The report is finally here — and it looks much like what we learned from the committee over the summer. The eight chapters seem to largely mirror the committee’s public hearings that traced the evolution of Trump’s “big lie” — the false assertion that the election had been stolen — as the precipitating factor that set the stage for the former president’s broader plot to overturn the election results.
But there’s far more detail and texture in the committee’s final draft of history, along with a full set of recommendations to prevent the events of Jan. 6, 2021, from happening again. Previously undisclosed names, dates, messages, footnotes and moments, laid out by lawmakers and staffers after an 18-month investigation, provide a much richer picture of the weeks and days leading up to and after the insurrection.