WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is marking the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol exactly two weeks before it hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, putting in question the future of the massive federal investigation into the unrest.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Sunday, President Joe Biden, whose 2020 election win the pro-Trump mob attempted to subvert, warned that there is an effort to whitewash the events of Jan. 6. He called on America to not allow the “truth to be lost.” 

“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” Biden wrote. “To tell us that we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.

“This is not what happened,” he continued. 

The president went on to note that, as he leaves office, he is “determined” to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power and the traditions that have long come with it. In a meeting that did not occur when roles were reversed in 2020 and one that critics argued sent a mixed message about the president’s warnings that his predecessor is a “threat to democracy,” Biden hosted Trump to discuss such a transition in the Oval Office following his election victory.  

Asked by reporters Sunday whether he still considers the president-elect a threat, Biden said he believed what Trump did was a “genuine threat to democracy.” 

In a video posted to social media to mark the anniversary, Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided Monday over the certification of her own 2024 elected loss to Trump, called the chance to perform the duty required of the sitting vice president a “sacred obligation.” 

“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris said in the just over a minute-long video. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.” 

The fourth anniversary of the attack comes exactly two weeks before Trump will be inaugurated and return to the White House for a second term, bringing significant uncertainty to the hundreds of cases against those who rioted that day and the state of one of the biggest Justice Department investigations in history. 

In a statement Monday, outgoing Attorney General Marrick Garland — who has come under scrutiny about the pace and timing of his effort to prosecute Trump himself for the president-elect’s alleged role in the attack — praised the employees of his department for working with “unrelenting integrity” to hold those responsible for Jan. 6 responsible. The federal election subversion case against Trump is being abandoned following his election victory. 

“Over the past four years, our prosecutors, FBI agents, investigators, and analysts have conducted one of the most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in the Justice Department’s history,” Garland wrote in part of the effort. 

In the four years since the attack, more than 1,580 people have been charged with crimes related to the attack, according to statistics from the U.S. Attorney's Office released Monday. About 1,100 of those people have had their cases fully adjudicated and received their sentences, the data shows. More than 650 people served time for their actions. 

More than 600 people have been charged with assaulting or resisting law enforcement officials, nearly 175 have been charged with using a deadly weapon or causing bodily injury. About 18 people have been charged with seditious conspiracy related to the attack. 

The FBI still has nine videos of suspects wanted and has been asking for the public’s assistance in locating a list of four individuals. 

But what will happen with the cases is unclear as Trump has pledged — as a day-one priority — to pardon people charged with crimes related to the attack. What those pardons will look like and how many will receive them is still highly uncertain as the president-elect has remained vague on the topic since the election. 

In a social media post intended to criticize Biden for awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to two members of the House committee that investigated Jan. 6, Speaker Mike Johnson last week pledged that his conference will investigate the panel itself.