The Congressional Select Committee on the December 6, 2020 Capitol Attack: Bringing a United States to the Investigating Committee’s Investigation into Account

The Select Committee will investigate the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6th. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. Pursuant to House Deposition Authority Regulation 10, the chair announces the committee’s approval to release the deposition material presented during today’s hearing.

Good afternoon, and may God bless the United States of America. Four months ago, this committee started to present our findings to you, the American people. From the beginning, we understood that some people watching those proceedings would wrongly assume that the committee’s investigation was a partisan exercise.

That’s why I asked those who were skeptical of our work to — simply to listen, to listen to the evidence, to hear the testimony with an open mind, and to let the facts speak for themselves before reaching any judgment. The evidence shows that Donald Trump was involved in a plan to overturn the 2020 election.

In mid-December 2020, President Trump’s senior advisers told him the time had come to concede the election. The courts had ruled against Donald Trump. He had all of this information, but still he made the conscious choice to claim fraudulently that the election was stolen, to pressure state officials to change election results, to manufacture fake electoral slates, to attempt to corrupt our Department of Justice, to summon tens of thousands of supporters to Washington.

We received and reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. Thanks to the tireless work of our members and investigators, we’ve left — we have left no doubt, none, that Donald Trump led an effort to up end American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6th. He tried to take away the will of the voters in choosing the president and replace them with his will to stay in power.

How do we know this? We have presented a clear picture of what happened. Because of the testimony we’ve heard, and the documentary evidence we have gathered and made available to the American people, we have presented you through these proceedings.

The need to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact finding. There is a question about accountability in the United States. He needs to be held accountable. He must answer for his actions. He’s required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy.

Who has that been? Republicans who have worked loyally for Donald Trump for many years include state officials and legislators, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, political professionals who served at the highest levels of the Trump campaign, as well as appointees to the most senior positions in the Justice Department.

The Secret Service Testimony Committee on January 6th: What Did One Former President Trump Tell About His Importance? A reappraisal of his actions

The testimony is unlikely to be credible according to the evidence and the committee is looking into it. The Secret Service was monitoring this kind of online activity and was sharing and receiving the results of that effort. They’d worked closely with other agencies, sharing intelligence about the joint session of Congress derived from social media and other sources.

It’s about the facts, plain and simple. Our Constitution demands that our government function as it should, under the rule of law. Today as in previous proceedings, my colleagues and I will present new evidence. New testimony from additional Republicans who served in the Trump administration, as well as footage of Congressional leaders helping to coordinate the response to violence and ensure the people’s business went forward, are included.

The facts will guide the proceeding but it won’t look like all our other hearings. Here, we’ll take a step back and look at the evidence in a different way, providing a summary of some of the key facts we’ve found about former President Trump’s intent and state of mind.

There’s one more difference about today. The committee is meeting today as a formal committee business meeting so that it can hold a vote on more investigative action based upon the evidence presented.

Further depositions and recall of witnesses will be done after concluding its review of the Secret Service communications from January 5th and January 6th. We will give more detail in our final report after that activity.

According to public reporting the Department of Justice has been active in pursuing the issues identified in prior hearings. Our committee may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, but we recognize that our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution.

The preamble to our Constitution recites among its purposes, to “establish justice.” The judiciary of the nation and the Department of Justice have that responsibility. A key element of this committee’s responsibility is to propose reforms to prevent January 6th from ever happening again. We’ve already proposed and the House has now passed a bill to amend the Electoral Count Act to help ensure that no other future plots to overturn an election can succeed.

He was personally and substantially involved in all of it. Exactly how did this happen to one man? We will look at President Trump’s state of mind, intent, motivations, and how he spurred others to do his bidding, if we don’t take necessary action to prevent it. I would suggest you focus on the following points if you view our evidence today.

Donald Trump was the driver behind each part of this plan. He was personally involved in a lot of things. The key element of the plan was to convince Americans that he didn’t lose. Again, he did this even though his own campaign advisers and his Justice Department officials told him his claims of fraud were wrong.

“Ultimately, even Rudolph Giuliani and his legal team acknowledged that they had no definitive evidence of election fraud sufficient to change the election outcome,” the summary states, referring to Trump’s then-personal attorney.

Why did Donald Trump Attempt to Overturn the 2019 U.S. Presidential Reionization Decree? An Empirical Analysis of a Sentiment Hearing

He sent them to the Capitol because he was aware that they were angry and armed. Then as the riot was underway, he incited his supporters to further violence by publicly condemning his vice president. And then he refused for hours to disband his rioting supporters and instruct them to leave the Capitol, even when he was begged repeatedly to do so. None of this is normal or acceptable or lawful in our republic.

The people who helped defeat President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election were the Vice President, Bill Barr, and others at the Department of Justice, State Republican officials, and White House staff.

All of these people had a hand in stopping Donald Trump. This leads us to a question. Why would Americans think that our republic and Constitution are safe from another attack? Is it because those institutions will not fail next time? A key lesson of this investigation is this.

Our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold regardless of the political cost. We don’t know if these men and women will be available next time. Any future president inclined to attempt what Donald Trump did in 2020 has now learned not to install people who could stand in the way.

And also, please consider this. The rulings of our courts are respected and obeyed because we as citizens pledge to accept and honor them. The president swears to accept the laws, even though he has an obligation to faithfully execute them. What happens when the president disregards the court’s rulings as illegitimate, when he disregards the rule of law?

Not only did the courts reject President Trump’s fraud and other allegations, his Department of Justice appointees, including Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, and Richard Donoghue did as well. President Trump knew the truth. He heard what all his experts and senior staff were telling him. Despite knowing he had lost, he decided to ignore the courts, the Justice Department, and the campaign team, in order to try and overturn the election.

Let me read from one judge’s statement given at a recent sentencing hearing. “High ranking members of Congress and state officials, who know that the election was legitimate, are very afraid of losing their power, so they won’t say so.” It has to be crystal clear that it is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America to stand up for one man who knows full well that he lost instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert.” Mr. Chairman, the violence and lawlessness of January 6th was unjustifiable, but our nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who stormed our Capitol.

So, as we watch the evidence today, please consider where our nation is in its history. Consider whether we can survive for another 246 years. Most people in most places on Earth have not been free. America is an exception because we bind our principles to our Constitution.

We recognize that some principles must be beyond politics, inviolate, and more important than any single American who has ever lived. Thanks Mr. Chairman. I yield up.

The Early Times of Election Night: Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager, Kevin McCarthy, and the First Time that I Have Winn an Election. Applause We want all voting to stop

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We begin this meeting by returning to election night on November 3rd, 2020. We presented testimony about how the election results were expected to be in that night. In certain states, ballots cast by mail before Election Day would be counted only after the polls closed that evening.

