Deep dive
January 6: The Attack and Its Aftermath
The day a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes — and everything that followed: the committee, the impeachment, the largest prosecution in American history, and the pardons that erased it.
Last verified October 5, 2026. Status: Documented — every claim below links to its source. Committee conclusions are attributed to the committee; court outcomes to the courts. Browse all sources in the Bibliography.
What happened on January 6, 2021
Congress met in joint session to count the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election — the constitutional step that formalizes the winner. What followed, reconstructed from the House Select Committee's final report and contemporaneous reporting:
- Morning: Trump addressed supporters at the Ellipse, repeating false claims that the election had been stolen and urging them to march to the Capitol.
- ~1:00 PM: The joint session convened, presided over by Vice President Mike Pence.
- ~2:00 PM: Rioters breached the Capitol building. The Senate and House chambers were evacuated; lawmakers, staff, and Pence were moved to secure locations.
- Afternoon: For hours, rioters occupied the building — ransacking offices, chanting threats against Pence and members of Congress — while Trump delayed calling for them to leave.
- Evening: Law enforcement cleared the building. Congress reconvened and completed the electoral count in the early hours of January 7, confirming Joe Biden's victory.
Minute-by-minute reconstruction: USA Today timeline of the Capitol attack.
The human cost
There is no single simple death toll — the deaths connected to the day fall into distinct categories, and honest accounting keeps them separate:
- Ashli Babbitt — shot by a Capitol Police officer while climbing through a broken window into the Speaker's Lobby. Died that day.
- Officer Brian Sicknick — assaulted during the riot; died January 7. The medical examiner ruled his death natural causes (two strokes), while the Capitol Police treated it as a line-of-duty death.
- Kevin Greeson and Benjamin Phillips — died of cardiovascular events on January 6; ruled natural causes.
- Rosanne Boyland — died of amphetamine intoxication, ruled accidental.
- Responding officers who later died by suicide — including officers from the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department in the months after the attack.
- More than 140 officers were injured defending the building.
Sources: Factually on the death toll; Factually on causes of death.
The Select Committee
In June 2021 the House created the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson with Rep. Liz Cheney as vice chair. Over 18 months it:
- Conducted more than 1,000 interviews and depositions
- Held 10 public hearings in 2022
- Released its final report on December 22, 2022 — 814 pages, available in full from GovInfo (PDF)
The committee's central findings, attributed to the committee: that Trump engaged in a multi-part plan to overturn the 2020 election — pressuring state officials, pushing the Justice Department, attempting to install a loyalist attorney general, pressuring Vice President Pence to reject electoral votes, promoting false elector slates — and that on January 6 he failed to act for hours while the Capitol was under attack. The committee referred Trump to the Justice Department for criminal charges. The report is cataloged by the Library of Congress; the committee's authorizing business meeting is on Congress.gov and its activity report at GovInfo.
Committee conclusions are the committee's — they are not court adjudications. Where courts ruled, we say so.
Impeachment — and acquittal
On January 13, 2021 — one week after the attack — the House impeached Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the first president impeached twice. (Second impeachment of Donald Trump)
The Senate trial concluded February 13, 2021: 57 senators voted guilty, 43 not guilty — 10 votes short of the two-thirds required to convict. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to convict, the most bipartisan impeachment vote in American history — and still an acquittal. (GovTrack vote record; NPR)
The prosecution
The Justice Department's January 6 investigation became the largest criminal probe in American history. By the day before the pardons:
- ~1,583 people federally charged
- ~1,270 convicted, including 14 for seditious conspiracy
- ~608 charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement
Source: DOJ "48 Months" statistics (archived Jan. 6, 2025). Full criminal-proceedings record: Criminal proceedings in the January 6 Capitol attack.
The pardons that erased it
On January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, Trump signed Proclamation 10887: full pardons for roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants, commutations for 14 Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders, and dismissal with prejudice of all pending indictments. By August 2026, the final January 6 case had been ordered abandoned.
Read the full deep dive: The Jan 6 Pardons →
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan. 6, 2021 | Mob storms the Capitol; electoral count delayed until early Jan. 7 |
| Jan. 13, 2021 | House impeaches Trump for incitement of insurrection |
| Feb. 13, 2021 | Senate acquits, 57–43 |
| June 2021 | House Select Committee created |
| 2021–2022 | DOJ charges mount; seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders |
| Dec. 22, 2022 | Select Committee final report released; criminal referrals to DOJ |
| Jan. 6, 2025 | DOJ publishes final "48 months" prosecution statistics |
| Jan. 20, 2025 | Proclamation 10887: ~1,500 pardons, 14 commutations |
| Aug. 2026 | Final January 6 case ordered abandoned |
Related
- The Jan 6 Pardons: A Deep Dive
- Elections & Democracy hub
- Bibliography — every source cited on this site