January 6 United States Capitol attack
The January 6 United States Capitol attack reached the building itself at 2:11 in the afternoon. Proud Boys leader Dominic Pezzola took a police riot shield and smashed a window on the west side.
It was the 6th of January 2021, two months after Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Inside, a joint session of Congress was counting the Electoral College votes that would make Biden's victory official.
Outside, thousands of Trump's supporters had come to Washington, D.C. Some were armed. Hundreds had already pushed through police lines.
How did a crowd reach the windows of the Capitol on a day when so many people had predicted violence? Who had been preparing for it, and for how long? And why did help take so long to arrive?
Sixty lawsuits, two of them reaching the Supreme Court, had all been rejected by the time the plan for the 6th of January took shape. The courts cited a lack of evidence or legal standing. Trump's own attorneys had concluded there was neither a factual foundation nor a valid legal argument for challenging the results.
Trump then pressed Republican governors, secretaries of state and state legislatures to replace Biden's electors with slates pledged to him. He also urged Vice President Mike Pence to alter the outcome, though none of that lay within a vice president's constitutional powers. Numerous scholars, historians and journalists have called these efforts an attempted self-coup.
On the 18th of December, Trump wrote on Twitter, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Ten days later, the far-right activist Ali Alexander described a collaboration with the Proud Boys. He said the event would "build momentum and pressure" on members of Congress. He named three House Republicans as allies: Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks.
Roger Stone's group, Stop the Steal, had already posted plans on the 23rd of December to "occupy just outside" the Capitol. The event was largely paid for by Julie Fancelli, an heiress to the Publix supermarket fortune. She budgeted $3 million and spent at least $650,000, and her money, routed through the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, reserved the Ellipse. On the 4th of January, Steve Bannon said he was part of "the bloodless coup".
Warnings piled up in public. In the weeks before the attack, social media carried more than one million mentions of storming the Capitol. Some called for violence against Congress, Pence and the police. On the 28th of December, someone posted a map of the Capitol's entrances, exits and connecting tunnels, with black X's marking forces "ready for action". Four days later, the operator of a website about those tunnels noticed a traffic spike and told the FBI to expect an attack.
Between the 29th of December and the 5th of January, the FBI and its field offices warned of armed protests. They also reported plans that included violence. One popular comment from the 30th of December predicted "literal war on that day". The Daily Beast quoted it on the 2nd of January. On the 5th, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser told residents to avoid the downtown area, and two establishments favored by the Proud Boys closed temporarily.
Three days before the attack, the Capitol Police intelligence unit circulated a memo. It warned that Trump supporters saw the vote count as "the last opportunity to overturn the results" and might turn violence on "Congress itself".
Only two days after the election, on the 5th of November, leaders of the Oath Keepers began talking among themselves about a "civil war". On the 9th of November, their leader, Stewart Rhodes, ran a members-only online conference. He outlined a plan to stop the transfer of power, including preparations to use force. The group planned to keep "an arsenal" with a "Quick Reaction Force" in Alexandria, Virginia. They also meant to arrange boat transportation, so that bridge closures could not keep them out of D.C.
On the 12th of December, about 200 Proud Boys joined a march near Freedom Plaza. They wore combat fatigues and ballistic vests. Scuffles with counter-protesters left four people stabbed and at least 23 arrested. Three days later, members were photographed in apparel bearing the slogan "6MWE", short for "6 million wasn't enough", a reference to Holocaust victims. The Anti-Defamation League responded that the group's bigotry was "on Full Display".
Kelly Meggs of the Oath Keepers phoned Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio on the 19th of December. Proud Boys leaders used a crowdfunding website to raise money for paramilitary gear such as concealed tactical vests and radios. On the 29th of December, they announced they would go "incognito" on the 6th, without their usual black and yellow clothing. The next day, leadership received a document titled "1776 Returns". It called for occupying "crucial buildings" and urged supporters to "Storm the Winter Palace".
On the 3rd of January, Rhodes left home for D.C. On the way he spent $6,000 on a rifle and gear in Texas and $4,500 in Mississippi. The following day, D.C. police arrested Tarrio over an earlier property-destruction charge. Fearing police would read his messaging apps, the leadership deleted their group chat and made a new one.
Tarrio was released on the 5th and ordered to leave the city. Instead, he went to a parking garage to meet Rhodes. That night, Proud Boys leaders sorted members into teams, handed out radios and set their channels. Orders went out to gather at the Washington Monument at 10 a.m. and to blend in with the public.
Roger Stone's own security on the 5th came from the Oath Keepers. His Oath Keeper driver, Roberto Minuta, was later convicted of seditious conspiracy.
