American Oversight on Fifth Anniversary of January 6: “Democracy Is Fragile and Profoundly Worth Defending”

Tuesday, on the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and attempted insurrection to overturn the results of the 2020 election, American Oversight released the following statement calling for renewed transparency and accountability to confront ongoing efforts to undermine lawful election outcomes and to protect free and fair elections.

Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight:

Five years after January 6, this moment calls for clear reflection on what happened that day, what was targeted, and what remains at stake. January 6 was an assault on voters and democracy itself. It advanced the dangerous idea that election results are optional for those in power. Whitewashing that truth legitimizes abuse and invites its repetition.

January 6 reshaped the incentives for those willing to manipulate the system. That shift is visible in coordinated efforts to gerrymander voting districts, remake nonpartisan election boards, target officials who stand in the way, and expand federal access to voter data. False claims of “election integrity” now serve as justification for weakening election systems from the inside. What began as an effort to overturn a single election has become an ongoing campaign to rewrite the rules, punish resistance, and tilt outcomes before voters ever cast a ballot.

The cost of this campaign falls on voters, especially Black, Indigenous, and other voters of color, who are asked to participate in systems that increasingly disregard their voices. As election rules are manipulated and outcomes treated as negotiable, trust erodes, confidence in fairness declines, and participation gives way to disengagement.

Democracy is fragile and profoundly worth defending. That defense begins with truth, vigilance, and accountability. On this anniversary, the responsibility is clear and urgent: renew a commitment to truth, accountability, full participation, and to protecting every voter’s right to be heard and to have their vote counted.

Last night, we filed suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the agencies failed to produce records shedding light on senior officials’ communications about the attack; efforts to undermine certification of the 2020 election; and attempts to erase consequences, including through pardons, for those involved. The suit seeks emails and text messages that are critical to understanding how the federal government has investigated — and attempted to revise and whitewash — one of the gravest assaults on American democracy in the nation’s history.

In the years since January 6, we have documented a troubling normalization of election subversion — from denial of legitimate results to systematic efforts to reshape the machinery of democracy, including politicized election oversight, misuse of voter data, and voter registration purges that risk excluding eligible voters. That erosion of accountability has persisted even as former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified under oath that his investigation uncovered “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” of President Trump’s unlawful efforts to overturn the 2020 election. At the same time, the administration has pardoned individuals involved in the January 6 attack — including some who have since gone on to commit additional, at times violent, crimes — raising serious questions about whether consequences are being erased and risks to public safety are being ignored. As accountability for the attack has been distorted and undermined, transparency into how senior officials are handling January 6 and its aftermath has become even more urgent.