The Daily Fuckup

The Jan. 6 committee’s July 25, 2022, session did not produce a brand-new legal finding. It did add another piece of evidence to the public record: a closer look at how Donald Trump edited the speech he gave the day after the Capitol attack. Committee material showed Trump crossed out language that would have said the rioters should be prosecuted, softening the draft before he delivered it. ([congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/117/chrg/CHRG-117hhrg49355/CHRG-117hhrg49355.pdf?utm_source=openai))

That detail mattered because it undercut the familiar defense that Trump was simply reacting to a fast-moving crisis from the sidelines. The committee has already said Trump’s post-election pressure campaign stretched from the aftermath of the vote through Jan. 6 itself, and its July 25 presentation added to that chronology by showing he was still shaping how he talked about the attack the next day. ([congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/event/117th-congress/house-event/LC69827/text?utm_source=openai))

The record released that day also fit a broader pattern the committee had been building for weeks: pressure on the vice president, efforts to overturn certified results, and a public response that did not squarely condemn the rioters. The committee’s case was not a court filing and it did not amount to an indictment. But it did keep making the same point harder to escape — Trump was not detached from the aftermath of Jan. 6, and the paper trail around his role was getting more specific. ([congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/event/117th-congress/house-event/LC69827/text?utm_source=openai))