Five years after the Capitol riot, some of the police officers who fought off the rioters that day say they're still struggling with what happened. And that's especially the case since Donald Trump was elected to a second term last year and pardoned about 1,500 people who'd been convicted for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Several police officers who fought the rioters said in Associated Press interviews that the hardest thing to deal with has been that many people are playing down the violence from that day, or they're ignoring it or claiming it didn’t happen. That's despite a massive collection of video and photographic evidence documenting the violence.

Former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without President Donald Trump. That's according to a transcript released Wednesday of Smith's closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee. Smith also described the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Dec. 17 deposition was held privately despite Smith’s request to testify publicly. The release of the transcript and video of the interview adds to the public understanding of the decision-making behind two of the most consequential Justice Department investigations in recent history.