Nancy Pelosi announces plans to open a ‘9/11-type commission’ to investigate Capitol attack

Days after former US president Donald Trump’s acquittal by the US Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced in a letter to House Democrats, plans for the creation of a “9/11-type commission” to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

A commission of this nature would be established by a statute, passed by both chambers and signed into law by the President. The commission members would not be elected leaders and would be outside the government.

Pelosi has previously said she believes there is a need for the creation of such a commission after finding out she might not have the votes necessary in the US Senate to convict Donald Trump.

“To protect our security, our security, our security, our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission to ‘investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex,'” Pelosi wrote in a letter on Monday, February 15.

In a previous letter to House Democrats earlier this month, Pelosi wrote that it is “clear that we will need to establish a 9/11-type Commission to examine and report upon the facts, causes and security relating to the terrorist mob attack on January 6.”

The capitol attack on January 6, prompted House Democrats to move swiftly to impeach former President Donald Trump in January. The Senate impeachment trial of the former President concluded over the weekend, and ended in Trump’s acquittal on a single charge of incitement of insurrection.