Why did NPR build an archive of January 6th documents?

Summary

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Consider This from NPR

Episode Title: Why did NPR build an archive of January 6th documents?
Date: February 21, 2026
Host: Emily Kwong
Guest: Tom Dreisbach, NPR Investigative Correspondent

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Episode Overview

This episode examines NPR’s ambitious effort to create a thorough public archive documenting the January 6th, 2021 Capitol attack. Host Emily Kwong speaks with NPR investigative reporter Tom Dreisbach, who led the project, discussing why the archive was necessary, how it was built, what it reveals about participants, and the evolving public narrative surrounding January 6th. The episode reflects on the importance of preserving unfiltered historical evidence amid ongoing attempts at narrative revision and calls to memory the complexity and trauma of the event.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Purpose and Scope of the Archive

• NPR created a comprehensive digital archive, described as a “January 6th museum” (00:56), to preserve the facts and primary materials (videos, court records, timelines) of the attack for future generations.
• The project responds to concerns about the government and various actors seeking to “erase or whitewash or otherwise distort the events of January 6th.” (00:56 – 01:22)
• The archive includes a timeline, video evidence, and a meticulously tracked database of every criminal case tied to the day.

Building the Archive: The Process and Discoveries

• Tom Dreisbach describes the “obsessive” work of reviewing thousands of hours of footage and reading every single arrest affidavit (03:23).
• Early reporting revealed significant insights, such as a notable number of those arrested having military backgrounds:
  • “Nearly 20% of people charged in connection with the attack and rioting are veterans… That number has since gone down to about 14%.” (04:09)
• NPR’s analysis led, in part, to a Pentagon review on extremism in the ranks.
• The project tracked connections to extremist groups (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon) and analyzed sentencing data:
  • “The median sentence was 30 days in jail. About a third of people who were actually sentenced got no jail time at all.” (04:53)

Who Were the January 6th Participants?

• The more than 1,500 charged individuals came from all 50 states, reflecting a highly varied group in terms of motivations and backgrounds (05:17).
• Case profile: Jason Riddle – a Trump supporter struggling with alcoholism, who viewed January 6th as another in a series of rallies:
  • “He was an alcoholic, and he kind of was lost in his life a little bit… He got 90 days in jail. But the process of going through the criminal justice system led him to get sober… and rethink a lot of things in his life, including his support for Trump.” (05:30)

Divergent Views and Evolving Narratives

• Some high-profile critics and parts of the public view January 6th as a criminal act fueled by lies:
  • “Trump is promoting criminal behavior. That was a criminal act. January 6th was a crime. And I think it’s going to result in more death… That’s what January 6th was. It was a result of his lies.” [Commentator/Critic] (06:33)
• Some participants see themselves as victims or martyrs. Example: Jake Lang, who remains unapologetic and even willing to use violence:
  • “I’m very proud to have done what I did on January 6th. And I think that it was just the beginning of what America needs to… cleanse itself.” [Jake Lang] (07:08)
• The narrative around January 6th, especially from Donald Trump and some politicians, has shifted over time—from condemnation to embracing the rioters as victims:
  • “He had gone from… they must pay for their crimes to saying that they were actually the victims… it became clear that the narrative about what actually happened that day was being rewritten before our eyes.” (07:29)

Why the Archive Matters

• As public memory and official records become contested, the archive serves as a “first draft of history” available for all—journalists, the public, even prosecutors:
  • “If we didn’t do this, then it’s possible some of this stuff would be destroyed forever.” (08:44)
  • Dreisbach reports getting calls from prosecutors seeking case records that NPR had managed to preserve.

Telling the Story and the Legacy of January 6th

• The archive does not tell one single story—its goal is to allow people to discover their own truths and insights:
  • “There’s not one story you can tell from this. And our hope is that with the archive, people can find a lot of those stories themselves.” (09:17)
• Dreisbach hopes the trauma and loss experienced by those inside the Capitol is not sanitized or forgotten:
  • “Trump likes to refer to January 6th as a day of love, and I think of it as a day of loss. Everyone connected to that day seemed to lose something… I just hope people remember the specifics and the human lives that were at the center of what happened at the Capitol.” (09:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tom Dreisbach on the challenge of preservation:
  “We kind of thought of it as… a January 6th museum in a way.” (00:56)

• Tom Dreisbach on media responsibility:
  “If we didn’t do this, then it’s possible some of this stuff would be destroyed forever.” (08:44)

• On shifting political rhetoric (Tom Dreisbach):
  “He had gone from… they must pay for their crimes to saying that they were actually the victims… it became clear that the narrative about what actually happened that day was being rewritten before our eyes.” (07:29)

