President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress or rewrite the history of his raucous first term in office — and especially what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — have gone unabated for years. As he prepares to take office again, a great memory-holing could soon begin.
Trump has made revisionism a cornerstone of his political career — a feature, not a bug. He regularly distorts facts and often denies any culpability of wrongdoing even if, for example, crimes he was alleged to have committed were proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court and he was convicted by a judge and jury.
Trump has vowed to sign a slew of executive orders once back in the White House. And from Day One, he will be buoyed by Republican majorities in Congress, albeit slim ones. The Republican Party has, over the last four years, become increasingly pliant to Trump’s every wish or whim, even if that means playing down certain facts about the mob bearing Trump flags and banners that broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Unchained from nearly a half dozen indictments and imbued with great though vague powers of immunity by a majority-conservative Supreme Court justices, several of whom he hand-selected, one of the only things to stop a great rewriting of the nation’s recent history will be the efforts of the public to hold fast to facts instead of fiction.
Here’s what Trump might try to distance himself from, once he’s back in office:
1: The Spark Of ‘Stand Back, Stand By’
As Trump promises to pardon Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol on his behalf, prosecutors, FBI agents and even Proud Boys who’ve testified in court have pointed to one comment from Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 election that helped spark the violence to come.
At a debate against Joe Biden in 2020, he refused to disavow extremist groups like the Proud Boys, saying instead that they should “stand back and stand by.”
The Proud Boys had long considered themselves a “drinking club with a political problem,” according to defense lawyers, but Trump’s remark shifted the atmosphere.
It became an instant rallying cry and powerful recruitment tool for the Proud Boys, according to extensive witness testimony, texts and chats presented at the Proud Boys’ seditious conspiracy trial in 2023. Proud Boys leaders were inundated with messages from people who sought to join the group to support Trump and crush their perceived enemies. Prior to Trump’s comment, the group had for years mostly been disorganized but had been eager to grow their ranks or find a purpose.
That moment spawned significant outreach among Proud Boys chapters around the country. And it gave rise to multiple secret or encrypted text channels, where leaders of the extremist group would later coordinate their attack on the Capitol.
On the witness stand at the seditious conspiracy trial of onetime Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and Proud Boys leaders Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean, one FBI special agent testified under oath that communications among group members after the debate were jubilant because they believed Trump was telling them that he needed them.
After Trump lost to Biden, texts the FBI obtained from Proud Boys’ devices showed Tarrio discussing the election results, writing that it would be “dark times” if the results weren’t reversed — and “if it’s reversed, civil war.” Members responded by saying civil war was necessary “no matter what.” There was no toning down of that rhetoric from Tarrio nor any other leader associated with the group.
With their newfound confidence, throughout November and December 2020, Proud Boys attended rallies in D.C. for Trump aimed at stopping the “steal” and ended up clashing in the street with counterprotesters.
Former Proud Boys leader Jeremy Bertino, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, was stabbed by a counterprotester after one of those rallies, and it became a seminal moment. He testified at Tarrio’s trial that the Proud Boys were upset because they believed police weren’t doing enough to protect them from anti-Trump demonstrators or individuals they deemed members of antifa. Bertino’s stabbing spurred the group’s animosity toward police, and that resentment grew until it was allowed to explode on Jan. 6.
When Trump announced on Dec. 19, 2020, that there would be a “wild” rally in D.C. on Jan. 6, they went into overdrive.
The Justice Department told jurors at the Proud Boys trial that leaders of the group knew they lacked discipline, generally speaking, but were open to using whatever means necessary to achieve their ends. On Jan. 6, Capitol Police reported seeing as many as 200 Proud Boys in the crowd. While that was a lot, it wasn’t enough to forcibly stop the transfer of power — and leaders of the group knew that going in, according to federal prosecutors.
They would have to rely on something that became known as the “tools theory,” prosecutors revealed: By agreeing to whip up the “normies,” or everyday people, who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, they would have the sheer force they needed to stop the certification in its tracks.
2. A Close Connection Between The Trump White House And An Extremist Group
Testimony provided to the congressional committee investigating Jan. 6, as well as records, witness testimony and evidence from the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial in 2022 showed that there were few degrees of separation between Trump and associates or members of the extremist groups that stormed the Capitol.
Kellye SoRelle, former general counsel to the far-right anti-government Oath Keepers network and former girlfriend of Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes, is one such example.
