The insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021—in which an estimated 2,000 followers of Donald Trump smashed through doors and windows at the Capitol, battered police, broke into congressional offices, and chanted for the death of elected officials—was the most visible moment of the violent fascism at the heart of the Trump movement. So it’s understandable that the investigations going on in Washington, D.C., under special counsel Jack Smith and in Georgia under Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis often get shorthanded as “Jan. 6 investigations.”
However, both are about a lot more than what happened on the steps and in the hallways of the Capitol. They’re about a months-long systematic effort to degrade faith in our country’s electoral system. They’re about an effort to degrade the function of elections at both the state and local levels. They’re examining a scheme to defy election laws, conspire against the Constitution, and place one man in a dictatorial role completely at odds with the basic ideas of democracy.
And key to all of this was the desire to suppress the vote of Black Americans. That effort came before, during, and after Election Day—and it could lead to some of the most serious charges against Trump and his cronies.