Hours before the insurrection at the Capitol last January 6, the disgraced now-former President Donald Trump held a rally to protest against the certification of Joe Biden’s election win by Congress. As more details on the events of the day continue to surface, the Secret Service has revealed how many of the insurrectionists were present.
A Secret Service document revealed the size of the crowd that stormed the Capitol last January 6. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, author Jon Ward shared the findings on social media. According to the document, there were around 25,000 people in attendance at Trump’s rally, and the majority of the crowd took part in going to the Capitol hours later.
Over 12,000 people, according to the Secret Service, were revealed to have taken part in the insurrection that left five people dead and over a dozen injured. A few police officers who defended the Capitol that day were reported to have committed suicide.
“Approximately 25,000 participants were screened by Uniformed Division Officers,” according to the document. “Additional participants positioned themselves between the ellipse and the Washington Monument. President Trump arrived to speak to the participants and during his remarks, demonstrations started taking place at the US Capitol.”
The officers observed that most of the crowd began to move towards the Capitol at that time.
The House Select Committee in charge of probing the Capitol insurrection has already begun its investigation as the first hearing took place last week. One of its GOP members, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, revealed that the country may start seeing a number of subpoenas being issued to individuals who will then be ordered to testify before the panel on what they knew about the riots.
“I would expect to see a significant number of subpoenas for a lot of people,” Kinzinger told ABC News. The lawmaker then went to target those who have looked to undermine or derail the investigation by trying to whitewash the events. Coincidentally, those have come from most of his Republican colleagues in Washington.
“If anybody’s scared of this investigation I ask you one question, what are you afraid of? I mean, either you’re afraid of being discovered, of having some culpability in it, or you know what? If you — if you think it wasn’t a big deal, then you should allow this to go forward,” said the Illinois Rep.