The impending impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the United States Senate is a headache for the Republican Party.
Records and videos of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol in Washington are showing links between people who took part and Trump allies.
The data also appears to support the impeachment claim of "incitement of insurrection" - that members of the mob took notice of Trump's words.
Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. He would most likely only be convicted in a Senate trial once he has left office. More than a dozen Republicans would have to turn on him for that to happen.
Pundits have focused on the potential problems for the incoming Biden administration of a trial and whether it would be a damaging distraction from his programme.
But President-elect Joe Biden's planned quick kick-off with Executive Orders, major legislation and a vaccine distribution boost will take up a large slice of attention - as will ongoing security concerns.
Accounts of rioters caught on tape could become central testimony and allow for a much quicker trial process.
Donald Trump's last year in office will define his legacy, historians say https://t.co/CHuQdOsXg8 pic.twitter.com/6VjWZEGYHd
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 18, 2021
For Republicans, the problem of what to do about Trump will only deepen.
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Advertise with NZME.The pressure is building rather than easing on the President's party, including on senior officials.
Any attempt by Trump to pardon himself and family members before Thursday's inauguration would add to the heat on his party.
CNN reports he is expected to issue dozens of pardons on Wednesday.
At a rally in Washington on January 7 NZT just before the riot, Trump told supporters to "fight" and to march to the Capitol.
He said: "You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong".
Trump had wrongly asserted for months that the November election was "stolen" by fraud. The rally was timed to coincide with the official certification of Biden's victory.
Despite soaring stock prices and his own tax cuts, Trump will leave about $500 million poorer.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 18, 2021
His buildings are saddled with more than $1 billion in debt, most of it coming due in the next three years and more than a third of it personally guaranteed. https://t.co/QgJgJAXPsa
Today, the New Yorker released video footage from veteran war correspondent Luke Mogelson covering the riot.
In it a rioter yells "we are listening to Trump".
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Advertise with NZME.At another point someone says "Hawley, Cruz. I think Cruz would want us to do this", referring to Republican senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Both challenged the results of the election during the congressional hearing that day.
A man goes through Senate documents and says: "There's got to be something in here we can... use against these scumbags".
As the Washington Post reports, other videos have featured insurrectionists saying they were "instructed" and "invited" to go to the Capitol by Trump.
One far-right leader, Ali Alexander, claimed he had help from three House Republicans - Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks. Alexander said he wanted to pressure politicians in Congress to block Biden's win.
As criminal cases stemming from the Washington riot move through the US legal system, a “Trump-made-me-do-it” defence has started to emerge.https://t.co/hiTjH9kMB5
— SBS News (@SBSNews) January 18, 2021
Brooks notoriously told the crowd at Trump's rally to "start taking down names and kicking ass".
Even after the riot, dozens of Republicans - including Gosar, Biggs, and Brooks - still tried and failed to overturn results in key states that voted for Biden.
During the assault, the mob chanted about hanging Vice-President Mike Pence, who was overseeing the certification, and also hunted for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A Republican representative, Lauren Boebert, tweeted about Pelosi's whereabouts as the attack was unfolding.
AP reports that a non-profit group hosted Trump's rally on a federally owned area near the White House.
A permit "lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump's 2020 re-election campaign". The campaign denied organising, operating or financing the rally.
A huge swath of Washington DC has been sealed off and National Guard troops are flooding into the US capital ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
— DW News (@dwnews) January 18, 2021
Supporters of President Donald Trump are expected to rally in cities across the country. pic.twitter.com/RSCfcLFt90
Various polls put Trump's job approval among Republicans since the Capitol siege at between 60 and 87 per cent. Among voters generally, three polls have his approval way down at between 29 and 38 per cent.
Democrats have welcomed-in suburban voters turned off by Trump over his term. The Capitol assault and impeachment could further widen that gap between the Republican base and voters overall.
There's a basic problem of maths for the Republicans. Even with the strong support from Trump's base, he could not win re-election and his party lost the Senate and the House. Now he's going, yet the party is mostly stuck on the same path.
Yet Republican officials mostly refuse to acknowledge that Biden is a legitimate president who won fairly, even as they say he will be sworn in. Instead party leaders have attacked impeachment as divisive.
The tail is still wagging the dog. Republicans face a long struggle to get out of this Trump-sized hole.
Biden will have a country to get in order before the Midterms of November 2022. The Republicans will have their own house to spring clean before then.