The results would not be known for a while. Although Donald Trump was advised by Bill Stepien, the campaign manager, to encourage mail voting by Republicans, he did not do so. [Begin videotape]

Mail in ballots could be a good thing for us if we looked at it correctly, you know what I mean. I remember there were people saying that we had a very strong get out the vote effort, and that mail in ballots could be a good thing.

Kevin McCarthy was invited to join the meeting because he was of the opinion that mail in voting was not a bad thing for the President. [End videotape]

So it was expected before the election that the initial counts in some states, in other words, those votes cast on Election Day, would be more heavily Republican and this would create the false perception of a lead for President Trump, a so-called red mirage. There could be trends towards Vice President Biden as the mail in ballots were counted.

“Sending along again. Just talked to him about the draft below.” Again, this plan to keep — to declare victory was in place before any of the results had been determined. Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, was interviewed during the course of the investigation. He told us he understood that President Trump planned as early as July that he would say he won the election even if he lost.

It was far too early to be making any calls like that. The ballots were still being counted. Ballots were still going to be counted for days. And it was far too early to be making any proclamation like that. I believe my recommendation was to say that votes were still being counted. It’s too early to call the race.

This is a fraud on the American public. Our country is embarrassed by this. We were going to win the election. This is the first time that we have won an election. applause We want all voting to stop. [End videotape]

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

The Vice President’s Dispatch with the ‘Monotonic’ Secret Service: A Call to the Attorney General to Close the Voting Window

They obtained new documents from the secret service that show the threat the VP would be facing as a result of the president’s incitement of the mob. One agent in the Secret Services Intelligence Division warned POTUS that he was probably not going to be a good guy if he continued to do that.

Prior to the election results being announced, I was told that a declaration of victory within the White House might be pushed for by some. He was trying to figure out a way to avoid being thrust into a situation of needing to opine on something when he might not have the information to do so. End videotape.

Now following this conversation, Mr. Jacob drafted a memo to Mr. Short, which the Select Committee got from the National Archives. The memo was sent on November 3rd, Election Day, and advised, “it is essential that the Vice President not be perceived by the public as having decided questions concerning disputed electoral votes prior to the full development of all relevant facts.” A few days before the election, Mr. Trump also consulted with one of his outside advisers, inside activist, Tom Fitton, about the strategy for election night.

Everyone knew that ballot counting would lawfully continue past Election Day, claiming that the counting on election night must stop before millions of votes were counted was as we now know a key part of President Trump’s pre-meditated plan. On Election Day, just after 5 pm, Mr. Fitton indicated he’d spoken with the President about the statement.

And just a few days before the election, Steve Bannon, a former Trump chief White House strategist and outside adviser to President Trump, spoke to a group of his associates from China and said this. Start the videotape.

He’s going to say he’s a winner. It’s going to be a fire when you wake up on Wednesday. If Trump is losing by 10:00 or 11:00, it’s going to be crazy because he’s going to say that they stole it.

I’m ordering the Attorney General to shut down ballot places in all 50 states. It’s not going to be easy, he’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit. [End videotape]

As you know, Mr. Bannon refused to testify in our investigation. He’s been convicted of criminal contempt of Congress and he’s awaiting sentencing. But the evidence indicates that Mr. Bannon had advance knowledge of Mr. Trump’s intent to declare victory falsely on election night, but also that Mr. Bannon knew about Mr. Trump’s planning for January 6th. Here’s what Bannon said on January 5th. [Begin videotape]

What Roger Stone said about Donald Trump and the 2020 Election: “The Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Capitol”

All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. It’s all converging and now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack, right, the point of attack tomorrow. I will tell you that it is not going to happen like you think it will. It’s ok. It’s going to be very different. And all I can say is strap in. Tomorrow is the game day and you have made this happen.

It was something President Trump had actually tried to do earlier that month. We know that Roger Stone was at the Willard Hotel on January 5th and 6th, and we know from other witness testimony that President Trump asked his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to speak with Roger Stone and General Michael Flynn that night.

I suspect it’ll be — I really do suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. The law has possession as a majority of it’s content.

Even though he doesn’t have all of Roger Stone’s communications, even Stone’s own social media posts acknowledge that he spoke with Donald Trump on December 27th as preparations for January 6th were underway. In this post, you can see how Roger Stone talked about his conversations with President Trump.

He wrote, “I told the President how he could appoint a special counsel with subpoena power to ensure that those attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud are charged and convicted and to ensure Donald Trump continues as our President.” The idea for a special counsel was not an idea that was just a suggestion.

A conspiracy to use violent force against the United States is what it is. Multiple associates of Roger Stone from both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with this crime. The associates of Roger Stone pled guilty to this crime.

Earlier this year, he pled guilty to seditious conspiracy and — and obstruction of Congress. Another example, is the married couple, Kelly and Connie Meggs. Kelly Meggs was the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers. Both he and his wife provided security for Roger Stone, and both are charged with leading a military style stack attack of Oath Keepers attacking the Capitol on January 6th. Perhaps even more disturbing is Roger Stone’s close association with Enrique Tarrio, the national chairman of the Proud Boys.

Video evidence and phone records show Roger Stone had a relationship with Enrique Tarrio, who was also associated with the Proud Boys. Tarrio, along with other Proud Boys, has been charged with multiple crimes concerning the attack on January 6th, including seditious conspiracy. During the attack, Tarrio sent a message to other Proud Boys claiming, we did that.

It was premeditated. It was not based on election results or any evidence of actual fraud affecting the results or any actual problems with voting machines. It was a plan to make his supporters believe he won. The people that seemingly knew about that plan would play a big part in the events of January 6. Mr. Chairman, I will return the favor.

I know that the president was informed about the network decision when it was called. Several people went to sit with the president, and communicated to him that the odds of winning legal challenges were very small.

There is a discussion going on in the Oval. And the President says, I think — it could have been Pompeo, but he says words to the effect of, yeah, we lost. We — we need to let that issue go to the next guy, meaning President Biden.

I went to the Oval just a week after the election to see how the president was doing, and I wanted to give him the headlines. He wondered if he lost to this effing guy, as he looked at the TV.

Mark raised it with me on the 18th. And so following that conversation with the motorcade ride driving back to the White House, I said, look, does the President really think he lost? And he said, you know, a lot of times he’ll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it. He thinks that there might be enough to overturn the election, but you know, he — he pretty much has acknowledged that he — that he’s lost.

President Trump rushed to finish his unfinished business when he realized that he had only weeks left in office. One key example is this: President Trump issued an order for large-scale US troop withdrawals. Concerns were ignored about the consequences for fragile countries on the front lines of the fight against terrorists.

It was soon after he was leaving the office that he signed this order, which requires the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Somalia, all to be completed by January 20th. You will recall that General is the national security adviser to the vice president and also the chief of staff to the National Security Council for President Trump.

The memo that the President signed on November 11, 2020, ordered troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Somalia is very familiar to you.

