On January 6 of this year, then-President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election prompted a mob of pro-Trump extremists to mount a deadly failed insurrection on the United States Capitol, hoping to upend the joint Congressional session taking place that day to acknowledge the victory of now-President Joe Biden.
Their actions led to the deaths of at least five people. They destroyed property, smeared excrement across the walls and endangered the lives of every lawmaker and worker at the Capitol that day.
Months later, Trump's subsequent impeachment and Senate trial has ended, but the nation continues to reel from the attack and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is adding to its hundreds of arrests.
Leading up to the attack, the vast majority of GOP lawmakers embraced and amplified the lies that provoked it, with at least two likening it to the revolutionary actions of 1776.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has now released a nearly 2,000 page report detailing the social media posts of Republican members of Congress who congressionally enshrined Trump's election lies by objecting to the certification of swing states Trump lost.
Though the posts were never secret, Lofgren instructed her staff to compile them, writing in the introduction:
"Any appropriate disciplinary action is a matter not only of the Constitution and law, but also of fact. Many of former President Trump's false statements were made in very public settings. Had Members made similar public statements in the weeks and months before the January 6th attack? Statements which are readily available in the public arena may be part of any consideration of Congress' constitutional prerogatives and responsibilities."
She emphasized that their efforts to amplify Trump's lies amounted to the same betrayal he committed:
"Like former President Trump, any elected Member of Congress who aided and abetted the insurrection or incited the attack seriously threatened our democratic government. They would have betrayed their oath of office and would be implicated in the same constitutional provision cited in the Article of Impeachment."
Lofgren was praised for taking the initiative to compile the posts.
It's only deepened scrutiny of the lawmakers who objected to the 2020 election results.
The report comes the same month that reports emerged of the FBI investigating the communications of members of Congress leading up to the attacks.
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