On the 9th of November, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and installed Christopher C. Miller in his place. CIA director Gina Haspel told Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley, "we are on the way to a right-wing coup". On the 3rd of January, all ten living former defense secretaries released an open letter. It warned of a possible coup attempt and named Miller. That same day, Trump told Miller to "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators" on the 6th.
On the 4th of January, Miller signed a memo that severely limited the D.C. National Guard's ability to deploy without his permission. Major General William J. Walker, the Guard's commander, had held standing orders to respond to civil disturbances. On the 5th, he received new instructions barring him from doing so without approval from both Miller and the Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy. Walker later called the order "unusual". Trump had also floated sending 10,000 Guardsmen, though to protect himself and his supporters from left-wing counter-protesters rather than the Capitol.
Responsibility for policing the area was split. The city police covered the streets, the Park Police the Ellipse, the Secret Service the White House vicinity and the Capitol Police the Capitol complex. When Mayor Bowser asked a Capitol Police representative, "Where does your perimeter start?", the man left the room and dropped out of the conference. She later said that should have been a trigger.
On the 6th, the Capitol Police deployed on orders from leadership without "less lethal" weapons such as sting grenades. Riot shields had been stored at the wrong temperature and shattered on impact. The ammunition stores had expired.
Once the crowd arrived, the delay became a crisis of its own. At 12:58, Chief Steven Sund asked two officials for an emergency declaration to call in the Guard. They said they would "run it up the chain", and approval was withheld for over an hour. At 1:34, Bowser asked Secretary McCarthy by phone for the Guard.
A conference call at 2:26 brought together city officials, both police chiefs and General Walker. Sund recalled that Lieutenant General Walter Piatt of the Army Staff disliked "the visual" of the Guard standing a police line at the Capitol. The D.C. officials were described as "flabbergasted". They turned to Virginia, whose State Police began arriving by 3:15.
Miller withheld permission for the Guard until 4:32. The first 155 Guard members, in riot gear, reached the Capitol at 5:20.
In February 2021-92 percent of Capitol Police officers voting in a union poll said they had no confidence in their leadership.
The permit for the Ellipse rally, granted to Women for America First, scheduled speeches from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Around 9 a.m., Mo Brooks, a House member, told the crowd, "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass." The group's founder, Amy Kremer, said it was "up to you and I to save this Republic".
Donald Trump Jr. warned Republican lawmakers who would not back the challenge, "If you're gonna be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you". At 10:50, Rudy Giuliani called for "trial by combat". The law professor John Eastman claimed that voting machines held "secret folders" that altered results. His memos have been described as an instruction manual for a coup.
Trump began speaking at 11:58 from behind a bulletproof shield. He said he would "never concede", criticized the media and called on Pence to overturn the results. He told the crowd, "you are allowed to go by very different rules," and denounced Representative Liz Cheney by name. He used the word "fight" twenty times and "peacefully" once.
He said, "if you don't fight like Hell, you're not going to have a country anymore". He urged them to walk down to the Capitol and said he would be with them. He never went, because his security detail prevented it. He did not tell them to use violence or to enter the building, but his speech was full of violent imagery. The crowd chanted "Storm the Capitol" and "Invade the Capitol" as he spoke.
Testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson describes what happened before the speech. She said a Secret Service official warned Trump that people in the crowd carried weapons. According to her, Trump wanted the metal detectors removed so armed supporters could come in, and he said they were not there to hurt him.
The Justice Department later said that over 75 people had been charged with entering a restricted area while armed with a dangerous weapon. The list included guns, stun guns, knives, baseball bats and axes. In December 2021, Trump nonetheless called the day a "completely unarmed protest".
Before Trump finished speaking at 1:12, the Proud Boys had begun their assault on the Capitol grounds.
Ethan Nordean and Joe Biggs led more than a hundred Proud Boys away from the Washington Monument at 10:30. By 11:52 the group had reached the Capitol, circled it and doubled back to the west side, scouting for weak points. Shortly before 12:53 they brought 200 to 300 members to a barricade near the Peace Monument, where Biggs used a megaphone to lead chants.
The west perimeter was a sparse line of police in front of a temporary fence. Ryan Samsel spoke with Biggs there. Samsel told the FBI that Biggs urged him to push the barricades and flashed a gun when he hesitated. Samsel then pushed over a bike rack, and officer Caroline Edwards hit her head and lost consciousness. Before she blacked out, she said, she saw "a war scene". She later called it "carnage" and "chaos".
The Proud Boys repeated the pattern at each new police line, probing for entry points, goading the crowd and sometimes joining the violence. Around 1 p.m., hundreds clashed with officers and pushed through barriers, some spraying chemicals or swinging lead pipes. Others climbed ropes and makeshift ladders. At a tunnel on the lower west terrace, rioters fought for three hours to get in. At 1:50, the police incident commander declared a riot.