SoRelle, who was sentenced to a year in prison on Friday, was a vocal proponent of stolen election claims. She told NBC in July 2022 that as a volunteer for Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election, she had established contact with people inside the Trump administration, as well as with associates of allies like Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s onetime lawyer and an alleged architect of the “fake elector” scheme to overturn the election results. She also said she had contact with Trump attorney Sidney Powell, another alleged “fake elector” conspirator. (Giuliani has denied contact or association with members of the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys and any wrongdoing in the fake electors scheme. Powell pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere in the 2020 election last October.)
SoRelle told NBC in 2022 she did not communicate directly with Trump, though that didn’t deter Rhodes from asking her to put him in touch with the 45th president. SoRelle denied connecting Rhodes to Trump directly, but she said she contacted Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son, in November 2020, when Andrew was then a White House special assistant. Records unearthed after the FBI seized SoRelle’s phone confirmed this and showed that there was another attempt by SoRelle to contact someone with a White House phone number via text on Dec. 20, 2020. The text was ultimately undeliverable and was rerouted to the White House switchboard.
Rhodes made SoRelle his point person in the days ahead of Jan. 6, and she co-signed two open letters that Rhodes addressed to Trump before the attack on the Capitol. One of the letters went public just days before Trump mentioned the upcoming “wild” rally; the other was issued just days after. Both called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. For Rhodes, that meant he could rally to Trump’s side throngs of armed Oath Keepers and any others who wanted to keep him in power or block Congress from its duties that day. The second open letter, dated Dec. 23, 2020, stated that “many of us will have our mission-critical gear stowed nearby just outside D.C., and we will answer the call right then and there, if you call on us.”
In fact, starting Jan. 4, 2021, a “quick reaction force” with guns and gear was set up at a Virginia hotel just over the Potomac River. There were so many firearms transported there by Oath Keepers that it stunned one Florida Oath Keeper, Terry Cumming. Cumming testified at the Oath Keepers sedition trial that he had not seen so many weapons in one place since he was in the military.
SoRelle was arrested and indicted on four counts tied to Jan. 6: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice by tampering with records and a single misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted area. A federal judge deemed her mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2023 but did not disclose her ailment. She was restored to competency in February and in August, she struck a plea deal, admitting she was guilty of telling Oath Keepers to delete incriminating text messages.
From December 2020 to January 2021, SoRelle was regularly privy to discussions about possible bids to stop the election certification, prosecutors said. She was also present for a meeting in an underground garage in D.C. between Tarrio and Rhodes on the eve of the insurrection.
What was ultimately discussed at that meeting is unknown. A documentary filmmaker who had been recording the Proud Boys for weeks, at Tarrio’s invitation, was told to leave once the extremist leaders started chatting.
SoRelle also attended another meeting with Rhodes on Jan. 10, 2021. They met with Jason Alpers, co-founder of Allied Security Operations Group, a group responsible for spreading key false 2020 election claims through its Antrim Michigan Forensics report. (Antrim County prosecutor James Rossiter told The Washington Post in 2022 that Giuliani asked for the county’s voting machines so he could give them to Trump.)
Alpers testified under oath that during the Jan. 10, 2021, meeting, SoRelle was heavily intoxicated and Rhodes was beside himself: Jan. 6 hadn’t worked out as hoped, so Rhodes wanted Alpers to pass Trump a message urging him to invoke the Insurrection Act before Biden was inaugurated.
Texts the FBI extracted from SoRelle’s cell phone showed that 48 hours before this meeting with Alpers, Rhodes sent a message to an Oath Keepers leadership chat: “My cell is down. will be back up soon. Can’t be avoided for now. stand firm. don’t go off half-cocked. There’s still a chance Trump will act as commander-in-chief. I’m working with others to make that a reality.”
3. The January 6 Committee Was Properly Formed, According to a Trump-Appointed Judge
Immediately after Jan. 6, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle flatly condemned Trump’s conduct. As days turned to weeks, that attitude shifted among the GOP: The same lawmakers who had once come out against Trump for inspiring violence or had condemned his response to the attack opted to acquit him of inciting an insurrection when faced with an impeachment vote.
In May 2021, the House of Representatives passed legislation to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The body, which would be styled after the 9/11 Commission, would be tasked with reviewing what happened on Jan. 6 and probing security and intelligence failures. Members would be obligated to produce a final report at the end of their probe.
Despite enjoying bipartisan support in the House, Trump publicly called on House Republicans to tank the bill. Just 35 Republicans voted with House Democrats to form the commission.
Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rejected the commission by claiming that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi had drawn up an unfair framework. He claimed the commission’s focus would be too narrow and that its work would be repetitive of existing options already available to lawmakers to investigate. McCarthy said the commission wasn’t truly bipartisan, and he was insistent that the group look into security failures more broadly, including a probe into the death of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans, who had died that spring after a driver slammed into a barricade on the Capitol’s north side.
