But in new transcripts released by the committee,Hutchinson recounted how Trump allies kept dangling job opportunities at her and promising she would be “taken care of” if she remained loyal. She was also advised by her own lawyer at the time:“the less you remember,the better”.

The report’s eight chapters essentially tell the story of the multipronged plan to subvert the election,as outlined in the committee’s public hearings. This plan began months before the November 2020 election when the then president began sowing doubt about the validity of mail-in ballots.

One element included assemblinga group of pro-Trump electors in key battleground states,who could create fake votes to be counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6. Other parts involvedattempting to corrupt the Justice Department by pushing top law enforcement officials to cast doubt on the results;pressuringhis vice president to stop Biden’s victory being certified;andignoring family and top aideswho disagreed with his view that he could overturn the election results.

The report also calls for the law to be strengthened to disqualify from office “anyone who has engaged in an insurrection” or given “aid and comfort to the enemies of the Constitution”.

Departing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in the foreword note of the report that the committee’s work should be a “clarion call to all Americans:to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defence of our Constitution”.

The findings come days after the committee voted unanimouslyto refer Trump for criminal prosecution on four key offences:inciting or assisting an insurrection;obstruction of an official proceeding;conspiracy to defraud the United States;and conspiracy to make a false statement.

The panel also singled out lawyers Giuliani,Eastman,Jeffrey Clark,and Ken Chesebro for further investigation by the Justice Department as potential Trump co-conspirators.

The referrals do not hold any legal weight or require the Justice Department to take any action as it continues its own separate probes into Trump’s role in the attack and his alleged mishandling of White House documents. However,it nonetheless sends a powerful signal that a congressional committee believes he committed certain crimes and must be held to account.

Last month,Trump announced he wanted to run for office again in 2024. The twice-impeached president has already spent months using the hearings as a fundraising tool by telling would-be donors he is the victim of a political witch-hunt.

“I DID NOTHING WRONG,” he said in an email sent this week soliciting donations.

“The January 6th UNSELECT Committee just unanimously voted to refer me to the Department of Justice to face charges. This is MADNESS… They’re only coming after me because I’m fighting for YOU.”

The insurgency on the US Capitol left four people dead,about 150 police officers injured and a nation shocked and divided.

According to the committee,Trump’s tweets incited much of the violence. One was put out in the early hours of December 19 urging his supporters to head to Washington on January 6. In that tweet,Trump attached false allegations that the election was stolen and promised a “wild” time on the day.

That Twitter invitation was followed by more than a dozen others in which he encouraged supporters to rally for him in Washington.

“That mob showed up. They were armed. They were angry. They believed the ‘Big Lie’ that the election had been stolen,” chairman Bennie Thompson said. “And when Donald Trump pointed them toward the Capitol and told them to ‘fight like hell’,that’s exactly what they did.”

In addition to laying out the definitive narrative of the Capitol attack,the committee – made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans – also makes a series of recommendations.

Among them is a call to overhaul the Electoral Count Act of 1887 – the archaic law that Trump and his allies sought to exploit to stay in power. This call was already adopted by the Senate on Friday AEDT. It will raise the threshold for objections to Electoral College votes from one member in each chamber to one-fifth of members in both chambers,essentially making it much harder to attempt a similar coup in the future.

The report also calls for federal agencies to adopt strategies to combat the threat of extremist violence and white nationalist groups,increase penalties for attempts to impede the congressional counting of votes,and expand protections for electoral workers if they are threatened.

The role of the media and social media is also highlighted,with the report suggesting that media company policies that have the effect of “radicalising” their consumers should be evaluated.

In comments posted on his Truth Social network after the report’s release,Trump called it “highly partisan” and a “witch hunt”. He said it failed to “study the reason for the[January 6] protest,election fraud”,Reuters reported.

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