The Case against Donald J. Trump: Is It a Partisan Exercise? Benonce Thompson: The Committee to Investigate the Capitol Attack
There is a capital city. The case against Donald J. Trump will be presented by the House committee in its final public hearing on Thursday.
The panel looked at how the Trump administration tried to spread doubt about the results, from testing different theories to leaning on state officials to change the outcome of the election.
But as the panel wrapped up what was likely the last of its evidentiary hearings on Thursday, it was not at all clear that it had persuaded the jury. The Americans who blamed Mr. Trump came away from four months of hearings with more evidence for their beliefs, but those who had started out in his camp largely stayed there.
The relatively little movement in public opinion since the hearings opened in June, at least as measured by an array of polls, underscored the calcification of American politics in recent years. Many voters have been locked into their opinions and it has been difficult to change them. Mr. Trump’s supporters don’t seem to mind the congressional investigation since they think it’s a partisan exercise.
Whatever its immediate impact on Trump, the 2024 presidential race and the Justice Department, the culmination of the committee’s work marks a pivot in history when Americans faced a choice whether to confront an unprecedented effort by an aberrant commander in chief to overrule the voice of the people and the chain of peaceful transfers of power from one president to the next.
BENNIE THOMPSON: The Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol will be in order. The chair can declare the committee out of session at any time. 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 U.S. This committee began to inform the American people four months ago. People watching the committee’s investigation would wrongly think that it was a partisan exercise, we understood from the beginning.
To hear the testimony with an open mind, listen to the evidence, and let the facts speak for themselves, are some of the things I asked skeptics of our work to do. Over the course of these hearings, the evidence has proven that there were a multipart plan led by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election.
Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection. From the testimony of some of the president’s closest allies and advisers, Donald Trump knew he lost. Despite this knowledge, Donald Trump went to court to contest the 2020 election, and he lost in court. The Electoral College met and declared Joe Biden the winner, yet Donald Trump continued to try and stay in power.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. President Trump’s efforts to unlawfully overturn the results of the 2020 election were not limited to the big lie and pressuring state officials and the Department of Justice officials. The president’s plan to create fake electors was a key part of his effort to lose the election.
How do we know this? How have we been given a clear picture of what happened? Because of the testimony we’ve heard and that we have presented to you through these proceedings, because of the documentary evidence we’ve gathered and also made available directly to you, the American people.
The committee revealed evidence of extensive contact between Roger Stone and militant right-wing groups, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The Capitol was warned about the serious threat of violence by the Secret Service.
Who has that been? Aides who’ve worked loyally for Donald Trump for years, Republican state officials and legislators, Republican electors, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, political professionals who worked at the highest levels of the Trump campaign, Trump appointees who served in the most senior positions in the Justice Department, President Trump’s staff and closest advisers in the White House, members of the — President Trump’s family, his own White House counsel.
I’ve been in Congress for a long time. It’s hard to get evidence like what we got from the Congressional investigation into the president’s inner circle. And I want to be clear. Some witnesses were not happy to talk to us. Some up — put up quite a fight.
The Two Faces of President Trump and the One Who Was Trying to Overturn the January 6th Election: An Addendum to the Committee Meeting on Senate Judgment Investigations
There’s one more difference about today. As a result of the notice circulating before the proceedings began, we are convened this day as a committee meeting so that we can potentially hold a vote on further investigation based on the evidence we present.
From the Secret Service, the Select Committee has also obtained important new evidence on this issue. The Secret Service had to scramble to get the president to back down from a dangerous decision that put people in harm’s way.
And according to public reporting, the Department of Justice has been very active in pursuing many of the issues identified in our prior hearings. Our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution, but if our committee decides to refer certain cases to the Department of Justice, we will do so.
The preamble of the Constitution is supposed to establish justice. The US Department of Justice and our nation’s judiciary have responsibility for that. A key element of this committee’s responsibility is to propose reforms to prevent January 6th from ever happening again. We had a bill proposed and the House passed it so that no future attempts to overturn an election can succeed.
He was personally and substantially involved in all of it. What is the cause of all of this? Today we will focus on President Trump’s state of mind, his intent, his motivations, and how he spurred others to do his bidding, and how another January 6th could happen again if we do not take necessary action to prevent it. As you view our evidence today, I would suggest a focus on the following points.
