Release of January 6 committee’s final report delayed until Thursday

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The release of the January 6 committee’s final report on the investigation into the 2021 insurrection has been delayed.

The report is now set to be released on Thursday. The report, which was expected to be made public on Wednesday, was delayed amid a visit to the US from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and as Congress is expected to work late into the night to vote on spending following a speech by the wartime leader.

The panel said that additional records from the committee may still be released on Wednesday.

The panel released a summary of the report earlier this week in which the committee said they have knowledge of “multiple efforts by President Donald Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,” and that the Department of Justice knows “of at least one of those circumstances”.

The summary also stated that the panel has “evidence suggesting specific efforts to obstruct the Committee’s investigation,” such as worries that lawyers funded by Mr Trump’s political action committee Save America or other groups “have specific incentives to defend President Trump rather than zealously represent their own clients”.

The summary also notes that the committee was not able to get former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato to confirm testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, that Mr Trump was involved in an altercation with the head of his security detail. The alleged altercation took place when the former president was made aware that he wouldn’t be going to the Capitol after his speech to supporters at the Ellipse on January 6 before the attack on the Capitol.

The summary stated that Ms Hutchinson and another White House member of staff told the committee about the conversations in which Mr Ornato told them about the altercation.

But Mr Ornato rejected that version of events.

“Ornato professed that he did not recall either communication, and that he had no knowledge at all about the President’s anger,” the summary stated.

The panel said it “has significant concerns about the credibility of this testimony” and that they would release his full transcript.

The committee also said it collected evidence that Mr Trump “raised roughly one quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising efforts between the election and January 6th”.

“Those solicitations persistently claimed and referred to election fraud that did not exist,” the panel added.

Committee member and California Democrat Zoe Lofgren has said that the panel has evidence showing that Trump family members and associates benefited personally from the money that was raised on the false notion that the election was rigged.

The committee’s full report is based on more than 1,000 interviews and documents such as texts, emails, and phone records.