Trump suggests Democrats ‘wanted’ January 6 riot ahead of committee ruling on criminal referrals

Former president makes previously debunked claim, saying, ‘they don’t want to know about Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers’

Donald Trump has suggested that Democrats “wanted” the January 6 riot to happen, ahead of the select committee ruling on possible criminal referrals.

Mr Trump appeared on One America News, saying that the committee is “looking at everything other than two things. They don't want to know about Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers because she didn't look like the look”.

That claim has previously been found to be false.

“I requested … I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen, and [said] I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready. They took that number. From what I understand, they gave it to the people at the Capitol, which is controlled by Pelosi. And I heard they rejected it because they didn’t think it would look good. So, you know, that was a big mistake,” Mr Trump told Fox News in February of last year.

Ms Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, told The Dispatch that “the speaker of the House does not have the power to block an order from the commander in chief. This is fiction”.

Behind-the-scenes footage released by the panel shows Ms Pelosi working the phones during the riot attempting to get reinforcements.

“Have you had 10,000 soldiers for, you know, hundreds of people, they wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the place... There would have been no January 6,” Mr Trump added to OAN in a clip tweeted by Aaron Rupar.

“There are a lot of people that think they wanted it,” Mr Trump claimed without providing any evidence to support the claim.

“If you had soldiers circling and I recommended it strongly, but it's her decision. She's the one that has to make the decision. And nobody likes talking about that,” he added.

“I knew that a lot of people were coming down. They were coming down because they thought the election was rigged. And they were right,” Mr Trump said, repeating his lie that the election wasn’t fair. “That's why they were coming down. And that's why they don't want to talk about that and they don't want to talk about the rigged election.”

“They only want to talk about the people. And those people are being treated, many of them are being treated unbelievably unfairly,” the former president said, before comparing the insurrection to racial justice protests.

The committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is considering criminal referrals for at least four of former President Donald Trump’s associates, CNN reported on Thursday.

The four individuals potentially in line for criminal referrals are former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, lawyer John Eastman, former Trump lawyer and New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark.

All four men were involved to varying degrees in Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden by a margin of 74 Electoral College votes. The committee has not yet decided for certain whether to refer the four to the Justice Department for criminal charges, nor has it decided exactly what those charges would be.

CNN reported that the committee could also weigh criminal referrals for a number of other people. The panel is currently in its final stages – with Republicans poised to control the new Congress next year – and a report on the investigation is expected ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Mr Meadows was communicating about strategy with Mr Trump in the aftermath of the election, as was Mr Giuliani, who is accused of pressuring state legislators to overturn the results and making baseless claims of fraud. Mr Eastman and Mr Clark both invoked the Fifth Amendment numerous times during interviews with the committee and allegedly participated in the legal effort to overturn the results.