This was something done not only with the President’s knowledge, but also with his direct participation. Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee, testified before this committee that President Trump and his attorney Dr. John Eastman called her and asked her to arrange for the fake electors to meet and rehearse the process of casting their fake votes.
Rudy Giuliani, who was one of the many who stepped forward to help, knew that there was no evidence for changing the results of the election. And on the evening of January 5th, they admitted they were still trying to find that phantom evidence. Of course, as a result of making intentionally false claims of election fraud, Mr. Giuliani’s license to practice law has now been suspended.
The committee has shown evidence that President Trump was aware of the risk of violence. The FBI, US Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police and other agencies all gathered and disseminated intelligence, suggesting the possibility of violence at the Capitol prior to the riot. We’re now going to show you just a sample of the evidence we have received.
Third, please consider today who had a hand in defeating President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, Vice President Pence, Bill Barr, Jeff Rosen, and others at the Department of Justice, State Republican officials, White House staff who blocked proposals to mobilize the military to seize voting machines and run new elections, our Capitol Police, aided by the Metropolitan Police, other federal law enforcement, and our National Guard, who arrived later in the afternoon.
All of these people had a hand in stopping Donald Trump. This leads to a question. Why wouldn’t Americans think that our Constitution is invulnerable to another attack? Why would we assume that those institutions will not falter next time? This is a key lesson of the investigation.
Our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold regardless of the political cost. We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place 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. Most importantly, our president, who has a constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the laws, swears to accept them. When the court’s rulings are illegitimate and the president ignores them, what happens?
There is no defense that Donald Trump was duped or irrational. No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in a constitutional republic, period. Mr. Chairman, our nation’s federal judges are sworn to do impartial justice to preserve our Constitution and preserve our union. Dozens of the judges have been addressing January 6th cases, and many have given us warnings about the direction of our republic.
Let me read from one judge’s statement given at a recent sentencing hearing. The claim of fraud is true, but members of Congress and state officials are so frightened of losing their power that they won’t speak about it. It has to be clear that it isn’t patriotism for America to stand up for a man who lost the war in Iraq but still wants to subvert the constitution. The violence and lawlessness of January 6th was unjustifiable and the nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who invaded the Capitol.
So, as we watch the evidence today, please consider where our nation is in its history. It’s a question of whether we can last another 246 years. Most people in most places on Earth have not been free. America is not an exception because we bind ourselves to the principles of our country’s founding.
We recognize that some principles must be beyond politics, inviolate, and more important than any single American who has ever lived. Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Chairman. I give up.
The Red Mirage: When the Elections Closed, Votes Are Still Counted, and When did Donald Trump Become President and Hillary Clinton?
I would like to thank Mr. Chairman. Very shortly after the election, oh — we begin this meeting by returning to election night, November 3rd, 2020. As the chairman noted, we’ve previously presented testimony about how the election results were expected to come in that night. In certain states, ballots cast by mail before Election Day would be counted only after the polls closed that evening.
It would be some time before election results were known. Donald Trump did not encourage mail in voting by Republicans, despite advice from his campaign managers, including Bill Stepien. Begin the videotape.
I just remember generally, you know, you had people arguing that we had a — a very, very robust get out the vote effort and that, you know, mail in ballots could be a good thing for us if we looked at it correctly.
I invited Kevin McCarthy to join the meeting, he being of like mind on — on the issue with me, in which we made our case for — for why we believed mail in balloting, mail in voting not to be a bad thing for his campaign, but, you know, the President’s mind was made up. End the 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 ballot results are counted.
“Sending along again. Just talked to him about the draft. Again, this plan to keep — to declare victory was in place before any of the results had been determined. In the course of our investigation, we also interviewed Brad Parscale, President Trump’s former campaign manager. He said that he understood that President Trump was going to say that he won the election even if he lost.
It was too young to be using calls like that. Ballots — 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 votes were being counted. It is too early to call the race.
The American public does not approve of this. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were about to win the election. We did win the election. applause We want all voting to stop. End videotape
They took steps to ensure that Mr. Pence would not echo a false victory announcement from President Trump. Greg Jacob told us about how he prepared for the meeting with the Vice President’s chief of staff. [Begin videotape]
It was apparent to me that the White House could proclaim victory before the election results were known, something that some might push for. And that he was trying to figure out a way of avoiding the Vice President sort of being thrust into a position of needing to opine on that when he might not have sufficient information to do so. The end of videotape.