In fact, the bill meant to evenly split the committee members. There would be five Democrats and five Republicans, including a Democratic chair and a Republican vice chair, that would reflect the makeup of the chamber at the time. All commission members would be imbued with subpoena powers subject to final approval by the committee chairs.
When a measure to form the commission went to the Senate for a vote, only a week after the House passed its bill, Senate Republicans filibustered it. Only six Republicans joined Democrats in voting to form a body to investigate the worst attack on the Capitol in over a century.
Then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to support the bill in the Senate and whipped members against it, even though he had once said Trump was “morally responsible” for Jan. 6. (McConnell also voted to acquit Trump of inciting an insurrection.)
The Senate’s filibuster of a full commission left the House with no choice but to strike out on its own. Members drafted a new resolution that would require just a simple majority to form a select committee. A select committee wasn’t necessarily a downgrade, but was the last remaining tool to explore the attack through the legislative branch of government. In June 2021, the House voted to approve the creation of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The only two Republicans who aligned with Democrats on that vote were then-Reps. Liz Cheney (Wis.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.).
The resolution to form the select committee featured slightly different terms: There would be 13 members instead of 10. Democrats extended an olive branch to Republicans and wrote into the committee rules that at least five members would need to be appointed in consultation with the House minority leader.
McCarthy presented several nominees and Pelosi accepted some. She would not compromise, however, when McCarthy presented Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana. Both men voted to overturn Biden’s victory after Jan. 6, and Democrats believed they were too close to Trump to investigate impartially.
This prompted McCarthy to take his ball and go home. Instead of finding just two more suitable candidates, he withdrew all five of his nominees and lashed out at Pelosi.
To save the committee from falling to the wayside, Pelosi picked the only two Republicans she felt were left for the job: Kinzinger and Cheney.
The Republican National Committee sued, claiming the select committee had been improperly formed because it didn’t have 13 members or a “ranking member.” The panel only ended up having nine members.
With Cheney as vice chair, it was a rose by any other name, according to the Trump-appointed judge, U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly. Kelly ruled against the RNC, finding there was nothing illegitimate about how the committee had been formed or its final makeup.
After all, Kelly noted, the House had previously formed committees with an imbalance of Republicans to Democrats, including a panel in 2005 that investigated the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. There were zero Democrats on that committee.
Trump has railed against the committee for years and has called for its members to be jailed. His attacks on Liz Cheney for her participation as vice chair have been constant. Trump and lawmakers like Rep. Barry Loudermilk have accused her of tampering with witnesses who testified before the committee.
The final report, released by the Jan. 6 committee in December 2022, detailed what its members, like Cheney, said showed an unprecedented effort to defraud the American people with “nonsense” allegations that were “designed to prey upon the patriotism of millions of men and women who love our country.”
“Most Americans also did not know exactly how Donald Trump, along with a handful of others, planned to defeat the transfer of presidential power on January 6th. This was not a simple plan, but it was a corrupt one,” Cheney wrote in the foreword of the committee’s report.
Trump was indicted on four felony charges for Jan. 6: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Special counsel Jack Smith, after showing evidence to a grand jury, secured an unprecedented indictment against a former president.
The evidence was alleged to show how Trump engaged in a massive scheme to stop the transfer of power after he was defeated by Biden. Trump was accused of lying about voter fraud to further that conspiracy. While endlessly insisting that he had won, he tasked a coterie of his allies to pressure state officials or advance fake elector slates. When members of the Justice Department and the nation’s intelligence agencies told him repeatedly that there was no evidence of fraud, he kept up the scheme, according to prosecutors.
And as his lawyers tried to advance claims of voter fraud in court, failing every time, Trump’s strategy of pressure and intimidation ramped up — until it exploded with his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. Then, prosecutors claimed, Trump stood by for more than an hour as the Capitol was ransacked; lawmakers, staff and journalists fled for their lives; over 140 officers were assaulted; and deaths followed.
Had Trump not won the election in November against Vice President Kamala Harris, there is no guarantee that he would have actually gone to trial, given the composition of a Supreme Court that has granted him vast immunity protections and his pattern of filing endless appeals, delays and motions to dismiss. In the end, however, and despite his attempts to rewrite the story of Jan. 6, Trump’s attempt to keep Smith’s charging report hidden from the annals of history failed.
Smith, who resigned after the case was dismissed in light of Trump’s election, explained in his final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland why Trump was ultimately not charged with insurrection. And he argued, despite Trump’s claims otherwise, his prosecution was never a matter of politics.
It was a matter of upholding the rule of law, he wrote, when the case represented “one in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof most certain.”