Overview
- Marking five years since the Capitol breach, the White House published a timeline calling demonstrators “peaceful” and “orderly,” hailing them as patriots and accusing Capitol Police of escalating violence while deriding Mike Pence.
- House Democrats convened an unofficial hearing with police, former lawmakers and witnesses to preserve the record, as a new party report highlighted dozens of pardoned rioters later charged with additional crimes.
- Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, released after Trump’s clemency, led a march retracing the 2021 route to honor Ashli Babbitt and other deaths tied to the siege.
- Republican leaders largely rejected the Democratic forum as partisan and emphasized security failures, and Speaker Mike Johnson has not installed a legally required plaque honoring officers.
- Trump previously issued sweeping pardons or commutations for roughly 1,500–1,600 Jan. 6 defendants; former special counsel Jack Smith said the attack would not have occurred without Trump but ended the prosecution under DOJ policy for a sitting president.