The National Archives prepared the statement for the Select Committee. The draft statement that was sent on October 31st declares, “we had an election today – and I won.” The Fitton memo says only the votes counted by the Election Day deadline would count, and there is no election day deadline.
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. [Begin videotape]
What is Trump going to do, just declare victory? He’s going to say he’s a winner, but that doesn’t mean he’s the winner. The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count. Their votes are in mail, so they’re going to have a disadvantage, and so Trump is going to exploit it. That is our strategy.
I’m directing the Attorney General to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states. He’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit. You can END the videotape.
As you know, Mr. Bannon refused to testify in our investigation. He was convicted of contempt of Congress and is currently awaiting sentencing. Evidence shows that Mr. Bannon knew of Mr. Trump’s plan for January 6th. Here’s what Bannon said on January 5th. Begin the videotape.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Talk Between Roger Stone, Donald Trump, and the Oath Keepers, Joshua James, and their Proud Boys, Joshua Tarrio, Jr., on January 5, 2020
All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. They say that we’re on the point of attack tomorrow, because it’s all converging. It’s not going to happen like you think it will. Ok. It’s going to be different. And all I can say is strap in. You have made this possible, so tomorrow is game day.
President Trump was aware that what he was demanding was against the law. He was specifically told of this on January 4th. Even his lawyer John Eastman admitted in front of President Trump that this plan would break the law by violating the Electoral Count Act. Prepare a videotape.
I think it will be, but I really think that it will still be up in the air. To claim victory is the key thing to do when that happens. 10% of the law is possession.
Although we don’t yet have all the relevant records 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 also told the President exactly how he can appoint a special counsel with full subpoena power to ensure those who are attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud are charged and convicted and to ensure Donald Trump continues as our President.” As we know by now, the idea for a special counsel was not just an idle suggestion.
It is a conspiracy to use violent force against the United States, to oppose the lawful authority of the United States. Multiple associates of Roger Stone from both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with this crime. Close associates of Roger Stone have pled guilty to this crime.
We know that at least seven Oath Keepers, who have been criminally charged, provided personal security for Roger Stone or were seen with him on January 6th or in the weeks leading up to January 6th. The leader of the Alabama Oath Keepers, Joshua James, gave security to Roger Stone on January 5th. This is the picture of the two together on January 5th. James entered the Capitol on January 6th. He was angry with a police officer.
Roger Stone’s connection with Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys is well documented by video evidence, with phone records the Select Committee has obtained. 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.
Intentionality: The committee demonstrated that January 6 was not some sort of one-off, unintended day of chaos where events unexpectedly spun out of control. It was planned.
The — I know that the President when the networks called it, of course, he was informed about the — the network decision. At some point, I was one of a few people that went to sit with the President and tell him that the odds of us prevailing in legal challenges were very small.
So we’re in the Oval and there’s a discussion going on. And the President says, I think — it could have been Pompeo, but he says words to the effect of, yeah, we lost. We need to let the issue go to the man who is going to be president.
I popped into the Oval just a week after the election to see how the President was doing. And he was looking at the TV and he said, can you believe I lost to this effing guy?
The 18th was when Mark raised it with me. I asked the President if he thought he lost, after he rode the motorcade back to the White House. 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 there might be enough to change the outcome of the election, but he knows he’s lost.
Knowing that he had lost and that he had only weeks left in office, President Trump rushed to complete his unfinished business. A key example is President Trump issuing an order to withdraw US troops. Concerns about the consequences for fragile governments on the front lines of the fight against terrorism were ignored.
He knew he was going to be leaving office and immediately signed this order, which required the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Somalia before the inauguration of Biden on January 20th. As you can see, the national security adviser to the vice president and the chief of staff to the National Security Council worked for the same time period.
Are you familiar with a memo that the President reportedly signed on November 11, 2020, ordering that troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Somalia?
I believe it’s possible you’ve 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?
So on that same day, just so I’m clear, he responded back to you that day, meaning DOD leadership was not going to do — take any of those steps without an order.
I explained in language that should be in the order while I was in the meeting with McEntee, and this was my answer to him. I said, If you want this to happen or the President wants this to happen, he’s got to write an order.
Well, I sketched on a piece of paper for him some key statements. You know, the President directs. What’s the right word to describe this?