You could have seen a memo from Johnny McEntee to Douglas Macgregor. It says, here’s your task, to get US forces out of out of Somalia, get US forces out of Afghanistan. When you first interviewed and met Colonel Douglas Macgregor, is it fair to say you discussed this decision of withdrawing from Somalia and Afghanistan, correct?

DOD leadership was not going to do any of the steps without an order after he responded to you on the same day.

When I talked with McEntee in the meeting, I explained to him that this should be in the order I was told. I told you that the President needed to write an order if he wanted this to happen.

Well, I sketched on a piece of paper for him some key statements. You know, the President directs. You know, this is — what’s the right word — boilerplate language?

McEntee duly takes it up, brings it in to the President. It’s over after the President signs it and it’s over faxed and e-mailed. Kash Patel delivers it to me.

Reply to the PPO and Macgregor on January 6: An Oath: No Evidence of Algebraic Instability

I told the PPO and Macgregor that if I ever saw something like that, I would do something physical. It was a huge disservice to the nation. That was a very high-contested issue. Some people were against getting out of Afghanistan.

So, I responded to that. And for the department to insert itself into the political process this way I think would have had grave consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis. [End videotape]

Keep in mind the order was for an immediate withdrawal. It would have been terrible. And yet, President Trump signed the order. These are actions a President who knows that his time in office will soon come to a close. President Donald Trump was aware that he had lost the election but still heard that there was no proof of fraud.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

The Supreme Court Denied Donald Trump’s Campaign on Election Fraud and Misadministration: a Brief History of a Capitol Hill Hearing in Washington, DC

I remember a call with Mr. Meadows, where Mr. Meadows was asking me what I was finding and if I was finding anything. I shared with him that we weren’t able to change the results in any of the key states.

It would be our job to find out if the allegation is true, and let us know if it’s true. We would have to relay the news. that, yeah, that that — that tip that your — someone told you about those — those votes or that fraud or, you know, nothing came of it. It’s easier to tell the President about wild allegations if we’re the truth-telling squad.

What was generally discussed on that topic was whether the fraud, maladministration, abuse or irregularities if aggregated and read most favorably to the campaign, would that be outcome determinative. Everyone in the room, including myself and Greg Jacob, thought that it wasn’t enough to be outcome determinant. [End videotape]

The claims were not supported by any sufficient evidence of fraud or irregularities. In fact, they were baseless as judges repeatedly recognized. President Trump could not get any viable claims of election fraud to prevail in any of the 62 cases. In those hearings, we shared with you the words used by judges around the country in rejecting the Trump campaign’s claims.

It’s strong language criticizing the lack of evidentiary support for the claims of election fraud in those lawsuits. For example, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania wrote, quote, charges require specific allegations and proof. We have neither here. A federal judge in Wisconsin wrote, quote, the court has allowed the former president the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits.

The judge in Michigan didn’t think the claims were true, they thought votes for President Trump had been discarded or changed to support Vice President Biden. A federal judge in Michigan sanctioned nine attorneys, including Sidney Powell, for making frivolous allegations in an election fraud case, describing the case as a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.

The Trump allies lost a case in the US Supreme Court that they thought was their last chance to win. The new message shows that President Trump was angry about the outcome. It is said that the president is pissed. The Supreme Court denied his lawsuit.

We know that President Trump’s White House advisers didn’t like it. Cassidy Hutchinson talked to the Chief of Staff immediately after the call. [Begin videotape]

This is the day that the Supreme Court had rejected that case. The White House hosted a Christmas reception for Mr. Meadows and I. And as we were walking back from the Christmas reception that evening, the President was walking out of the Oval Office and we crossed paths in the Rose Garden colonnade.

He asked the White House employee – whose identity the panel kept anonymous “to guard against the risk of retaliation” – if they had watched his rally speech on television. The White House employee responded, “Sir, they cut it off because they’re rioting down at the Capitol.”

The states sent their votes to Congress on the 14th of December. That was the end of the matter in my opinion. I didn’t see — you know, I — I thought that this would lead inexorably to a new administration.

I told him that it was unlikely he would be able to use the law to try to overturn the results of the election, because the system of electing a president and vice president was already in place.

Mid-December Communication with the President of the House of Representatives: The Case of the Dominion Electoral Machines in the U.S.

Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia, the son of late Justice Scalia, visited President Trump in mid-December and explained the situation clearly. [Begin videotape]

I called the president and put a call in. I may have called on the 13th. We spoke, I believe, on the 14th, in which I conveyed to him that I thought that it was time for him to acknowledge that President Biden had prevailed in the election. But I communicated to the president that, you know, when that legal process is exhausted and when the electors are — have voted, that that’s the point at which that outcome needs to be expected.

I told him that I did believe, yes, that once the — those legal processes were run, if fraud had not been established that had affected the outcome of the election, then unfortunately I believed that what had to be done was concede the outcome. [End videotape]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mid-December was a turning point. President Trump made a decision to ignore the courts and his advisers and to push forward with his plans to overturn the election. The attempts to overturn the election were part of a coordinated plan to ensure that he remained in power.

I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines, which I found to be among the most disturbing allegations, disturbing in the sense that I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations. I told them that it was crazy and they were wasting their time on that and that it was a grave disservice to the country.

The company we have is very suspect. Its name is Dominion. With the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you could press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden. What sort of system is this?

A Videotape of the Big Vote Dump in Detroit: Donald Trump’s Quasi-Demonstration

We talked a lot about Antrim County. That was done because the hand recount was done at that point. An example of what people are telling you and what is being filed in court that isn’t supported by the evidence is what we cited back to.

There is a problem with the voting systems of the state of Virginia. In one Michigan county alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden, and the same systems are used in the majority of states in our country.

I went into this and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were and how ridiculous some of them were. You know, it was easy to blow up things like more votes cast in Pennsylvania in favor of Absentee votes than requested. There was no indication of interest in what the actual facts were.

There were more votes than there were voters. Think of that. You had more votes than you had voters. That’s an easy one to figure, and it’s by the thousands.

He called it the big vote dump in Detroit. People at the counting station saw boxes coming in at all hours of the morning. I said, “Mr. President, there are 630 precinct in Detroit.” And unlike elsewhere in the state, they centralized the counting process so they’re not counted in each precinct.

The tape was looked at with regard to Georgia. We interviewed the witnesses. There is no suitcase. The president kept fixating on this suitcase that supposedly had fraudulent ballots and that the suitcase was rolled out from under the table. I said, “No, sir, there is no suitcase.” You can watch that video over and over.

There is no luggage. They put ballots in a wheeled bin and move them around the facility. There’s nothing suspicious about that at all.

Election officials pulled boxes, Democrats, and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. All of you saw it on television. Continue the videotape.