• On the emotional aftermath (Tom Dreisbach):
  “Trump likes to refer to January 6th as a day of love, and I think of it as a day of loss. Everyone connected to that day seemed to lose something.” (09:54)

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Timeline of Important Segments

• 00:05–01:22: Introduction—the context of January 6th, purpose of the archive
• 02:47–03:59: Building the archive, early discoveries: military connections
• 04:53–05:17: Sentencing data, the diversity of participants
• 05:30–06:33: In-depth on individuals—profile of Jason Riddle
• 06:51–07:14: Divergent views, profiling radicalized and still-unrepentant participants
• 07:29–08:27: How January 6th’s narrative was rewritten in public discourse
• 08:44–09:17: The necessity of archival work and NPR’s unique efforts
• 09:50–10:53: Dreisbach’s hopes for how January 6th will be remembered

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Conclusion

NPR’s January 6th archive aims to serve as a crucial public resource in preserving the factual, human complexities of a day whose significance, causes, and memory remain sharply contested. Dreisbach and the team’s work counters both political attempts to distort the event and the natural fading of public memory, providing an open resource for scholarly, journalistic, and civic reflection.

Explore the archive at: npr.org/j6archive (as referenced in-episode).

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Transcript

[Trump Supporter]

Usa. Usa. And we fight. We fight like hell.

[Emily Kwong]

It has been five years since the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a pro Trump mob stormed the building trying to stop the certification of the presidential election.

[Trump Supporter]

And if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore.

[Emily Kwong]

In the years since, journalists, investigators and historians have tried to piece together and understand what happened that day. And at npr, investigative reporter Tom Dreisbach wanted to do even more. He led an ambitious team effort to preserve a comprehensive record of those events for Future Generations. The January 6th archive is a timeline of the moments before, during and after that attack. Built from video evidence gathered over many years. It also includes a database tracking every criminal case tied to January 6th.

[Tom Dreisbach]

We kind of thought of it as, as like a January 6th museum in a way where it covered different aspects of that day, the violence, the weapons people used, the motivations of people and tried to preserve in a way this history of what happened that day. At a time when the government has been actively trying to erase or whitewash or otherwise distort the events of January

[Trump Supporter]

6th,

[Emily Kwong]

consider this as the narrative around the January 6th attack continues to change. NPR reporters built an archive to document what happened. From npr, I'm Emily Kwong.

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[Emily Kwong]

It's consider this from npr. Five years ago, after the attack on the Capitol during the certification of the 2020 election, NPR set out to gather thousands of videos, court exhibits and records. From that day into one place to create a comprehensive archive of what happened and to preserve it at a time when the public narrative around January 6th continues to change. For this week's Reporter's Notebook, I wanted to talk with NPR's Tom Dreisbach about how the project came together and what it took to document years of work. So I started by asking him how long he thinks he spent on it.

[Tom Dreisbach]

I could not quantify, you know, the work started on January 6th itself of 2021. So that was more than five years ago. That was really days and days and weeks and months of my life was obsessively watching video. We started noticing from the criminal cases that a number of the people being arrested had served in the military or had connections to the military or even active duty military service members in some capacity. And so we had this thought, okay, could we actually, you know, put some numbers to this? And we did a story pretty early on, I think, in the, you know, just a few weeks after the attack.

[NPR Announcer]

By NPR's count, nearly 20% of people charged in connection with the attack and rioting are veterans. NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach is here to talk about what we found. Hi, Tom.

[Tom Dreisbach]

Hey, Ari. That number has since gone down to about 14%, but it was a significant enough number that it led to a review by the Pentagon of extremism in the ranks. And, and we realized, oh, wow, if this could lead to, you know, information and impact for the public that people were really interested in, what else can we learn by taking comprehensive approach? And then we decided, well, if we're gonna do this, we should make it available to the public. We would read every single arrest record and there would be these arrest affidavits written by FBI agents that would kind of tell the story of each person's participation in the riot. We tracked things like the number of people who had ties to extremist groups, so like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers or people who were followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory. And out of that, you know, we picked individual stories that were interesting, but also just tried to get a comprehensive picture. And so, you know, there was a question, well, what are the outcomes going to be from all these investigations and arrests? And we were able to put numbers to that like that the median sentence was 30 days in jail. About a third of people who were actually sentenced got no jail time at all.

[Emily Kwong]

I'm really curious about this group of people. This over 1500 people from all 50 states who were arrested in connection to January 6th. What else did you learn about them as People.