McEntee brought it to the President. The President signs it and boom, it’s over — faxed over e-mail, scanned over. Kash Patel delivers it to me.
Why didn’t President Trump Sign the Order? Hearing an Observatorics Report on the Pan American Senate Committee on Afghanistan (New York)
And I proceeded to tell the PPO and proceeded to tell Macgregor that If I ever saw anything like that, I would do something physical. Because I thought what that was then was a tremendous disservice to the nation. That was a very heated issue. There were some people that didn’t agree with pulling 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 might have made us into a constitutional crisis. [End videotape]
It was for an immediate withdrawal, so keep that in mind. It would have been a disaster. And yet, President Trump signed the order. These are the highly consequential actions of a President who knows his term will shortly end. President Trump knew that he had lost the election, but he was unaware that there was no evidence of fraud or corruption that would change the outcome.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Joint Committee on ‘An Investigation of the Corrigendum in the Senate,” Dr. Meadows, [Am. J. Phys. Lett. 98, 041916 (2006)]
When I called Mr. Meadows, he asked me what I was finding and if I had found anything. And I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.
It would be our job to track it down and come up dry because the allegation didn’t prove to be true. And we’d have to, you know, 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. That will be our job as — as, you know, the truth-telling squad and, you know, not a fun job to be — you know, it’s — it’s an easier job to be telling the President about, you know, wild allegations.
The outcome of the campaign would depend on whether the fraud, maladministration, abuse, or irregularity were aggregated and read in favor of the campaign. And I think everyone’s assessment in the room, at least amongst the staff, Marc Short, myself, and Greg Jacob, was that it was not sufficient to be outcome determinant. [End videotape]
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Supreme Court Denied the President’s Allies’ Claims in an Election Fraud Case: A New Secret Service Message About President Trump and the End of the Matter
It is the right of any candidate to challenge election results in court. President Trump’s litigation was completely unsuccessful. In our previous hearings, we told you that the committee had identified a number of election lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its allies. Those cases resulted in 61 losses and only a single victory, which did not affect the outcome for any candidate.
It’s strong language criticizing the lack of evidentiary support for the claims of election fraud in those lawsuits. The charges need to include specific allegations and proof, according to the federal appeals court in Pennsylvania. 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 thought the claims were speculation and speculated that votes for President Trump had either been discarded or diverted to 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.
On December 11th, Trump’s allies lost a lawsuit in the US Supreme Court that he regarded as his last chance at success in the courts. A new Secret Service message shows how upset President Trump was with the outcome. Quote, just FYI, POTUS is pissed. The Supreme Court denied his lawsuit.
He is angry at the moment. The aide to chief of staff MarkMeadows was present for the conversation and described it in this way. You can begin the videotape.
The Supreme Court had rejected that case. Mr. Meadows and I were in the White House residence at a Christmas reception. 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.
The President was not happy with the Supreme Court decision. I was standing next to Mr.Meadows, but I stepped back. I was at least two or three feet from him. The President was angry about the decision and why no calls were made, and he was also angry about why we didn’t make more calls.
The states sent their votes to Congress on December 14th. And in my view, that was the end of the matter. I didn’t believe that this would lead to a new administration.
I told him that my personal viewpoint was that the Electoral College had met, which is the system that our country is — is set under to elect a president and vice president, and I believed at that point that the means for him to pursue litigation was probably closed.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Counting Dominion Voting Machines: The Birth of a System that’s Done by a Digital Pressurized Switch
Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia, the son of late Justice Scalia, visited President Trump in mid-December and explained the situation clearly. Begin the videotape.
The president received a call from me. I might have called on the 13th. I told him that President Biden had been elected, and it was time for him to acknowledge it. 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.
Unfortunately, I believed that if fraud had not been proven, then the outcome of the election would be different and that’s what I told him. End video.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mid-December was a turning point. President Trump made a decision to overturn the election by ignoring the courts and his advisers. His efforts to overturn the election were not random or disconnected, rather, they were part of a coordinated multipart plan to ensure that he stayed 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 doing a grave disservice to the country by wasting their time on that.
We have a company that’s very suspect. The name of the company is Dominion. The vote could be cast by pressing a button with the dial or chip. What kind of system is this?
When did Donald Trump lied to the public? And how did he lie? In Michigan, the big vote dump in Detroit, where we had more votes than we had voters, and in Georgia
We definitely talked about Antrim County again. That was sort of done at that point because the hand recount had been done and all that. This is an example of what people are saying and what they are filing in court for, that is not supported by the evidence.
