EDITORIAL: Trump cannot evade the reality of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection

Five years have passed since a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election.

It’s been five years since lawmakers fled for their lives, police officers were beaten and crushed, and the world watched an honored American ritual descend into chaos, propelled by the president himself.

And five years after that startling American failure, many have allowed Donald Trump to rewrite what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. He has not only obscured his undeniable role, but he has worked to persuade millions that the criminal attack was acceptable, even patriotic.

The facts, however, have not changed. Only the story Trump has told about them has.

Former special counsel Jack Smith, in testimony released last week, offered a blunt assessment that history will remember long after today’s political winds have shifted.

The riot, he said, “does not happen” without Trump. Smith described Trump as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in a criminal conspiracy to overturn an election he lost. The attack was foreseeable. It was exploited. It was committed for Trump’s benefit, Smith testified in private, according to Associated Press reports.

His assessment was the same as that reached by a special, bipartisan congressional committee four years ago.

Smith’s words were not partisan talking points. They were the product of sworn testimony, documented evidence and cooperation from Republicans who put country before party.

Trump allies told investigators they understood the effort to block certification of the 2020 election was illegal. They testified anyway. That evidence, Smith said, was among the strongest in the case.

Yet five years later, Trump has still avoided prosecution, shielded first by delay and then by his return to the presidency. The Justice Department cases were dropped under long-standing policy barring prosecution of a sitting president. Justice was not disproved. It was deferred, then it was denied, then it was weaponized by Trump against witnesses and his detractors.

In that melee, Trump has attempted what may be his most enduring deception, even beyond “The Big Lie.” He has worked hard to rewrite history itself.

Trump has denied responsibility, minimized the violence and recast rioters as “patriots” and “hostages.” He has pardoned roughly 1,500 people convicted for their felony actions that day, including those who assaulted police officers. By granting pardons, Trump erased accountability and deepened the injury to those who fought against the malevolent mayhem.

But time, and Trump’s deceit, will not change the truth.

After five years, Trump may try to cover his tracks, and his allies may help his effort to blur reality. But Jan. 6 remains today what it was when the House impeached him with bipartisan votes for inciting an insurrection.

It was a deliberate attempt to disregard the lawful outcome of a presidential election. It was an attack on constitutional order.

Calling it anything else is a lie.

After five years and more than a thousand corrupt presidential pardons, the Capitol assault stands as one of the most outlandish crimes ever committed against the United States. Never before had a sitting president summoned supporters to Washington, aimed them at Congress and then refused, for hours, to stop the violence once it began. The danger to American democracy was unprecedented, and it was real.

And the proof of Trump’s crimes remains.

After five years, Trump and his acolytes still avert their eyes from the human cost. More than 140 police officers were injured. Some were maimed. Some later died after suffering trauma connected to the attack.

Officers like Aquilino Gonell and Daniel Hodges carry lasting physical and psychological wounds, the Associated Press reported this week. They were assaulted by Trump’s followers, ignored by Trump during the siege and then dismissed again when he pardoned the people who attacked them.

Now they are asked to accept a new insult, a national gaslighting campaign that insists the insurrection never really happened.

But Americans remember the smashed windows, the Confederate flag in the rotunda, the chants calling for the hanging of the vice president. They remember lawmakers barricaded behind doors and staffers hiding under desks. They remember watching it unfold live.

This was not a crowd of grumpy but righteous protesters. It was a violent, deadly mob, driven by Trump, attempting to nullify millions of American votes.

History is patient, even when justice is slow. Whether it is another five years or 50 years from now, Trump will be held responsible, either by a court of law or by honest historians who are immune to political pressure.

The truth can be distorted, delayed or denied. It cannot be erased.