At 1:58, Capitol Police officers removed a barricade on the northeast side, and hundreds streamed onto the grounds. The Los Angeles Times noted that the first attackers onto the upper west terrace ran past 15 reinforced windows. They made for a recessed area where the glass was not reinforced. A news crew from ITV followed them in, the only broadcaster to do so.
At 2:13, a Secret Service agent led Pence out of the Senate chamber to an office about 100 feet from a landing. Pence, his wife Karen, daughter Charlotte and brother Greg came within a minute of being visible to rioters on a staircase. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, alone, shoved the lead attacker, Doug Jensen, and then retreated, luring the crowd away from the chamber. Senator Ben Sasse said Goodman had "single-handedly prevented untold bloodshed". Video of the moment drew more than 10 million views, and Goodman received the Presidential Citizens Medal.
The Senate recessed at 2:13 and locked its doors. Rioters banged on the gallery doors above the chamber, and staff carried the boxes of electoral votes to hidden safe rooms. Senator Mitt Romney yelled at fellow Republicans, "This is what you've gotten, guys". At 2:26, Pence's detail moved him downstairs. His detail wanted him in a vehicle. Pence told its leader, Tim Giebels, "I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car." He refused to leave. The mob later took over the Senate chamber and posed on the dais. The House recessed at 2:18, and by 2:29 rioters were at the Speaker's Lobby, while federal officers inside drew their guns on the barricaded doors.
At 2:30, an Oath Keepers group called Stack One climbed the east steps in a stack formation and entered the Rotunda doors at 2:38. At the same minute, Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio posted a message telling followers not to leave. A member asked, "Are we a militia yet?" and Tarrio answered, "Yep... Make no mistake... We did this..."
At 2:44, rioters smashed a window beside a barricaded door near the House chamber while lawmakers were being evacuated. Lieutenant Michael Byrd fired once at Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed Air Force veteran wearing a Trump flag as a cape, as she climbed through. She died at Washington Hospital Center.
Around 3:15, Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges was crushed in a tunnel door. At 3:21, officer Michael Fanone was dragged down the steps, beaten with pipes, shocked with a Taser and threatened with his own sidearm. He later suffered burns, a heart attack, traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. At 3:39, riot officers from Virginia used flashbang munitions to drive attackers back.
By 6 p.m. the building was cleared and bomb squads had swept it. Pence called the Senate back at 8:06 and Pelosi called the House back at 9:02. Pence confirmed Biden's victory shortly before 3:40 on the morning of the 7th of January.
In the West Wing, Trump was "initially pleased" and would not step in when his supporters breached the Capitol. Staffers found him "impossible to talk to" that day. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised officials to avoid contact with Trump and to ignore any illegal orders.
Shortly after 2:00 p.m., with senators already evacuated, Trump phoned Republican senators Mike Lee and then Tommy Tuberville, urging more objections to the vote count. At 2:24, with Pence in hiding, Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done". At 2:47, a tweet from his account urged support for the Capitol Police and said, "Stay peaceful!" Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino sent it. The Washington Post reported that Trump did not want those words included.
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was getting messages from Donald Trump Jr. and from Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade. They wanted Trump to condemn the violence or risk destroying his legacy. At 3:25, Trump tweeted a request for peace and said, "WE are the Party of Law & Order". He did not tell the crowd to leave.
At 4:06, President-elect Biden called on national television for Trump to end the attack. At 4:22, Trump posted a video that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube later took down. In it, he repeated his fraud claims, praised his supporters and told them to "go home". At 6:25, he tweeted, "Remember this day forever!" At 7:00, Giuliani left a voicemail meant for Tuberville, urging him to "slow it down".
Pence's danger had been building. On the 5th of January, after he refused to join the fake electors plot, Trump warned that he would have to criticize him publicly. Pence's chief of staff grew worried enough to alert his Secret Service detail. At 3:23 on the morning of the 6th, the QAnon figure Ron Watkins tweeted that Pence should be arrested for treason.
Inside, the mob chanted "Where is Pence?" and "Find Mike Pence!" Outside, the cry was "Hang Mike Pence!" A reporter overheard at least three rioters say they wanted to hang him from a tree. A Secret Service official recalled agents saying "say goodbye to the family". When a staffer warned Trump of the danger, he reportedly replied, "So what?" Witnesses said Meadows told colleagues that Trump was frustrated about Pence being taken to safety. Pence later said Trump's "reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day".
One account remains contested. In June 2022, Hutchinson testified that she was told Trump, furious at being refused a trip to the Capitol, lunged at agent Robert Engel. Agents confirmed an angry confrontation, and a motorcade officer described a heated exchange. No one asserted that Trump attacked Engel, who reportedly denied the account.
