WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump says he will hold a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 6, 2022 -- the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump announced the press conference in a Tuesday statement released by his political committee Save America. He repeated false claims that the 2020 election was "rigged" and that the violent attack on the Capitol was a "completely unarmed protest." He also criticized the House panel investigating the insurrection.
On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced lawmakers into hiding as they worked to certify the Electoral College vote. Congress reconvened in the evening and confirmed Joe Biden's victory before dawn on Jan. 7.
A Capitol Police officer collapsed and died after engaging with rioters who descended on the building. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes. Many other officers were injured. A woman from California was shot to death by Capitol Police and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos. In the weeks and months that followed, four of the officers who responded to the riot killed themselves.
Scores of police were beaten and bloodied and there was about $1.5 million in damage done to the U.S. Capitol. More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the insurrection, and more than 50 of them have been sentenced.
Trump spoke to his supporters at a rally in front of The White House just before the attack, falsely telling them he had been “cheated” and “defrauded” in the “rigged” election by a “criminal enterprise” made up of some of the “weak” legislators at the Capitol. He also said "We're going to walk down and I'll be there with you," although there was no sign of Trump at the riot.
Trump's false claims that he lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud have been debunked. An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by Trump found fewer than 475 — a number that would have made no difference in the election.
Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 Electoral College votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15% of his victory margin in those states.
The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.
Dozens of judges, including those appointed by Trump, repeatedly ruled against his legal team in court. Elections officials in multiple states and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said there was no fraud on a scale that would have changed the election outcome.