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Rioters on the steps of the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021
PHOTO: LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS
Almost exactly two years ago, a mob stormed the US Capitol - now the work of the investigative committee on the attempted coup is nearing completion.
The documents released by the body contain something both outrageous and adventurous about Donald Trump's attempt to remain in power despite his electoral defeat by Joe Biden.
Now the committee has forwarded "an enormous amount" of documents to the Justice Department, which should prove Trump's involvement in the attack.
The New York Times quotes extensively from the documents.
Accordingly, Trump intended to capitalize on the defeat in the presidential elections.
Since his defeat, the ex-president has been spreading the proven lie that the elections were rigged and that he was cheated out of victory.
Trump repeated the phrase "rigged election" over and over again.
The documents now show that he wanted to secure these words as a trademark.
Specifically, the committee refers to an email flow between Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dan Scavino, then deputy chief of staff in the White House.
Scavino is said to have informed Kushner about Trump's request and asked where such a trademark is secured.
Kushner then forwarded the email to others with a request, "Guys, can we do this as soon as possible?"
"It looks like a Reichstag moment"
In total, the investigative committee passed on a pool of about 120 previously unpublished transcripts as well as emails and text messages.
According to the committee, the documents show how Trump wanted to stay in power after his defeat and how he wanted to raise donations.
On the other hand, they also demonstrate the fear of employees in the White House about their professional future - especially after the storming of the Capitol.
For example, a senior military adviser, General Mark A. Milley, said the attackers on the Capitol looked like "brown shirts" - the SA men of the Nazi regime wore brown shirts.
'That looks like a Reichstag moment,' said Milley.
And Trump's longtime adviser Hope Hicks fumed in a message to Julie Radfor, chief of staff to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka.
"All of us who haven't secured new jobs will be out of a job forever."
Involved in a "multi-level conspiracy."
The documents also indicate further concrete involvement of Trump in the storming of the Capitol.
According to advisors, the ex-president has long planned to join his supporters in the march to the Capitol.
He wanted to go, "go physically," said his spokeswoman, among other things, when questioned by the investigative committee.
When the Capitol was stormed on January 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters raided the seat of the US Congress in Washington because they did not accept his election defeat.
The committee is tasked with clarifying Trump's responsibility for the attack.
The committee had already published a final report in December that weighed heavily on Trump.
It concluded that Trump was involved in a "multi-pronged conspiracy" to overturn the 2020 election and that he had failed to respond to his supporters' violence.
The committee interviewed more than a thousand witnesses, including most of the ex-president's closest associates and allies in the White House.
Many witnesses gave detailed accounts of Trump's efforts to persuade federal officials and legislators to help him avert defeat.
White House officials who accompanied Trump on Jan. 6 told the panel that he refused to ask his violent supporters to leave the Capitol.
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