How the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report came to be

By Frank Thorp V and Sarah Mimms
Dec. 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — Long after the rioters left the U.S. Capitol, the shattered glass was swept up and the nation began its reckoning with the Jan. 6 attack, the people who were there that day and those most affected by the unprecedented violence are still seeking answers.

They include members of Congress who had been chased out of their chambers.

The police officers who defended them.

And the election officials across the country who continue to face threats over a lie.

Now, after hundreds of interviews and television hearings, the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack has finished its work and issued its final report.

The panel, led by Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., relied heavily on Republican witnesses, members of former President Donald Trump’s own party who testified publicly about the lead-up to and the aftermath of the violence. Like the panel’s two GOP members, many of them have lost their careers over it; some say they have lost close friends.

Below are portraits of some of the key figures who worked on the committee, testified publicly and covered the panel’s findings. The interviews were conducted over the course of the panel’s investigation. Whether or not the committee provided the answers they were seeking, these people carry their own memories of the day the U.S. Congress came under assault by a mob of Americans, and what followed.

“He does not deserve to ever hold office again.”

SARAH MATTHEWS

Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told the nation about her decision to resign from the White House on Jan. 6. Matthews, a former congressional staffer, said watching Trump call rioters “very special,” broke her.

Matthews has “no regrets” about her decision to resign — or to testify about it publicly, saying she felt she had to step up because “those above me in higher-ranking positions at the White House weren't willing to do what was right and testify under oath.”

It wasn’t without consequences. “I lost a lot of friendships,” Matthews said. “But I guess this is something that I'm willing to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘I won't tolerate this.’”

“I just hope that the American people are willing to see that he displayed a complete dereliction of duty and failed as president that day to meet the moment and he does not deserve to ever hold office again.”

“I think I have enough moral responsibility in me still to say, ‘I cannot condone this.’”

ARIZONA HOUSE SPEAKER RUSTY BOWERS

Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, spent almost 30 years in the Arizona Legislature. But after he refused pressure from Trump to overturn the state’s election results and testified before the Jan. 6 committee, he lost re-election this year. “I knew that there's gonna be a payment for this,” he said.

Now, he says, he faces a “huge” number of threats “from all over the country,” and he worries about “the danger in all of this” and how little it takes for “somebody to do something stupid.”

“It's unhinged to put everything at risk — everything, the very country, at risk. That's where I think civil wars start. One shot, one guy, one prince in Serbia and you got a war,” he said. “It didn't just happen at once.”

After having said this summer that he’d vote for Trump again, Bowers says that’s no longer the case. “I think I have enough moral responsibility in me still to say, ‘I cannot condone this.’ … I'm hopeful that our country can say we're tired of this drama.”

Despite it all, Bowers said it was worth it to testify. “It's worth somebody looking up there and seeing my name and saying he's a stand-up guy,” he said. “I would love to live and be that.”

“I think I have enough moral responsibility in me still to say, ‘I cannot condone this.’”

ARIZONA HOUSE SPEAKER RUSTY BOWERS

Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, spent almost 30 years in the Arizona Legislature. But after he refused pressure from Trump to overturn the state’s election results and testified before the Jan. 6 committee, he lost re-election this year. “I knew that there's gonna be a payment for this,” he said.

Now, he says, he faces a “huge” number of threats “from all over the country,” and he worries about “the danger in all of this” and how little it takes for “somebody to do something stupid.”

“It's unhinged to put everything at risk — everything, the very country, at risk. That's where I think civil wars start. One shot, one guy, one prince in Serbia and you got a war,” he said. “It didn't just happen at once.”

After having said this summer that he’d vote for Trump again, Bowers says that’s no longer the case. “I think I have enough moral responsibility in me still to say, ‘I cannot condone this.’ … I'm hopeful that our country can say we're tired of this drama.”

Despite it all, Bowers said it was worth it to testify. “It's worth somebody looking up there and seeing my name and saying he's a stand-up guy,” he said. “I would love to live and be that.”

“We wanted to set the record straight for ourselves and our family. But we also wanted to speak up for all of the election workers out there who just want to do their jobs.”

SHAYE MOSS AND RUBY FREEMAN

Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, had their “lives turned upside down” when Trump and his supporters targeted them with a baseless election conspiracy theory that has been debunked.