The committee’s report will document the lies made public in a public place that are at odds with what Donald Trump was told by his own sources. Donald Trump made this nonsense up and perpetuated it to a large audience.

His intent was to deceive. President Trump tried to change the result of the election in some states that he lost. He personally reached out to state officials and pressured them to take actions that would alter the election results. These actions, taken directly by the president himself, made it clear what his intentions were; to prevent the orderly transfer of power.

The secretary told President Trump that he lost in Georgia but he didn’t accept that. He suggested that Secretary Raffensperger might be prosecuted. Begin the video.

Now that I want to do this, I’m done. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. Look, we need only 11,000 votes. As it stands, we have more than that. We’ll have more and more. So, what are we going to do here, folks? If I only need 11,000 votes.

I want to find 11,780 votes. The president already knew that there was no genuine basis for his request, so it was no wonder that he made this demand. No one could think it would be legal for the secretary of state to simply find the votes the president needed in order to win.

Mark, he can’t do that, but if you can do it, you’re going to have to try and fight it. I’m sure he doesn’t

That’s the thing. You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And — and, you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s — that’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a very high risk. End videotape.

I remember looking at Mark. And I said, Mark, you can’t possibly think we’re going to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy. And he looks at me and just started shaking his head. He knows that it’s over, you know what I mean? He knows he didn’t win, but he’s going to keep trying. There are a lot of good choices out there.

The Fake Electors’ Plan to Make the Vice President of the United States Un-American: Dr. Pat Cipollone’s Testimony

The acting assistant attorney general of the Civil Division, Clark, was previously implicated in trying to help overturn the election. The committee is of the opinion that Clark broke the law. The Justice Department is already investigating Clark and federal agents have searched his home.

For example, when Richard Donoghue and Jeff Rosen, both appointed by President Trump, learned of Mr. Clark’s proposal, here’s why they said they forcefully rejected it. Start a videotape.

I remember saying at the end that you’re proposing is nothing more than the United States Justice Department interfering in the outcome of a presidential election. But more importantly, this was not based on fact. The facts were developed over the last several weeks and months when the department investigations were taking place.

The entire leadership of the Department of Justice threatened to leave the administration, so the President relented. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

When I received the call — again, I don’t remember the exact date — it was — it was from the White House switchboard and it was President Trump who had contacted me.

He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then spoke about how important the RNC would be to the campaign if the legal challenges were to change the outcome in any of the states. End videotape.

The fake electors’ plan was also tied to another plan, the coercive pressure campaign to make Vice President Mike Pence reject or refuse to count certain Biden electoral votes, so that President Donald Trump would, quote, win reelection instead. Here is what Vice President Pence has said about this scheme.

President Trump is wrong when he said he had the right to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency is held by the American people and not by anyone else. It’s un-American that anyone can choose the American President.

And Dr. Eastman confirmed this in writing. The email was written in January of this year and asked if the Vice President had the power to make decisions on his own. The doctor said he’s been advised.

Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, was aware that the plan was against the law. Here is Mr. Cipollone’s testimony. [Begin videotape]

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

Did the Vice President Tell You What The President Called to Washington on January 6th, 2021, the Capitol Attack? An Email from the Secret Service

I apologized for being impolite, but did she tell you what the President called the Vice President?

2:24 p.m. The riot that was about to start on his own Vice President, Donald Trump, made and sent a threatening statement accusing him of cowardice for not rejecting Joe Biden’s vote in the electoral College and handing Trump the presidency. The impact of that tweet was foreseeable and predictable.

In the end, all these people, Department of Justice officials, state elections’ officials, his own Vice President, stood strong in the face of President Trump’s immense pressure. We now know that President Trump called his supporters to Washington on January 6 to take back their country.

On the morning of the 6th, the Secret Service was at the Ellipse screening the members of the crowd as they entered the rally site. And they noticed something significant about the crowd. Tens of thousands of people were outside the rally site, but did not want to go through the magnetometers, the metal detectors that were used to screen for dangerous weapons.

The committee also made 19 requests for documents and communication, including for any messages that Trump may have sent on the messaging app Signal or through any other means, regarding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the Capitol attack.

There was information that the President’s senior advisers at the DOJ and FBI received days before the January 6th attack on the Capitol. The summary noted online calls for protesters to occupy federal buildings as well as the rhetoric about invading the Capitol Building and plans to arm themselves at the event.

So during these calls, I — I only remember in hindsight because he was almost like clairvoyant. One of the threats during these calls is a direct assault on the Capitol. I’ll never forget it. [End videotape]

The email was an alert from the Secret Service that said to “Mr. President.” on December 24th. According to the intelligence, multiple users online were targeting members of Congress, instructing others to march into the chambers on January 6th and make sure they know who to fear.

In this report received on December 26th, the Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI. The Proud Boys are preparing to march into DC with guns. They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed, the source reported, and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped.

Later on the evening of January 5th, the Secret Service learned during an FBI briefing that right-wing groups were establishing armed QRFs or quick reaction forces readying to deploy for January 6th. The Oath Keepers and other groups were ready to respond if the president requested assistance, agents were informed.

A report says that a few people in the crowd are carrying military grade gear and carrying their radio equipment. Another from 9:30 a.m. said that there were possibly OC spray, meaning pepper spray, and/or plastic riot shields. At 11:23 a.m., agents also reported possible armed individuals, one with a glock, one with a rifle.

Over the next hour, agents reported possible man with a gun reported, confirmed pistol on hip located in a tree; and one detained at 14th and I Street northwest; individual had an assault rifle on his person.

Minutes before President Trump began his speech, members of the Federal Protective Service, an agency tasked with protecting federal buildings, were alerted about an arrest of a protester with a gun on his waistband. And during the speech, the weapons related arrests continued. The man was in front of the World War II Memorial when he was arrested. The agents speculated that the situation might get worse as they remarked on the number of weapons that had been seized.

You’ve heard that one of those sites was called TheDonald.win. The Select Committee has obtained a text message that Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser, sent to Mark Meadows less than a week before January 6th. He wrote in the caps that he got the base fired up. He sent a link to this page on TheDonald.win.

The linked web page had comments about the joint session of Congress on January 6th. Take a look at some of those comments. “Gallows don’t require electricity.” “If the filthy commie maggots try to push their fraud through, there will be hell to pay.” “Our lawmakers in Congress can leave one of two ways; one, in a body bag, two, after rightfully certifying Trump the winner.” Mr. Miller said he didn’t know about the hundreds of comments he sent to Mark Meadows.

The President of the United States is out of business – hearing transcript of a Senate committee meeting on December 30th, 2009

If I had seen something like that, I probably would have flipped it to someone at the White — or if I had seen something of that nature, I would have said we gotta flag this for Secret Service or something of that nature.” [End videotape]

The same day that Miller sent his text message, there was an increase in activity on Parler. This was December 30th. The agent received a report saying there was a lot of violence directed at the government people and entities that are protected by the Secret Service.

