In a letter to the head of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the events that led up to it, former President Donald Trump attacked the panel as partisan and politically motivated and repeated false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election. 

He did not, however, address the committee’s unanimous vote Thursday to subpoena him for testimony. 

In the letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the panel’s chairman, Trump referred to the committee as being compromised of “highly partisan political Hacks and Thugs whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many hard-working American Patriots.” The letter was released Friday morning but dated Thursday, and it included the title “PEACEFULLY AND PATRIOTICALLY.”

“This memo is being written to express our anger, disappointment, and complaint that with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on what many consider to be a Charade and Witch Hunt,” Trump writes.

Trump repeated false claims that the committee did not examine his claims of election fraud. In reality, the panel addressed in previous hearings several of Trump’s allegations head-on, presenting testimony from former senior Justice Department officials, state officials and even some of Trump’s own aides who said their investigations found no proof of widespread election fraud.

The former president sought to cast his supporters who stormed the Capitol as ordinarily law-abiding citizens who were protesting against fraud. 

“Those who committed the Fraud, thereby having created the Crime of the Century …  but those who fought the Crime have suffered a fate that was unthinkable just a short time ago,” Trump wrote. 

More than 860 people have been charged related to Jan. 6, with over 370 having pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. At least 80 people have been charged with weapons-related offenses. Eleven have been charged with seditious conspiracy, including five members of the far-right Oath Keepers group who are currently on trial. 

Trump also claimed the committee has ignored that he authorized thousands of National Guard troops be deployed to Capitol Hill in advance of Jan. 6 but that the deployment was blocked by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Capitol Police, whom he claimed report to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The House speaker does not have total control of the Capitol Police, with most of its decisions being made by a police board. Pelosi shares control of the Capitol with the Senate majority leader, who at the time was Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

According to multiple fact checks, there is no evidence Trump ever requested up to 20,000 National Guard troops for Jan. 6, as he has previously claimed. Pelosi’s deputy of chief of staff, Drew Hammill, has said no request was made for the National Guard before Jan. 6 and that the House speaker does not have the power to deny such an order.

Trump also attacked the committee’s proceedings as being one-sided. 

“There is no Due Process, no Cross-Examination, no ‘real’ Republican members, and no legitimacy since you do not talk about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops,” he wrote. “It is a Witch Hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years.”

Senate Republicans last year blocked a bill to create a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate Jan. 6, arguing the body would have duplicated other investigations and should also have examined violence during 2020’s racial justice protests across the country.

The House responded by forming its own investigative committee that was to include eight Democrats and five Republicans. But after Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks — Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana — because they voted against certifying the election, McCarthy pulled all Republican participation in the panel. 

Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — Republicans who have been critical of Trump and voted to impeach him last year — then went against McCarthy’s wishes and joined the committee.

The Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to an email Friday morning seeking a response to Trump’s letter.

At its last scheduled public meeting before next month’s midterm elections, the committee voted to subpoena Trump. 

“The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of Jan. 6 was one man: Donald Trump," said Cheney, the panel’s vice chair. “ … .We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion."

On his Truth Social media platform, Trump wrote Thursday: “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly - A laughing stock all over the World?”