The two Georgia election workers recounted in emotional testimony before the committee the racist comments and death threats they’ve received and their fear of being recognized in public. Freeman said in a video aired by the committee that at one point she had to leave her house for two months after the FBI warned her it might not be safe.

“Nobody should have to go through that. Especially not election workers who make our democracy work without getting the recognition or respect they deserve,” they said in a joint statement.

Their testimony before the committee helped highlight the human toll Trump’s lies had on election workers.

“We wanted to set the record straight for ourselves and our family,” Moss and Freeman said in the statement. “But we also wanted to speak up for all of the election workers out there who just want to do their jobs and serve our country without being threatened or attacked.”

“I hope Americans see these hearings for what they are: an attempt to cut through all the obfuscation and the lies, the whitewashing, and see the truth.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., POLICE OFFICER DANIEL HODGES

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Washington, D.C., Police Officer Daniel Hodges and former Washington Police Officer Michael Fanone gave dramatic testimony at the committee’s first public hearing about fighting off the mob on Jan. 6. The men then became permanent fixtures of the hearings, attending several more and sitting in the front row.

Dunn said he will also work to hold the committee accountable. “We did our job that day, and now it's up to you. … Now you protect us and protect this country,” he said.

Fanone said that before the hearings he’d had a “hunch” that there was more to Jan. 6 than Trump’s rhetoric inspiring the mob. The testimony confirmed to him that the attack was “a multifaceted plot that involved a lot of different entities within the government. … It was infuriating.”

Gonell expressed disappointment that many people in positions of power refused to testify, but he said the hearings gave him “kind of, like, a confirmation of what I thought happened that day: The president gathered the mob. He didn't do anything to help us — until towards the end.”

The officers have expressed frustration that some, including Republican members of Congress, have downplayed what happened on Jan. 6. “There's going to be political leaders who stoke the lies. And they continue to do that today,” Fanone said. “But now they've got to confront my body-worn camera footage.

Hodges said he testified “to make sure that the truth will out, that everyone knows what happened and that no one can pretend otherwise.”

“We were brought back from the brink because individuals did the right thing and did their duty.”

COMMITTEE VICE CHAIR LIZ CHENEY, R-WYO.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., says she hopes Americans take two things away from the committee’s work: how fragile democracy is and “that it was the work of individuals who saved us.”

“We came very close to a real crisis — an even greater crisis. But we were brought back from the brink because individuals did the right thing and did their duty. And that's a lesson about the responsibility that we all share.”

Americans should feel “a debt of gratitude” to the witnesses who came forward despite threats, she said, adding particular praise for the young Republican women who testified even when their superiors would not.

Cheney, who lost a primary and will no longer be in office come January, is saddened by how her party responded to Jan. 6, but she said she felt an obligation “as a member of Congress and also as a mother to make sure that I certainly do everything I can to ensure this never happens again.”

“There's nothing more important that I've done professionally.”

Although the committee is disbanding at the end of the year, Cheney pointed to investigations by the Justice Department and a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, saying, “The work will continue.”

“We want the American people to know how close we came to losing our democracy.”

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., joined the Jan. 6 committee with a lot of experience investigating Trump. As the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, he was part of the congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a manager in both of Trump’s impeachment trials.

But the Jan. 6 committee was “very different,” Schiff said, “in that we have two courageous Republicans who are working to uncover the truth with the same determination that the rest of us share.”

Their hope is to present the “definitive account” of Jan. 6, Schiff said, to make it clear that it was “not a day in isolation.”

“We want the American people to know how close we came to losing our democracy, why we're still not out of the woods and how fragile our democracy is.”

“There was a lot of information out there, and it came in little pieces. And we were able to put it together and tell a coherent story of all the things that led up to January 6.”

REP. ELAINE LURIA, D-VA.

Many Republicans who participated in the committee’s investigation gambled their political careers, but so, too, did Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia. She lost her re-election race in a Republican-leaning district in November.

Before the election, Luria told NBC News she was “very well aware” that it could cost her her seat in Congress. “If this means I don't get re-elected, like, I can sleep at night,” she said. “I know I'm on the right side of history, and I'm OK with that.”

Part of what inspired her to join the committee was discovering that the rioter who stormed the Capitol wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt was from the congressional district next to hers, making her realize that “these people, they're just right here in our own community” and that the committee needed to “get to the bottom of what has brought our country to this point.”

Luria said the panel’s findings — that a president tried to overturn a free and fair election —affect “every voter in this country.”

