Independent Commission to Investigate Capitol Riots

US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said Congress will establish an “outside, independent” commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

In a letter to lawmakers, she said the commission would be modelled on the inquiry into the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

“We must get to the truth of how this happened,” she said.

Former President Trump was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the violence.

But Democrats and some

Republicans have backed an independent investigation into the riots, which left five people dead.

Mrs Pelosi said that retired US Army Lt Gen Russel Honoré had, over the past few weeks, been assessing the security needs of the Capitol in light of the attack.

The commission, she said, “would investigate and report on the facts and causes” of the attack; “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power”; and the “preparedness and response” of both the Capitol police and other branches of law enforcement.

She also said that, based on Lt Gen Honoré’s initial findings, Congress needed to allocate additional funding to “provide for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol”.

A group of House Republicans wrote to Mrs Pelosi on Monday complaining that their party had not been consulted about the general’s security review.

In the letter, they also demanded to know what Mrs Pelosi knew and the instructions she gave to secure the Capitol ahead of 6 January.

House Republican Adam

Kinzinger, who called for Mr Trump’s removal after the riots, was condemned by 11 members of his family in a handwritten letter, in which they said he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army”.

“Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” they wrote to the Illinois representative, who was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Mr Trump last month, denouncing his “horrible, rude accusations of President Trump”, the New York Times reports.