An agent said the anti-Pence is having a dramatic impact on his followers. He lacked courage, with over 24,000 likes in under 2 minutes. The employees were nervously watching the situation. They were aware that some people were throwing things at the Capitol and then sending out a flurry of messages about it.

Just that they were — they were fired up. They were angry. They felt like the election was rigged and they feel like the election has been stolen. [End videotape]

The President knew the crowd was angry, he had made them angry. He knew that they believed the election had been rigged and that he lied to them about it. He knew the protesters were dangerous and armed when he ordered them to march on the Capitol.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

Reply to “Comment on ‘An Effective Action for the Defense of the United States” by R. E. Aguilar

The gentleman yields back. At this point our — in our meeting, we’ll take a brief recess. The chair of the committee decided to take a break for about 10 minutes. In recess. Mr. Aguilar was recognized by the chair for his opening statement.

He wanted it full, and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons, what the Secret Service deemed as weapons and are — are weapons. I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons.

They are not here to hurt me. Take the magazines away. Let my people in. They can go to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take that f’ing mags away. [End videotape]

We want to thank you and the police for keeping us safe, and I’d like to have those tens of thousands of people. You’re doing a great job. [Applause] I would love for them to come up with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up, please?

“I was told that the president was upset on the drive up.” Mr. Engle did not deny the fact that the president was irate.” That of course corresponds closely with the testimony you saw this summer from Cassidy Hutchinson, a Metropolitan Police officer who was in the motorcade, and from multiple sources.

Why weren’t we all shocked when Mr. Trump announced that he planned to walk to the Capitol? [Begin videotape]

And I will mention this as well. The testimony about advice not to tell the committee about this particular topic is being reviewed by the committee. This matter will be addressed in our report.

We also want to remind you now of how security professionals working in the White House complex and who reported to national security officials responded when they learned that Mr. Trump intended to lead the mob to the Capitol. [Begin videotape]

To be completely honest, we were all in a state of shock. Because why? Because — because we just — one, I think the actual physical feasibility of doing it, and then also we all knew what that indicated and what that meant, that this was no longer a rally, that this was going to move to something else if he physically walked to the Capitol.

I don’t know if you want to use the term coup or insurrection. We all knew that this would move from a normal democratic, you know, public event into something else. Why were we are alarmed?

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

Telling the President to “Disappear in the Capitol”: Corroboration of Two White House Employees During the January 6, 2016 White House Address

We have testimony from several members of the president’s White House staff establishing that President Trump refused entreaties from his closest advisers and family members to tell his supporters to stand down and leave the Capitol. The White House counsel is Pat Cipollone.

The president and the press secretary had an exchange when he arrived back at the White House. Begin videotape.

He said that he wanted to be a part of the march and ride in the presidential limo if needed, but I don’t remember much about it. [End videotape]

There is an email from the Secret Service that details when President Trump got out of his car and went to the White House. The Secret Service warned the lead agent of the presidential detail about an off the record movement as soon as the president left his motorcade.

I can’t talk about conversations with the president, but I can generically say that I said, you know, people need to be told — there needs to be a public announcement fast that they need to leave the Capitol.

Around when? Almost immediately after I found out people were getting into the Capitol or approaching the Capitol in a way that was — was violent.

I can’t think of anyone who wanted people to stay at the Capitol once the violence started. I mean —

Oh, I’m sorry. I. I apologize. I thought you said who else on the staff. Yeah, I — I can’t reveal communications, but obviously I think, you know — yeah. The end of videotape.

Multiple White House staff members, including Cassidy Hutchinson, corroborate Mr. Cipollone’s testimony. Ms. Hutchinson said she heard from MarkMeadows. The videotape begins.

He had said something to the effect of, you know, you heard him, Pat. He doesn’t want to do anything more. He does not think they are doing anything wrong. [End videotape]

On January 6 after his speech, Trump had a conversation with a White House employee. Trump’s actions and conversations from when he returned to the White House to when he called off the rioters, referred to famously as the 187 minutes, continues to have huge gaps of information.

Throughout this period, some of the president’s most important political allies, family members, and senior staff all begged him to tell his supporters to disperse and go home. They included Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other allies at Fox News, his son Donald Trump Jr, the House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, others in Congress, and officials in the cabinet and the executive branch.

Perhaps in an attempt to pivot beyond the explosive anecdote itself, the select committee emphasized that their goal was to discover the intent behind Trump’s actions in the SUV. Trump wanted to go to the Capitol but was denied, and many witnesses said he was angry when told he could not.

And to your knowledge, was the president in that private dining room the whole time that the attack on the Capitol was going on, or did he ever go to — again, only to your knowledge, to the Oval Office, to the White House Situation Room, anywhere else?

Yeah. Do you recall what the president said when they met in the dining room? What do you recall? People were watching the TV. Do you know whether he was watching TV in the dining room when you talked to him on January 6th?

When you were in the dining room in these discussions, was that it — was the violence at the Capitol visible on the screen on the — in — on the television?

You’ll see how everyone involved was working actively to stop the violence, to get federal law enforcement deployed to the scene, to put down the violence and secure the Capitol complex. Not just Democrats, but also Republicans, like Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell, are appointees across the administration.

We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north front scaffolding. Unless we get more munitions, we are not going to be able to hold. The door has been breached and people are gaining access into the Capitol.

We need to keep the sense that people have that the government is able to function and that we can vote the president into office. Did we go back into session?

We did go back into session, but now apparently everybody on the floor is putting on tear gas masks to prepare for a breach. I’m trying to get more information.

I can’t. There needs to be a place for the House members. They are walking through the tunnel. Bring her out here. If you don’t bring her out, we’ll come in.

I’m going to call up the f’ing secretary of DOD. Some Senators are in their hideaways. They need massive personnel now. Can you get the Maryland National Guard to come too?

I have something to say, Mr. Secretary. I’m going to contact the mayor of Washington DC right now to see what other outreach she has to other police departments.

Thank you, Governor. Nancy is this person. I’m not sure if you’ve ever been approached about the Virginia National Guard. I still think you need the federal government’s permission in order to come to another jurisdiction, even if Mr. Hoyer was connecting with Governor Hogan. Thank you.

They said someone was shot. It’s just — it’s just horrendous. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States. Ok, thank you, Governor. I appreciate what you’re doing. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to stay in touch. Thank you. Thank you.

Governor Northam told me that they dispatched 200 state police and a unit of the National Guard. They’re breaking windows and going in, obviously ransacking our offices and all the rest of that. That’s nothing. We are concerned about personal harm.

Personal safety is — it just transcends everything. But the fact is on any given day, they’re breaking the law in many different ways, and quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States. At least somebody, if he could.

The president should tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr Attorney General, because he’s in charge of law enforcement.

