Jan. 6 committee punts release of report to Thursday

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is punting the release of its final report, moving the expected publication date from Wednesday to Thursday.

“The Select Committee now anticipates its final report will be filed and released tomorrow,” the panel wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

The committee said the release of additional records from the panel “is possible” on Wednesday.

The panel did not give a reasoning for the delay. The announcement does, however, come hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress. The speech was officially announced early Wednesday morning after significant media speculation the night before.

Zelensky met with President Biden at the White House earlier on Wednesday, and the two are scheduled to hold a joint press conference later today.

The House and Senate are also working to pass a funding bill to avert a government shutdown before Friday’s deadline.

The select committee released the executive summary of its report on Monday, which gave an overview of information the panel collected throughout its year-and-a-half-long investigation. The final body of work is expected to include eight chapters documenting the panel’s probe.

The release of the 154-page document came at the end of the committe’s final public presentation, during which members voted on criminal referrals targeting former President Trump.

The committee recommended that the Justice Department investigate Trump for inciting, assisting, or aiding and comforting an insurrection; obstructing an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement.

During Monday’s meeting, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the committee, previewed the report.

“[Trump] lost the 2020 election and knew it, but he chose to try to stay in office through a multi-part scheme to overturn the results and block the transfer of power. In the end, he summoned the mob to Washington and knowing they were armed and angry, pointed them to the Capitol and told them to fight like hell. There’s no doubt about this,” Thompson said.

“Those conclusions have helped shape the committee’s final report,” he added.