[Tom Dreisbach]

Oh, it's such a varied group. One guy that we ended up profiling was a man named Jason Riddle. He was a big time Trump supporter. He loved just sort of the attention it got him. He loved being in people's faces. He also had a drinking problem. He's very open about this now. He was an alcoholic, and he kind of was lost in his life a little bit. And when he heard about the January 6th rally, he was excited. He was like, yeah, he's been to, you know, more than a dozen Trump rallies in his life. He calls it like a party. So he went into the building, he stormed the Capitol, he found a bottle of wine inside, was drinking it until a police officer said, like, get the heck outta here. And he was sentenced for his participation. He got 90 days in jail. But the process of going through the criminal justice system led him to get sober. And in the process of getting sober and dealing with his alcoholism, he started to rethink a lot of things in his life, including his support for Trump.

[Commentator/Critic]

Trump is promoting criminal behavior. That was a criminal act. January 6th was a crime. And I think it's going to result in more death. Eventually, there's going to be another riot. Something's going to happen if you keep promoting these lies. That's what January 6th was. It was a result of his lies.

[Tom Dreisbach]

On the other hand, there's many, many people who see themselves as victims, as martyrs in some way, and that they believe that they're still victims and they deserve restitution from the federal government. There's one man named Jake Lang who said he is still willing to use violence.

[Trump Supporter]

I'm very proud to have done what I did on January 6th. And I think that it was just the beginning of what America needs to. To cleanse itself.

[Emily Kwong]

And then, of course, when it comes to President Trump himself, how he publicly talks about this day has changed, too. What was the moment that you realized that this history was being rewritten by the president himself and by others?

[Tom Dreisbach]

It started kind of slowly and then seemed to be all at once over time. You know, Trump just embraced the January 6th defendants. He started to just say that, no, they didn't do anything wrong. You know, he had gone from, like he said that they had defiled the seed of democracy and they must pay. They must pay for their crimes to saying that they were actually the victims. And he really made his entire 2024 presidential campaign, in part about the January 6th defendants. And so it became clear that the narrative about what actually happened that day was being rewritten before our Eyes. And at a time when we were getting more and more information from court records about what actually had happened, because we were getting so much more video and so many more verdicts in these cases that were being proven factually in court at the same time as it felt like the public's understanding was slipping away from us.

[Emily Kwong]

That sounds like a call to action as a journalist. Like, they say that journalists write the first draft of history, but in this case, you're recovering the first draft of history, or at least the elements for the first draft of history. And that was on you all to do, because it's who if not you, then who, it sounds like, is what you were thinking.

[Tom Dreisbach]

Right? That's what it felt like. It was like, I'm actually not sure anyone is going to do this. And I started getting calls over this process from prosecutors who were like, hey, I actually was looking for the record from this case that I Prosecuted related to January 6th. Do you have it? And in some cases, I was able to help. But, you know, over time, it just became clear that if we didn't do this, then it's possible some of this stuff would be destroyed forever.

[Emily Kwong]

What kind of story did you want to tell with the authority you had of all the materials? How did you choose to, like, focus it?

[Tom Dreisbach]

Ooh, well, there's not one story you can tell from this. And our hope is that with the archive, people can find a lot of those stories themselves. They can look at individual cases, they can view surveillance footage, body cam footage for themselves, and see what happened that day and maybe discover stories that even we didn't realize were there in the. In the archive. And so our approach was not just telling one story, but trying to make sure that this history is available for future generations.

[Emily Kwong]

How do you ultimately hope January 6th will be remembered?

[Tom Dreisbach]

One of the overriding feelings or thoughts that I had throughout the process of reporting this was the level of violence and the level of terror felt by people who were inside the Capitol or defending the Capitol as police officers. It can be sanitized in many cases and has been sanitized by the administration. And so in some ways, I hope people remember just how traumatic that day was for the country, arguably, and certainly for all the people who were there. Trump likes to refer to January 6th as a day of love, and I think of it as a day of loss. Everyone connected to that day seemed to lose something. So it's not for me to say ultimately how people remember that day, but I just hope people remember the specifics and the human lives that were at the center of what happened at the Capitol.

[Emily Kwong]

Tom Dreisbach is a correspondent on NPR's investigations team. You can look through the reporting and see all the evidence for [e-mail] j6archive Tom, thank you so much.

[Tom Dreisbach]

Thanks so much, Emily.

[Emily Kwong]

This episode was produced by Lena Muhammad and Daniel Offman. It was edited by Sarah Robbins. Our executive producer is Sammy Yanigun. Consider this. I'm Emily Kwong.

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