What will we learn from a meeting of the leaders of the Pentagon, the White House and the other buildings? The case for President Biden to end the Wednesday night attack

I will not speak for the leaders who are going to be responsible for executing the operation. They’re the experts because they’re meeting on the ground. Inaudible.

Well, just pretend — just pretend for a moment it was the Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege. Let me say you can logistically get people there as you make the plan. We’re trying to figure out how we can get this job done today. We talked to Mitch about it earlier. He was with us earlier and said he wanted to expedite the process. Hopefully, they could just confine it to one complaint, Arizona, and that would allow us to vote and move on with the rest of the state.

The overriding wish is to do it at the Capitol. It’s going to take days for the Capitol to be ready again, we’re being told. We’ve gotten a very bad report about the condition of the House floor, defecation and all that kind of thing as well. I don’t think that that’s hard to clean up, but I do think it is more from a security standpoint of making sure that everybody is out of the building and how long will that take.

I said, we’ll, we’re getting a counter point that is — that could take time to clean up the poo poo that they’re making all over the — literally and figuratively in the Capitol, and that it may take days to get back.

I’m at the Capitol building. The Chief of Police of the US Capitol Police is standing next to me. He just informed me what you will hear through official channels, Paul Irving, your Sergeant-at-Arms, will inform you that their best information is that they believe that the House and the Senate will be able to reconvene in roughly an hour.

The President is responsible for Wednesday’s attack on Congress. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump. Accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest, and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.

It was obvious that only President Trump could end this. He was the only one who was able to. Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies called the administration. But the President did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored.

Mick Mulvaney, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, has come forward to corroborate her account. Begin the videotape.

I asked Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican party, if he called Donald Trump, and he said he did. He said you’ve got to be on TV. You need to get on micro-blogging website, TWITTER. There’s only one thing you can do, you have to call these people off. You know what the President said to him? This is as it’s happening.

He said, well, Kevin, these aren’t my people. You know, these are — these are Antifa. Kevin said that they’re your people. They came through my office windows, and the staff ran for cover. They’re running for their lives. You need to call them off. And the President’s response to Kevin to me was chilling.

He said, well, Kevin, I guess they’re just more upset about the election, you know, theft than you are. And that’s — you know, you’ve seen widespread reports of Kevin McCarthy and the President having a — basically a swearing conversation. The President said, “No” when he was about to be sworn in. I’m Ok with this.

I had a conversation at some point after the riots with Kevin McCarthy. Yeah, It was very similar to what Jaime had, the conversation she had retold about how he called and asked the President to get them to stop. Kevin was told something along the lines of “Maybe these people are just more angry than you are,” by the President.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

A Social Media Employee’s Perspective on Vice President Pence’s Tweets: “Hearing the TWEET,” Revealed by Anika Navaroli

But let me be very clear to all of you and I’ve been very clear to the President; he bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no ifs, ands or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he think about what happened? He told me, he does have some responsibility for what happened and he need to acknowledge that.

It further inflamed the mob which was chanting, hang Mike Pence, and provoked them to even greater violence. This deliberate decision to further enrage the mob against Vice President Pence is not justified by anything Trump might have thought about in the election. The security detail for the VP was most concerned about his physical safety, and that’s when the TWEET came.

As the afternoon progressed, the company detected a surge in violent hashtags on the platform, including lines of lethal incitement like, execute Mike Pence. Listen to this former Twitter employee, Anika Navaroli, who first came to the committee anonymously, but has now bravely agreed to be named because she wants to speak out about the magnitude of the threats facing our people.

Yes, and after in response to this, too. Because I think as many as many of Donald Trump’s tweets did, it again fanned the flames. People who were already constructing gallows, who were willing to be executed and looking for someone to be Killed, were the ones who decided to build them. Now, the individual who was summoned to begin this coup is now pointing the finger at another person while they are about to do this.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

Why Donald Trump DID NOT STILL CHANGE US AFTER THE 6th. That’s what the President Probably Won’t Say

Mike Pence will not support Donald Trump. Mike Pence traitor. If you haven’t heard yet, Mike Pence messed us up. What happened? What happened? I keep hearing that Mike Pence has screwed us. That’s the word I keep hearing reports that Mike Pence has screwed us. The end videotape.

Thousands of rioters overran the line on the west side of the Capitol within 10 minutes of President Donald Trump’s announcement. This was the first time in the history of the Metropolitan Police Department that a security line like that had ever been broken.

President Trump’s conduct that day was so shameful and so outrageous that it prompted numerous members of the White House staff and other Trump appointees to resign. In prior hearings, you’ve heard Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews explain why they felt compelled to resign on that day.

Since then, we’ve spoken to more high ranking officials like President Trump’s envoy to Northern Ireland and former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who resigned after the 6th in protest of Trump’s misconduct and to dissociate themselves from his role in the violence.

The President’s apparent indifference to the violence shocked me. The President needs to be presidential now. He did it but I was not sure if he achieved it. I think he failed to be the kind of leader that the nation needed.

I think the events at the Capitol, however they occurred, were shocking. And it was something that, as I mentioned in my statement, that I could not put aside. At a certain point in time, the events were such that I could no longer continue because I have personal values and my philosophy. I arrived in this country as an immigrant.

I believe in this country. I believe that a peaceful transfer of power is possible. I believe in democracy. It was a decision I made on my own. Continue the videotape.

We are delivering the President’s message. Donald Trump asked people to go home. That’s what our order is. [Inaudible] He says, go home. [End videotape]

Remember this day forever, he wrote proudly, as if he were talking about D-Day or the Battle of Yorktown. Trump did nothing to stop the deadly violence for obvious reasons. He thought it was justified. He incited it and he supported it. Begin the videotape.

These are the things that happen, he said, giving the whole game away. Trump was telling us that the Vice President, the Congress, and all the injured and wounded cops, some of whom are with us today, got what was coming to us. Trump said it. January 6 is a day that should be celebrated as a day of glory.

At any time between when you first told the president to tell the nation and the time when the video statement was released, will it have been possible for him to speak to the nation? Would that have been possible?

The Second Lady of the United States, Attorney General, Who Killed Lincoln in the Era of the Civil War? An Investigation of the First Hearing of Congress on January 6th

The panel zeroes in on the section of the Constitution that states an individual who has taken an oath to support the Constitution but has “engaged in an insurrection” or given “aid or comfort to the enemies of the Constitution” can be disqualified from office.

It was President Lincoln, at the start of the Civil War in 1861, who best explained why democracy rejects insurrection. He said the war was based on the first principle of popular government, the rights of the people. American democracy is a joint effort of all the American people. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The gentleman yields back. The first hearing of the committee happened in July of last year, and the officers who helped repel the riots on January 6th were our witnesses. What are they hoping to see the committee accomplish during the course of the investigation? The officer wanted to know what made the rioters believe the election process was rigged.

