January 8 hearings laid down its work plan. It doesn’t feature Jair Bolsonaro

The joint congressional select committee that will investigate the January 8 riots — when a violent far-right mob stormed government buildings in Brasília — on Tuesday laid down its work plan for the next few months. But this roadmap does not make a single mention of the name of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro — a character without whom the riots cannot be understood.

For years, Mr. Bolsonaro sowed distrust in the electoral system among his supporters, saying the country’s electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud — but presenting no evidence to support his claims. He never acknowledged his electoral defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and accused the Supreme Court of plotting against him.

One week into Lula’s term, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters — whipped into a frenzy by electoral fraud claims spread online — stormed and ransacked the buildings housing all three branches of government. Mr. Bolsonaro is being investigated by the Supreme Court for allegedly inciting the insurrection.

Many of the rioters had previously gathered in a campsite near the Army headquarters in Brasília, where voters of the former president spent months urging the Army to lead a coup d’état that would keep Mr. Bolsonaro in power. Similar camps were set up nearby military facilities across Brazil in the days after the runoff election.

The joint congressional committee investigating the riots kicked off after months of political wrangling (a similar local investigation...