Former United States President Donald Trump deliberately did not take action when his supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 last year, the House of Representatives Select Committee told a panel investigating the riots, the BBC reported on Friday.

Five persons died in the violence after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol complex and clashed with the police as members of the Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential elections, which Joe Biden won.

The violence broke out after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and criticised Mike Pence, who was then his deputy, for failing to overturn election results in his favour.

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives chalked out the timeline of the events of January 6 last year.

Representatives of both the Democrat and Republican parties deposed in front of the committee on what Trump did for 187 minutes, from when he urged his supporters at a rally to march to the Capitol, to making an address asking them to stop the violence, the Associated Press reported.

“President Trump did not fail to act,” Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger said on Thursday. “He chose not to act.”

Trump did not intervene as the mob was accomplishing his purpose, Kinzinger added.

Several other officials, including the White House press secretary during Trump’s tenure and his security advisors, deposed that the former president sat in his dining room and watched the violence unfold on television.

Another Republican Representative Liz Cheney said that Trump turned his supporters’ “love of country into a weapon”, AP reported.

“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” asked Cheney, also the vice chair of the panel.

At Thursday’s hearing, the committee also played an audio of General Mark Milley, who was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the time of the riots.

“You are [Trump] the commander-in-chief,” Milley exclaimed in surprise in the audio, according to AP. “You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?”

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified that Trump did not want to mention the word “peace” to call off the protestors.

“It was not until Ivanka Trump [the former president’s daughter] suggested the phrase ‘stay peaceful’, that he finally agreed to include it,” Matthews added.

The investigating panel is looking to form a case against Trump that he made an illegal bid to overturn Biden’s victory in the elections. The panel is expected to meet again in September to examine more witnesses and information.