We were told to look into actions and activities that led to the events of the day. Officer Hodges was concerned about whether anyone in power had a role. Officer Dunn put it simply, get to the bottom of what happened. We’ve been working for a year to get those answers. We’ve conducted more than a thousand interviews and depositions.

He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th, so we want to hear from him. The committee needs to tell the fullest version of the story and make recommendations so that we don’t have to deal with January 6th again. We need to get a full context for the evidence we’ve got.

He needs to answer to the millions of Americans who voted for him because he wanted to stay in power. And whatever is underway to ensure this accountability under law, this committee will demand a full accounting to every American person of the events of January 6th. We have an obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony.

The suit states that no former president has ever been required to give testimony or documents in response to congressional subpoenas.

General Michael Flynn Testified before the House of Representatives on December 12th, 2020, in honor of John Eastman, the Vice Chair, Ms. Cheney

That’s why we want to take this step in full view of the American people, especially because the subject matter at issue is so important to the American people and the stakes are so high for our future and our democracy. And so, I recognize the Vice Chair, Ms. Cheney of Wyoming, to offer a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have sufficient information to respond to many of the questions Congress posed at the beginning. We’ve got enough information to consider criminal referrals for multiple people, and we have options to recommend legislative proposals to guard against January 6th.

This is General Michael Flynn walking with Oath Keepers on December 12, 2020, and here is General Flynn’s testimony before our committee. Beginning videotape.

Here is John Eastman fraudulently instructing tens of thousands of angry protesters that the Vice President could change the election outcome on January 6th. Later on this same day, Dr. Eastman acknowledged in writing that Donald Trump knew what he was attempting was illegal. Here is John Eastman testifying before our committee.

You won’t discuss your conversations with the President of the US in the same way you’ll discuss your conversations with the media.

The Ethics Committee Investigating the 2020 Insights in the Navarro-President Controversy Indicator Suprema

Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump. A jury of peers deliberated for about an hour before convicting Steve Bannon of contempt of Congress. He is going to be sentenced later this month. Criminal proceedings regarding Peter Navarro continue.

The resolution is agreed to. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The Chair requests that those in the hearing room remain seated until the Capitol Police have escorted members from the room. The committee did not need to make an objection.

The civil lawsuit was filed in Washington, DC, federal court on Thursday and was linked to the presidential candidate’s attempts to impede the transfer of power after his 2020 electoral loss. Trump is in several Civil January 6-related lawsuits and arguing his presidency makes him immune from liability.

Warrington said Trump had engaged with the committee “in a good faith effort to resolve these concerns consistent with Executive Branch prerogatives and separation of powers,” but said the panel “insists on pursuing a political path, leaving President Trump with no choice but to involve the third branch, the judicial branch, in this dispute between the executive and legislative branches.”

The committee didn’t respond to the filing, which comes days before a deadline for Trump to start cooperating. The suit seems to doom the chance of Trump testifying, since the legislative session is expected to conclude in January.

The letter also outlined a sweeping request for documents, including personal communications between Trump and members of Congress as well as extremist groups. Trump’s response to that request was due last week, but the nine-member panel extended its deadline to this week.

In his suit, Trump’s attorneys attack the subpoena as overly broad and frame it as an infringement of his First Amendment rights. They also argue other sources besides Trump could provide the same information the committee wants from him.

Last month a committee tasked with investigating the attack released findings that the Justice Department should move ahead with criminal charges against Trump. Conspiracy to make a false statement, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to aid and abet those involved in an insurrection, were all cited by the committee.

The House Judiciary Committee Investigation of Investigating Bipartisan Committee Referencing a Trump-Advised White House Account of Russian-Russian Coinspiracy and Other Crimes

The full report, based on 1,000-plus interviews, documents collected including emails, texts, phone records and a year and a half of investigation by the nine-member bipartisan committee, will be released Wednesday, along with along with transcripts and other materials collected in the investigation.

The committee outlines 17 findings from its investigation that support its theory of criminal referrals, including the fact that Trump knew fraud allegations were false and continued to amplify them anyway.

The committee says that it also has evidence to refer the obstruction charge against him, as well as naming him as a co-conspirator in other criminal activity.

The emails, which were revealed by the committee, were sent from Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, and said that Trump should win the presidency even if he did not.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, could all face possible sanctions for their refusal to comply with committee subpoenas.

In one case, a witness who was being paid by a Trump-aligned group could tell the Committee that she did not recall facts when she actually did. When the witness raised concern with her lawyer, the lawyer said that they did not know what she was talking about. They don’t know you can remember some things. So you saying ‘I don’t recall’ is an entirely acceptable response to this,” according to the report summary.

The lawyer told his client that the issue reflected negatively on Trump. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.”

The final report of the committee showed that two witnesses, including then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, were less cooperative than others. They and others “displayed a lack of full recollection of certain issues, or were not otherwise as frank or direct as Cipollone.”

The name-calling was upsetting to Ivanka, but when the committee asked if her father used any specific words in their conversation, she simply replied: ‘No.’

Deputy Justice Secretary Tony Ornato’s Failure to Overturn the 2014-2018 Capitol Crimes: The Plight of New Georgia Election Workers and Rep. Matt Gaetz

He joined the Justice Department in the middle of the final weeks of the Trump administration. And while at the department’s civil division, he spent some of his time helping Clark with his attempts to overturn the election, “despite the fact that election-related matters are not part of the Civil portfolio,” the summary says.

There is a case for why the Justice Department should prosecute the 2014–2018 rioters, who physically invaded the Capitol.

The summary says that the behavior of the President and the associates who assisted him may lead to danger for future elections if they aren’t held accountable. It is important that we hold them accountable now so that we can protect our elections from future efforts to overturn them.

Trump begged the Secretary of State to find enough votes in Georgia to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. The summary also highlights that Trump doxed the leader of the Michigan Senate by tweeting out his cell phone number after he publicly said he wouldn’t undermine the election results.

Lawmakers also highlighted the plight of former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who previously testified about the abuse they suffered when Giuliani and others in pro-Trump circles falsely accused them of rigging the results in Atlanta.

Other officials who had faced Trump were threatened with death and rape, and many of them were afraid for their safety.

The summary points to previously public accounts of pardon requests from members of Congress, while providing new details of Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s alleged attempt for a pardon, which had been discussed in the public committee testimony of ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

The information that law enforcement agencies received about January 6th being likely to be violent was passed on to the US Secret Service and the White House.

Tony Ornato served as the White House deputy chief of staff but he failed to adequately serve the intelligence community when it came to the security information before January 6.

The intelligence that Ornato had was that violence could be seen at the Capitol on January 6th. Although Ornato told us that he did not recall doing so, the Select Committee found multiple parts of Ornato’s testimony questionable,” the panel wrote.

