WASHINGTON — At long last, the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2001 insurrection is about to hold public hearings into former president Donald Trump’s alleged incitement of it.

A mountain of oral and documentary evidence has been assembled by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, aimed at determining whether and how Trump and his associates may have acted criminally in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including by conspiring with those who stormed the Capitol on that fateful day to halt Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote count.

There is a question of precisely what the select committee and Congress as a whole can do in this regard. Last year, the House voted to impeach Trump, and in the Senate a bipartisan majority deemed Trump guilty of the charges, but the effort fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict. If the Senate had convicted Trump, he could have been barred from holding federal office again.

In its current efforts, the House select committee has done one useful thing and may do two further useful things. First, it has compelled testimony and documents from key players in the events around the insurrection. To what extent it produced evidence unavailable to the Justice Department is not known.

At some point in the future, we can expect a report by the select committee that records and publicizes the evidence against Trump and his cohorts. And, finally, the committee may refer Trump and others to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Many in the American public may wish to avoid the national embarrassment of a former American president serving jail time, no matter how short or long. Nevertheless, in the case of Trump, his malign intentions to overturn the will of the electorate are obvious, even if a criminal case against him is never brought before a jury. If a charge of a serious offense against the state can be proved, however, it is very much in the nation’s interest that Trump be convicted and punished, and that his public record be blemished forever.

There is, however, a possible major change underway in the political equation. The Republicans in November could capture the majority in both houses of Congress. They have labored hard to cast Biden somehow as not up to the level of governing competence expected of the Oval Office occupant.

Biden’s efforts to corral the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly commendable. He has effectively mobilized the pharmaceutical industry to enable the vaccination of two-thirds of all Americans and millions of others around the world.

At the same time, there appears to be some erosion in Trump’s hold on his army of loyalists who have made him the de facto leader of the Grand Old Party.

But older Republicans currently show little interest in asserting their clout to end the paralysis Trump has inflicted on the American two-party democratic system. It remains to be seen whether new evidence coming to light from the House select committee or the Department of Justice will change that.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcover@comcast.net.