No January 6th Commission, But How Important Is That To Ferreting Out the Truth?

Trump rioters occupy the West Front of the Capitol

At this point, it appears that Senate Republicans will be effective in blocking the creation of an independent commission to investigate what culminated in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.  Perhaps even more important than  the event itself is the planning by numerous right-wing extremist groups that went into it, which seems to have begun shortly after it became clear that Trump had lost the election.

However, the absence of a commission doesn’t mean we’ll never know.  

First of all, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll see the prosecution of at least 600 insurrectionists.  Think of the content that will fall forth from all the plea-bargaining, and all the in-court testimony given under oath.

But before any of this starts, keep in mind that the FBI has been working around the clock for months to figure all this out, so as to optimize prosecution, making many different categories of crime from illegal entry at the bottom to conspiracy to commit sedition at the top.

Regarding Trump’s involvement, it’s unclear that there is enough evidence to charge him with incitement.  Of course, all that changes if there were calls between him and the leaders of the various insurrectionist groups. What is very clear, even at this point, is that he could have stopped the event, simply by telling these morons to desist immediately.  For several hours, however, he refused to do that, and it’s hard to imagine that charges won’t derive from that disgusting display of treason against our nation.