US Congress will set up "outside, independent" commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol siege. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made this announcement on Monday. The Capitol attack on January 6 by the supporters of former US President Donald Trump was a dark chapter in the history of the country.
Pelosi said the inquiry commission will be modelled after the panel that probed the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. "We must get to the truth of how this happened," she said, according to BBC.
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Trump was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the violence. But Democrats and some Republicans have backed an independent probe into the riots, which left five persons dead.
Pelosi said that US Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore had, over the past few weeks, been assessing the security needs of the Capitol in light of the attack.
"It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened," she said.
The commission, she said, "would investigate and report on the facts and causes" of the attack; "the interference with the peaceful transfer of power"; and the "preparedness and response" of both the Capitol police and other branches of law enforcement.
She also said that, based on Lt. Gen. Honore's initial findings, Congress needed to allocate additional funding to "provide for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol".
Trump survived his second impeachment trial – the only president to face the process twice – on Saturday, after Democrat prosecutors failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to convict him.
The vote split largely along party lines, with the seven Republicans joining the Senate's 48 Democrats and two independents in voting to convict.
The senior Republican in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell, had voted against conviction on constitutional grounds, but after the vote declared Trump "responsible" for the assault on the Capitol.
