such as former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and campaign manager Paul Manafort, invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and did not testify before the committee. Others, such as Donald Trump Jr., hid behind the president’s refusal to appear in person and spoke to committee staff on the phone instead of appearing in front of them.
Other witnesses, such as Democratic Rep. Rusty Bowers of West Virginia and Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, testified in person. Several members of the public also came forward to share their experiences and describe threats they received after the election.
Despite these efforts, the committee was unable to reach certain witnesses due to witness reluctance and the fact that some had passed away. The committee also found that many people who volunteered to testify did not do so because they believed they would be subject to intimidation or harassment.
The committee has referred its findings to the Justice Department with a recommendation that it open a criminal investigation into the former president and his supporters. The committee has also referred lawyers who were involved in the election-related activities to be disciplined by their respective bar associations. It has also created a formal mechanism for evaluating whether individuals who violated the Constitution’s prohibition on insurrection or giving aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution should be disqualified from federal and state office.
In addition to publishing the full text of each testimony, the committee’s written and audio recordings of each hearing are available on the committee website and in the congressional library. Published transcripts include all witness testimony, the question-and-answer portion of the hearing, and any material requested of the witness by the committee. They are also available from the Government Printing Office’s govinfo website and from federal depository libraries. The committee’s archived webcasts of live and recorded meetings are also available on its website.