At a hearing on the 9th of June 2022, Representative Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney called Trump's inaction a "dereliction of duty". Representative Tom Rice said, "He watched it happen. He reveled in it. And he took no action to stop it."
On the 3rd of April 2025, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation named Pence the recipient of its Profile in Courage Award, citing his role in ensuring the constitutional transfer of power.
Within 36 hours, five people had died. One was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes. One of those was a police officer who suffered a stroke a day after being assaulted. Many were injured, including 174 police officers, and four officers who responded later died by suicide within seven months. The FBI estimates that 2,000 to 2,500 people entered the building, and damage exceeded $2.7 million.
A week later, the House impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only president impeached twice. After he had left office, the Senate voted 57-43 to convict, short of the required two-thirds. Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan independent commission, so the House formed its own select committee. It held public hearings, voted to subpoena Trump and recommended that the Justice Department prosecute him.
A special counsel investigation led to four charges against Trump. All were dismissed after his 2024 election to the presidency. Meanwhile, Trump and elected Republican officials have promoted a revisionist version of the day, downplaying the violence and casting those charged as hostages and martyrs.
Of 1,424 people then charged with federal crimes, 1,010 pled guilty and 1,060 were sentenced, with 64 percent getting jail time. Members of the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Three Percenters were linked to the attack, and some were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Tarrio received the longest sentence, 22 years in prison. On the 20th of January 2025, Trump took office again and granted clemency to every January 6 rioter, including those convicted of violent offenses.
The two pipe bombs found on the 6th, near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, took years to account for. Someone carrying a bag was filmed on South Capitol Street at 7:40 on the evening of the 5th of January. Footage showed the person sitting on a bench outside the DNC and later in an alley near the RNC. A $500,000 reward was offered near the second anniversary. In December 2025, the FBI arrested a suspect, who said he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
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Common questions
What happened at the Capitol on the 6th of January 2021?
A mob of Donald Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol to stop Congress from counting Electoral College votes confirming Joe Biden's win. They failed, and the count finished by the morning of the 7th of January.
Who were the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers?
They were far-right groups whose leaders played central roles in the attack. Several members were later convicted of seditious conspiracy, and Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio received a 22-year sentence.
Why was the National Guard so slow to arrive?
Orders from the Pentagon limited the D.C. Guard before the attack, and approval was withheld for hours. Acting defense secretary Christopher Miller allowed the deployment at 4:32 p.m., and the first 155 Guard members arrived at 5:20.
How many people were charged afterward?
1,424 people were charged with federal crimes, and 1,010 of them pled guilty. On the 20th of January 2025, Trump granted clemency to all January 6 rioters.
Was Trump held accountable?
The House impeached him, but the Senate vote of 57-43 fell short of two-thirds. A special counsel indicted him on four charges, which were dismissed after his 2024 election.
All sources
528 references cited across the entry
- 17Press releaseCalifornia Man Pleads Guilty to Felony Charge for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol BreachJuly 8, 2024
- 24JournalThe Trump Self-Coup Attempt: Comparisons and Civil–Military RelationsDavid Pion-Berlin — October 2023
- 33NewsVideo: Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. CapitolDmitriy Khavin — June 30, 2021
- 47ReportText: Business Meeting to Consider a Report Recommending that the House of Representatives Cite Peter K. Navarro and Daniel Scavino, Jr., for Contempt of Congress((Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol)) — United States Congress — March 28, 2022
- 91Press releaseMember of Oath Keepers Indicted for Conspiracy and Other Offenses Related to U.S. Capitol BreachJune 24, 2022
- 134MagazineHere's What We Know About the Pro-Trump Rallies That Have PermitsAndrew Beaujon — January 5, 2021
- 135MagazineRoger Stone Did Something WrongDan Friedman — January 27, 2021
- 202Press releaseCase 1:23-mj-00208-MAU: Complaint with Arrest Warrant
- 282Press releaseThree Nominations and One Withdrawal Sent to the SenateJanuary 7, 2021
- 293The StormCullen Hoback — April 4, 2021
- 339Press releaseTexas Man Sentenced to 52 Months in Prison For Assaulting Law Enforcement Officers During Jan. 6 Capitol BreachSeptember 28, 2022
- 342MagazineWhat We Learned About Trump, Pence, and the January 6th MobSusan Glasser — June 16, 2022
- 396Press releaseMember of the Oath Keepers Sentenced for Role in Jan. 6 Capitol BreachSeptember 15, 2023
- 425Press releaseLoss of USCP Officer Brian D. SicknickUnited States Capitol Police — January 7, 2021