In addition, there is the highly troubling matter of Dominion voting systems. 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 would tell him how crazy some of these allegations were and how ridiculous they were. The ones that were easy to blow up, like the more votes cast in Pennsylvania than there are Absentee Ballot requests, was easy to do. There never was an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.
There were more votes cast 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. And that — you know, he said people saw boxes coming in to the counting station at all hours of the morning. And I said, Mr. President, there are 630 precincts in Detroit. They centralized the counting process so they are 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. And I said, no, sir, there is no suitcase. You can watch that video over and over.
There is no suitcase. They have a wheeled bin, where they put the ballots, so they can move them around the facility. There is nothing suspicious about that.
Election officials pulled boxes, Democrats, and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. You all watched it on television. [End videotape]
This happened over and over again, and our committee’s report will document it, purposeful lies made in public directly at odds with what Donald Trump knew from unassailable sources, the Justice Department’s own investigations and his own campaign. Donald Trump maliciously repeated this nonsense to a wide audience over and over again.
His intent was to deceive. President Trump’s plan also involved trying to coerce government officials to change the election outcome in the states he lost. He went to many state officials and asked them to change the election results in some states. These actions, taken directly by the president himself, made it clear what his intentions were; to prevent the orderly transfer of power.
We all remember President Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. At the time this call occurred, President Trump had already been told repeatedly by the US Justice Department, by his campaign, and by his advisers that his allegations of fraud in Georgia were false.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Is That What We Need? Getting 11,780 Votes Was Not a Crime In The First Senate Committee on Republican Judgment Reform
All I want to do is this. 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. We have far more than that as it stands now. We’ll have more. What are we going to do here? If I only need 11,000 votes.
I want to find 11,780 votes. The president knew there was no genuine reason for this request, and that’s why he demanded it. No one could think that finding the votes the president needed to win wouldn’t be against the law.
That’s what it is. You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And — and, you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a huge risk to you and Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a huge risk. [End videotape]
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The State of the Practice: Replacing the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Clark with a White House Administrator to Overturn a Presidential Election
I remember looking at Mark. Mark can’t think we’re going to pull it off. That call was crazy. He shook his head when he looked at me. He was like, no, you know, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost, but we’re going to keep trying. There’s some good options out there still.
When these officials would not do what he said, President Trump embarked in an effort to install Jeff Clark as acting attorney general, solely because he would — he would do what others in the department would not do. We know that Trump was doing so for a specific purpose, so Clark could corruptly employ the Justice Department’s authority to help persuade the states to flip electoral votes.
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. [Begin videotape]
Towards the end of the proposal, I mentioned that what you’re doing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department interfering in the outcome of a presidential election. This was not based on fact. This was contrary to what the investigations revealed over the last few weeks and months.
The President relented only after the White House Counsel as well as the Department of Justice threatened to resign. Mr. chairman, yield back.
I don’t remember if it was the White House switchboard or the president’s phone, but I received a call from him.
The RNC was crucial to the campaign’s success because of the ongoing legal challenges that were hanging over the result of any of the states. The end of the videotape.
These fake voters were used in the President’s plan to replace Biden with Trump’s electors. As part of this plan, the false electoral slates were sent to the National Archives into the Capitol.
President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election, but President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President.
And Dr. Eastman confirmed this in writing. Recall this email written on January 6 in which Vice President Pence’s counsel asked Dr. Eastman; did you advise the President that in your professional judgment, the Vice President does not have power to decide things unilaterally? Dr. Eastman has been advised.
Of course, President Trump’s own White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, also recognized that this plan was unlawful. Mr. Cipollone is the person giving the testimony. The start videotape.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
I remember when my father called me, but I didn’t know he was impolite, nor did she say that the Vice President was going to Washington
And the word that she relayed to you that the President called the Vice President, I apologize for being impolite, but do you remember what she said her father called him?
As you will see later, the Vice President didn’t budge even when his life was at risk due to the rioting at the Capitol on January 6. According to the evidence, a federal judge concluded that the pressure campaign against the Vice President likely violated multiple criminal statutes.
