The crimes of January 6 happened. Court hearings, videos and thousands of pages of evidence prove it.

WASHINGTON —

In the federal courthouse in Washington, there is no denying the reality of January 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and juries silently absorb the harrowing images and sounds from television screens of rioters beating police officers, smashing windows, and hunting lawmakers while democracy is under siege.

Yet as he tries to retake the White House, Donald Trump continues to portray the defendants as admirable patriots. But that claim is undermined by the truth established in hundreds of criminal trials. In hundreds of cases, judges and juries reached the opposite conclusion on a day that will go down in history as one of America's darkest days.

In these cases, the crimes committed, the weapons used and the lives changed by physical and psychological damage were systematically documented – through witness statements, documents and videos. Trump is telling a completely different story: He portrays the rioters as hostages and political prisoners who, according to Trump, he would possibly pardon if he won the election in November.

“This is not normal,” wrote U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was nominated to the federal court in Washington by Republican President Ronald Reagan, in court documents. “This cannot become normal. We as a community, we as a society, we as a country cannot tolerate the normalization of the January 6 Capitol insurrection.”

There are no television cameras in the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on Constitution Avenue, but the real story of Jan. 6 is found in the reams of evidence and testimony that judges and jurors saw and heard behind the doors of the courthouse where hundreds of Trump supporters were convicted of the attack.

The Associated Press has spent more than three years tracking the nearly 1,500 cases the Justice Department has brought about the Capitol riot. AP reporters have reviewed hours of video footage and thousands of pages of court documents. They have witnessed dozens of court hearings and trials of the rioters who invaded the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. Those videos are a fraction of the evidence prosecutors presented to the juries and judges who decided those cases.

It is unclear whether Trump will ever face the same court in the federal case accusing him of plotting illegally in the run-up to the violence to overturn his 2020 election loss. The Supreme Court's ruling that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution means there will be no trial before the election. If he wins, he could appoint an attorney general who could seek to dismiss the case or possibly issue a pardon for himself.

According to Trump's account, the mob gathered peacefully on January 6 to preserve democracy, not to overthrow it. The rioters were angry, but not armed. They were not insurrectionists, but 1776-style “patriots.” And now they are being persecuted by the Justice Department, juries and judges for their political beliefs.

His tireless attempts to rewrite history have become the foundation for Republicans' efforts to win another term. At campaign rallies, the rioters are honored as heroes while an anthem is played in their name.

He was an invited guest at a “J6 Awards Gala” fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for those charged with crimes related to the riots. His campaign later said he would not attend the fundraiser, which was subsequently postponed. Organizers did not respond to requests for comment.

When pressed at a recent event, Trump said he would “absolutely” pardon rioters who attacked police officers – provided they were “innocent.” When the interviewer noted that she was talking about convicted rioters, Trump replied that they had been convicted “by a very harsh system.”

It is part of an attempt to undermine faith in the US legal system that has escalated since Trump was convicted on 34 counts in his New York hush money trial. More than that, it is fuel for a vendetta that presages Trump if he wins.

“These J6 warriors were warriors, but the reality is they were victims more than anything of what happened,” Trump said at a rally after his sentencing. He falsely claimed the rioters were “outsmarted” by police and appeared to threaten revenge: “That's a double-edged sword, that's a double-edged sword, believe me.”

In response to several questions from the AP about Trump's support for the Jan. 6 defendants and his pledge to pardon the rioters, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded in an email: “Kamala Harris and Joe Biden's Justice Department have spent more time impeaching President Trump and targeting Americans for peaceful protests on Jan. 6 than they have the criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists who commit violent crimes every day in Democrat-run cities.”

Many Republicans have rallied behind Trump to downplay the violence and spread these lies: Police welcomed the mob into the building. Undercover FBI agents and left-wing Antifa activists incited the attack. His running mate, JD Vance, repeated Trump's claim that the Jan. 6 defendants were being treated unfairly. In a 2022 social media post, he referred to them as “political prisoners” and described their “imprisonment” as “an attack on democracy.”

The disinformation campaign has taken hold across much of the country. About a year after the attack, only about four in 10 Republicans recalled the attack being very violent or extremely violent, according to a poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three years after the insurrection, about seven in 10 Republicans said the story was being blown out of proportion in a poll by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland.

And now some of the same lawmakers who blamed Trump for the riots are supporting his bid to return to the White House. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump's campaign this year after condemning the former president as “morally responsible” for what McConnell called a “failed insurrection.”

More than 900 people have pleaded guilty and about 200 others have been convicted in court. More than 950 people have been convicted, about two-thirds of whom have served prison sentences – sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Of course, not all members of the mob were violent. Hundreds of people who entered the Capitol but did not attack police or damage the building were charged with only minor offenses. And the Justice Department has dropped obstruction of justice charges in some cases after the Supreme Court ruled in June that prosecutors had over-broadened them.

Investigators found several firearms in the crowd, including knives, a pitchfork, a tomahawk axe, brass knuckles and other weapons. One rioter was filmed firing shots into the air outside the Capitol. Others attacked police with improvised weapons, including flagpoles, a crutch and a hockey stick.

Judges and jurors have heard how police officers were brutally attacked while defending the building. In total, about 140 police officers were injured that day, making it “probably the largest mass attack on police in a single day” in American history, said Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for Washington DC.

Trump said no one was killed on Jan. 6. In fact, a Trump supporter, Ashli ​​Babbitt, was shot by police as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded entrance to the Capitol. After an investigation, authorities cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. Three other people in the crowd died of medical emergencies. At least four officers who were at the Capitol later committed suicide. And Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after coming into conflict with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

Jurors watched videos of rioters calling for violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence and select members of Congress. They saw right-wing extremists talk of civil war and revolution in the run-up to the riot. They heard congressional staffers describe running for safety as the mob ran through the halls looking for then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and others.

And judges have watched hundreds of rioters admit to breaking the law, with many expressing remorse for falling for Trump's lies about election fraud – falsehoods he continues to spread. Some rioters have defiantly parroted Trump's rhetoric in court, and at least two defendants shouted “Trump won!” after learning their verdicts.

Lamberth said that in his nearly four decades as a judge, he “could not remember a time when such baseless justifications for criminal activity became mainstream.”

“I was shocked to see some public figures attempting to rewrite history, claiming that the rioters behaved 'properly' like ordinary tourists, or turning the January 6 defendants into 'political prisoners' or even, incredibly, 'hostages,'” the judge wrote in court documents.

“This is all absurd. But the court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could pose further dangers to our country.”