Capitol crimes: A conspiracy was laid barebut where does it end for Trump?

During its landmark hearings, the House select committee investigating the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has sought to show that Donald Trump was at the centre of a conspiracy to seize a second term in office, accusing him of having "summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack".

- Lauren Gambino

Then, for 187 minutes on 6 January, the president let the firestorm he ignited burn, the panel argued in a gripping presentation last Thursday.

In its final summer hearing, one of its most dramatic of the series, the panel argued that Trump betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty when he refused to condemn the violence for hours as rioters carrying poles, bear spray and the banners of his campaign, led a bloody assault on the US Capitol.

The primetime session recounted in harrowing, minute-by-minute detail, the siege of the Capitol, while simultaneously showing the actions Trump did - but mostly did not take during those excruciating hours when "lives and our democracy hung in the balance", as congresswoman Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat, and a member of the committee, described it.

The panel presented chilling video and audio of Trump loyalists in body armour battling law enforcement officers. As the mob encroached, members of then vice-president Mike Pence's Secret Service detail that day made calls to say goodbye to relatives, the panel revealed in a wrenching disclosure.

Amid the chaos, Trump was idle in the White House, watching it all unfold on a television tuned to Fox News. He resisted pleas from his closest aides, congressional Republicans and even his children to intervene, only consenting, the committee said, after it was clear the coup had failed.

Trump's abdication of leadership on 6 January was a "stain on our history", congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois and a committee member, said.

But were the former president's actions illegal? It's a question at the heart of the year-long inquiry.

Over the course of eight public hearings, the panel has sought to lay out the case that Trump orchestrated a multilayered plot to seize another term in office despite being told repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that his myth of a stolen election was baseless.