More than 300 witnesses have been interviewed, tens of thousands of documents have been collected, and they traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.
The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is about to make public its findings.
In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies trying to whitewash the riots. The committee has to convince the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.
The nine lawmakers are united in their commitment to tell the full story of January 6 and they will be holding hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.
Their goal is to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a connection between the attack and Trump's pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden's election as president.
Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chairwoman and one of its two Republican members, said that the full picture is coming to light despite President Trump's efforts to hide the picture.
She said that she doesn't think there is any area of history where we aren't learning new things.
The committee says they have collected 35,000 pages of records so far, including texts, emails and phone records from people close to Trump, which is fleshing out critical details of the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.
They hope to fill in the blanks about the preparations before the attack and the White House campaign to overturn the 2020 election. They are looking into what Trump was doing as his supporters fought their way into the Capitol.
True accountability may be fleeting. Lawmakers can't dole out punishments for congressional investigations. Even as the committee works, Trump and his allies continue to push lies about election fraud while working to place similarly minded officials at all levels of state and local government.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee thinks that the attacks on our democracy are continuing.
The lawmakers hope to present the public with a thorough accounting that captures what could have been a more serious and deeper constitutional crisis.
This is one of the most important congressional investigations in history, according to Cheney.
The committee is in a tight spot. If Republicans win the majority in the House, they could end the investigation. An interim report is possible in the spring or summer, with the committee's final report expected before then.
The committee wants to bring the people who conducted the elections to Washington and tell their story, according to the chairman. He said that their testimony will debunk Trump's claims of election fraud.
Several election officials in battleground states have been interviewed by the committee.
The preparations for the rally near the White House where Trump told his supporters to fight like hell are being looked at by the panel.
Thompson said that it was an organized effort to change the outcome of the election by bringing people to Washington and that if all else failed, they would weaponize the people who came.
Despite the defiance of high-profile Trump allies such as Steve Bannon and MarkMeadows, most of the witnesses called by the committee have cooperated. Lawmakers said they have been effective at gathering information from other sources because they share a unity of purpose.
Kevin McCarthy, a close ally of President Donald Trump, decided not to appoint any GOP members to the committee after Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his picks.
The Democrats wanted to investigate the attack, so Pelosi created the select committee, which included Republicans Cheney and Kinzinger, who were also Trump critics.
Kinzinger said that he could see that Kevin made an epic mistake. We have the ability to do this as a nonpartisan investigation, which is why we have gone so fast and been so effective so far.
If Republicans allied with Trump were involved in the investigation, it would be different.
When school kids learn about Jan. 6, they will get an accurate story, according to Kinzinger. I think that depends on what we do here.
Democrats say having two Republicans working with them has been an asset, as they try to reach conservative audiences who may still believe in Trump.
They bring to the table perspectives and ability to translate what is being reflected in conservative media, or how this might be viewed through a conservative lens. That has been helpful.
There is no division, no hostility, no partisan squabbling, said California Rep. Lofgren, who was a staffer for the Watergate investigation.
A group of nine people have become friends over a text chain where they discuss business and occasionally their personal lives. There are messages wishing a happy birthday or a child getting married.
The congressman said it was how Congress should be.
The calendar and a small group of Trump loyalists who are trying to run out the clock are the biggest challenges for the committee. He thinks that the final report will stand the test of time, like the investigations of the 9/11 attacks and Watergate.
We are still in the eye of the storm.