“The way I looked at this from the beginning is there was a lot of information out there, and it came in little pieces,” she said. “And we were able to put it together and tell a coherent story of all the things that led up to January 6.”

“I know my kid … will be proud to have the last name. And a lot of my colleagues will have kids that'll be ashamed of them.”

REP. ADAM KINZINGER, R-ILL.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., was “angry” on Jan. 6, but when he realized that night that most of his colleagues weren’t, he was outraged.

It was that anger that propelled him to join the Jan. 6 committee, one of just two Republicans to do so. “It's not that we're courageous. We're really not,” he said of himself and Cheney. “It's that cowardice is everywhere.”

Before the hearings, Kinzinger argued, people were too focused on “the day of Jan. 6, and you could argue, ‘Well, not too many people died, whatever.’

“What we've been able to do is to expand that window and say the 6th was a product,” he said.

Trump “really was the mastermind behind this.”

“Our politics is broken. Trump is a symptom. If he goes away, somebody will replace him,” he said.

Kinzinger announced he wouldn’t run for re-election in October 2021. He said he won’t miss Congress but does feel he has been “kicked out of my tribe.”

“I have zero regrets. And I know my kid, I know this, he will be proud to have the last name. And a lot of my colleagues will have kids that'll be ashamed of them.”

“I know my kid … will be proud to have the last name. And a lot of my colleagues will have kids that'll be ashamed of them.”

REP. ADAM KINZINGER, R-ILL.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., was “angry” on Jan. 6, but when he realized that night that most of his colleagues weren’t, he was outraged.

It was that anger that propelled him to join the Jan. 6 committee, one of just two Republicans to do so. “It's not that we're courageous. We're really not,” he said of himself and Cheney. “It's that cowardice is everywhere.”

Before the hearings, Kinzinger argued, people were too focused on “the day of Jan. 6, and you could argue, ‘Well, not too many people died, whatever.’

“What we've been able to do is to expand that window and say the 6th was a product,” he said.

Trump “really was the mastermind behind this.”

“Our politics is broken. Trump is a symptom. If he goes away, somebody will replace him,” he said.

Kinzinger announced he wouldn’t run for re-election in October 2021. He said he won’t miss Congress but does feel he has been “kicked out of my tribe.”

“I have zero regrets. And I know my kid, I know this, he will be proud to have the last name. And a lot of my colleagues will have kids that'll be ashamed of them

“I think what the investigations do and our reporting does every day is lay out what happened, so that it's known how close everything came.”

HALEY TALBOT

NBC News producer and reporter Haley Talbot was inside the House chamber on Jan. 6 to cover the Electoral College count. She ended up in a gas mask, crouching with reporters and members of Congress behind chairs as the mob tried to break in.

Although she had an insiders’ view of the Capitol attack, Talbot said reporting on the Jan. 6 committee’s work drove home for her the scope of the attack. “I think what the investigations do and our reporting does every day is lay out what happened, so that it's known how close everything came,” she said.

Covering the committee’s hearings was “emotional” at times, but she said knowing that the public can see the video and accounts recorded that day “makes it all so worth it.”

“Our videos and our conversations and our reporting and our writing from that day are included in congressional investigations and DOJ documents, and they will be in history books.”

“I just hope some people are swayed to see what actually happened.”

TOM WILLIAMS

Some of the most iconic images from inside the House chamber on Jan. 6 come from Tom Williams, a staff photographer for Roll Call since 2000.

He documented that day as he was sheltering with members of Congress and other journalists. “I wasn't completely focused on the danger at hand. I was focused on ‘I have to get this camera right and get these pictures captured somehow,’” he said.

He still thinks about the photos he didn’t capture that day, the news he may have missed. But more than the day itself, what “disturbs” him most about Jan. 6 is the aftermath — “people trying to deny what happened, lessen what happened, make excuses for what happened.”

Even people he knows have suggested Jan. 6 wasn’t a big deal, Williams said. He hopes the committee, which he also covered, helps to change that.

“There wasn't much shooting, obviously. But there was a ton of violence, as we saw on the west front,” he said. “And I hope that sticks with people. … I just hope some people are swayed to see what actually happened.”

Photo Director

Zara Katz

Art Director

Chelsea Stahl

Julie Tsirkin, Kyle Stewart, Kate Santaliz, Ali Vitali, and Sejal Govindarao contributed reporting.