Nancy Pelosi announced plans to establish an independent investigation into the Capitol riot.- She said a focus of the inquiry would be the "preparedness and response" of the Capitol Police.
- More than 250 people have been charged in connection to the Capitol riot.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday announced plans to create an independent body to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
She announced her plan, which she compared to the bipartisan 9/11 Commission that investigated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in a letter to House Democrats that was shared on her website.
"To protect our security, our security, our security, our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission," she wrote, adding that the commission would "investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex."
She said she also wanted the panel to look into the "preparedness and response" from the Capitol Police and other law-enforcement officers in connection to the attack, in which five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died.
Pelosi said retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré had been reviewing the Capitol's "security infrastructure" in the weeks since the riot and was looking into how to ensure such an attack could not happen again.
"He has been working with Committees of Jurisdiction and will continue to make proposals," she said. "It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened."
Nearly six weeks after the pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, more than 5,000 National Guard troops are still stationed at the Capitol complex and are expected to stay until at least mid-March, Reuters reported.
More than 250 people have been charged in connection to the Capitol riot, though former President Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of an impeachment charge of inciting insurrection.