Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): This thread presents a brief summary of the substantive findings of the Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. My own interpretations of the report will follow later. 0/
Before the election, Trump knew that he was likely to lose, and planned to declare victory (a Big Lie) if he lost. 1/
On and after election day, Trump knew that he did lose, and declared victory anyway. 2/
Over and over again, Trump publicized specific claims of fraud immediately after being informed that they were false. 3/
Knowing that his advisors knew his claims of fraud to be false, Trump promoted people, such as Rudolph Giuliani, who would lie for him in public. 4/
Knowing that he had lost the election and that his claims of fraud were false, Trump made several deliberate efforts to overturn the electoral results and thus American democracy. 5/
In states he had lost, Trump personally pressured state officials to alter the electoral outcome. 6/
Knowing that the Department of Justice had investigated and found no evidence of fraud, Trump nevertheless sought to use it, via Jeffrey Clark, to pressure state officials to change electoral outcomes. 7/
Knowing that he had lost the electoral college vote, Trump oversaw an effort to create fake slates of electors. These entirely bogus documents, based on nothing, were then sent to the vice-president. 8/
Knowing that it was the vice-president’s role only to count the electoral votes, Trump pressured the vice-president not to do so, on the theory that the vice-president could, in effect, choose the president. 9/
Even the person who devised the plan regarding the vice-president, John Eastman, knew it to be illegal. 10/
Knowing that all that remained was the formality of certifying Biden’s victory, Trump encouraged supporters he knew to be armed and angry to violently overthrow our form of government, on the basis of lies. 11/
Trump’s urgings to violence were successful because his supporters believed his lies and understood what he wanted them to do: use violence to prevent a peaceful transition of power. 12/
At a time when the Capitol was under attack, the vice-president was in flight, and the members of the vice-president’s security detail feared for their lives, Trump urged his supporters on to further violence. 13/
After the failed coup attempt, a number of Republican legislators sought personal or blanket presidential pardons, thereby acknowledging their fears that they had acted illegally. 14/
Even if Trump thought that he had won, which he did not, his illegal attempt to remain in power would remain an illegal attempt to stay in power. 15/15