Ornato confirmed Engel’s understanding of information sharing, but when pressed on whether he talked to Meadows about concerns of the threat landscape going into January 6 said, “I don’t recall; however, in my position I would’ve made sure he was tracking the demos, which he received a daily brief, Presidential briefing. He was probably getting all this as well in his daily brief.

Hope Hicks, Trump’s former communications director, texted spokesman Hogan Gidley as the violence was unfolding on January 6 that she had “suggested…several times” on January 4 and 5 that Trump should publicly state that January 6 remain peaceful. She testified that Herschmann recommended that Trump make a statement ahead of January 6 requesting there be no violence. No such statement was ever made.

The committee received testimony that indicated that the former president had received a security meeting and that the Secret Service had mentioned that people trying to attend the rally would be barred from having prohibited items in their possession.

The committee was not able to corroborate a secondhand account from former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson that she was told Trump lunged at his lead Secret Service agent while in his presidential SUV on January 6 and tried to grab the steering wheel because he was angry he wasn’t being taken to the Capitol.

Another aim of the report summary is to prove that Trump made up the call to his supporters to go to the Capitol.

The committee notes that the January 6 rally organizers texted MyPIllow CEO Mike Linnel to say this was between them. … It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’”

The committee lays out Trump’s failure to act as the riot unfolded, noting that as he watched the riot on television, he made no calls for security assistance and resisted efforts from staffers asking him to call off his supporters.

“President Trump did not contact a single top national security official during the day. Not at the Pentagon, nor at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the F.B.I., the Capitol Police Department, or the D.C. Mayor’s office,” the committee writes. “As Vice President Pence has confirmed, President Trump didn’t even try to reach his own Vice President to make sure that Pence was safe.”

There were no photographs of the President for the remainder of the day until after 4 pm, according to testimony from Shealah Craighead.

The Select Committee on Investigating the 2021 November November Electoral Insights into the Trump-Biden ‘What happened to Mark and Mark Meadows During the 2016 November riot’

The report states that Brad Parscale, a former campaign manager for the Trump campaign, told one of the organizers that he felt guilty for helping the candidate win.

Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner described House GOP leader McCarthy as “scared” as McCarthy reached out to members of Trump’s family for help during the riot.

In a text to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, “Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything,” according to the summary.

The summary acknowledges that there were some obstacles that the House committee ran into and the Justice Department has the ability to knock them down.

In addition to its summary and report released this week, the committee also started rolling out some of the transcripts from closed-door depositions, including interviews with numerous witnesses who invoked their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as well as bombshell testimony from Hutchinson.

It’s a narrative that expands upon the committee’s public hearings over the summer, walking readers step-by-step through the various schemes Trump orchestrated and the help he had from allies inside and outside his administration.

The select committee report is an effective conclusion to the investigation, despite Donald Trump trying to shift blame to Democrats for the security failures that day and a GOP rebuttal report completely ignoring the former president’s role in the attack.

The committee released a report on Thursday but it didn’t have much new information and it lay out the detail of its investigation.

The report offered the most comprehensive account to date of what transpired in the two months between Election Day on November 3, 2020, and Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.

The Joint Select Committee on Homeland Security and Investigations (COPS 2018): Jan. 6 Report on the Washington, DC, Capitol Hill Observations and the House of Representatives

The committee also interviewed leaders of agencies who were directing law enforcement response, such as the Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser and police force heads.

The select committee also says it interviewed 24 witnesses and reviewed 37,000 pages of documents for a review of the response of the DC National Guard, which attempts to explain the delayed response of the force to the Capitol.

William Walker, the commander of the DC National Guard, considered sending troops to the US Capitol without approval from his superiors even though he’d have to resign the next day, according to the committee.

“Engel did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from (deputy White House chief of staff Tony) Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him,” the panel wrote.

The committee’s report underscores how the House’s successful court fights to pry loose documents, emails and phone records played a major role in helping the committee flesh out its narrative of January 6.

Some of the most explosive moments of the committee’s investigation stemmed from records the committee obtained, from text messages of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides to emails from conservative lawyer John Eastman about Vice President Mike Pence’s role on January 6.

There are more transcripts expected in the committee’s final days from other witness testimony, teasing out evermore details in the hours before the committee is dissolved, as is expected in the new Congress.

Several parties will be eagerly awaiting their release, including GOP lawmakers and Trump himself, who is still facing legal scrutiny for his role in the January 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“As the Select Committee concludes its work, their words must be a clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defense of our Constitution,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in the report.

The criminal referrals to the DOJ are a part of the committee’s 11 recommendations for protecting the American democratic system from future attacks. The role of the vice President in the transfer of power is unimportant and federal law enforcement should pay more attention to anti- government groups.

But at least one point from the committee has taken hold already: an update to the Electoral Count Act, which Congress passed this week in connection to a major spending bill. The updated legislation further clarifies that the vice president’s role in certifying the election is entirely ceremonial.

The lawsuit against Trump during the January 6, 2016 Capitol riot in Washington, D.C.: A federal grand jury investigation into the actions of Sicknick and Tanios

NPR’s Halimah Abdullah, Claudia Grisales, Giulia Heyward, Eric McDaniel, Muthoni Muturi, Barbara Sprunt, Katherine Swartz and Rachel Treisman contributed to this report.

The lawsuit claims that Trump instigated the attack by Khater and Tanios, adding that the former president’s “words and conduct” spurred violence that led to the injuries sustained by Sicknick and his eventual death.

The lawsuit states that on January 6 Trump ordered his supporters to “fight like hell” and ” show strength” in Washington before the Capitol riot.

Two Capitol rioters pleaded guilty last summer to crimes related to the breach. They are set to be sentenced later this month.

During the riot, Khater sprayed Sicknick and other officers in their faces with bear spray and forced them to recoil as rioters moved towards the Capitol steps.

According to a report by DC’s chief medical examiner, Sicknick died of natural causes the day after the Capitol breach. The Washington Post quoted Francisco Diaz as saying that on January 6 all that transpired played a role in his condition.

The Sicknick wrongful death allegation is the most serious accusation against the former president.

Criminal investigations are ongoing around January 6 and include a probe into Trump-supported bids to disrupt Joe Biden’s win. In recent weeks, prosecutors have taken new investigative steps, including obtaining documents from local election officials. Trump has not been criminally charged.

Garza vs. Sicknick: A lawsuit against the two men accused of attacking Donald Trump in a police line outside the US Capitol

Sandra Garza, who is representing the estate of Brian Sicknick, claims her partner’s death was “a direct and foreseeable consequence” of Trump’s words that day. The two men accused of attacking Sicknick with spray during the break are responsible for the damage to his body.

The second anniversary of the attack was a day before the lawsuit was filed. The suit seeks at least $10 million in damages from each of the defendants.

On the day of Donald Trump’s election victory, Sicknick was part of the police line outside of the US Capitol.