On December 19th, President Trump first told his supporters to come to Washington. In this and numerous other tweets, he fraudulently and repeatedly promoted January 6 as the day Americans could come in and change the election outcome. A crowd of angry Trump supporters were to be sent to the Capitol after the President’s speech on the Ellipse on January 6. We obtained a text message that one rally organizer sent on January 4th. In part it reads that, quote, POTUS is going to have us march there at the Capitol.
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. There was something significant that they noticed about the crowd. A lot of people were gathered outside the site but didn’t want to go through the metal detectors.
Since our last hearings, the select committee has received greater cooperation from the Secret Service. Even though documents and materials relating to the attack on the Capitol had already been requested by the DOJ and Congress, the Secret Service erased text messages from this period.
As the time for the Ellipse rally approached, an email was circulated among intelligence officials, including Secret Service intelligence official, attaching communications among rally goers that specifically contemplated violence. One post on TheDonald.win said that Trump had given them marching orders. You can and should be there if you are east of the Mississippi.
So during these calls, I — I only remember in hindsight because he was almost like clairvoyant. Norquist says during one of these calls, the greatest threat is a direct assault on the Capitol. I’ll never forget it. [End videotape]
The Secret Service received an email with the heading “armed and ready, 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.
The Secret Service office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI. The Proud Boys are planning to march with guns into DC. They think that they have a large enough group to march in DC armed, so they will outnumber the police so that they can’t be stopped, according to a source.
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 were ready for the president to invoke the insurrection act, agents were told.
One report from the rally site at 7:58 a.m. said, some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor, carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks. The person from 9:30 a.m said that there could have been some sort of pepper spray or plastic riot shields. At 11:23 a.m., agents also reported possible armed individuals, one with a glock, one with a rifle.
There were at least two reports of possible man with a gun, pistol on hip, and person with an assault rifle by agents over the next hour.
The Federal Protective Service, an agency that protects federal buildings, was alert to the arrest of a protester minutes before President Trump began his speech. Weapons related arrests continued during the speech. The man was in front of the World War II Memorial when he was arrested. The agents speculated that the situation could get worse after they noted the number of weapons that had been seized.
One of them was called The Donald.win. The Select Committee obtained a text message sent by a senior communications adviser to MarkMeadows less than a week before his death. He wrote in all caps how he got the base fired up. He sent a link to this page on TheDonald.win.
Comments about the Congress on January 6th were included on the web page. 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.” After certifying Trump the winner, our lawmakers can either leave in a body bag or leave in a chair. Mr. Miller claimed that he had no idea about the hundreds of comments like these in the link that he sent to Mark Meadows.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The riots in Washington, D.C.: The day after the December 30th, Donald Trump’s anti-Pence message on the Capitol became public
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 day after Miller sent the text message, agents received reports about a spike in activity on Parler. This was December 30th. In this email, an agent received a report noting a lot of violent rhetoric on Parler directed at government people and entities, including Secret Service protectees.
An agent reported that Trump’s anti-Pence message had a big impact on his followers. POTUS said “he lacked courage; over 24,000 likes in under 2 minutes.” Employees at Twitter were nervously monitoring the situation. They knew that certain Twitter users were rioting at the Capitol and tweeting about it at the same time.
They were fired up and just that they were. They were angry. He went on and on about how they feel the election was rigged and that they feel like the election has been stolen. End video.
The crowd was angry because of the president’s actions. He knew they were going to believe that the election had been rigged and stolen because he had lied to them. And by the time he incited that angry mob to march on the Capitol, he knew they were armed and dangerous, all the better to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The State Capitol, Irregular People, Is It Safe to Ride on a Motorcade? (Revisited: Jan 6) Committee on Hearing Tracscript
The gentleman is going back. We’ll take a brief recess at this point. Pursuant to the order of the committee of today, the chair declares the committee in recess for a period of approximately 10 minutes. [In recess] The gentleman from California is recognized by the chair.
He was angry that people with weapons weren’t allowed through the mags, because the Secret Service deemed them as weapons. I overheard the president say something to the effect that he didn’t care that they had weapons.
They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f’ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take that f’ing mags away. End the videotape.
And I’d love to have, if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed, the military, the Secret Service — and we want to thank you, and the police, law enforcement, great. You’re doing a great job. [Applause] I would love if they could join us up here. Is that possible? Is it possible to let them come up?
“They’d expressed to me that the president was irate, you know, 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.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Capitol Violence in the Oval Office and the White House: Conversation with the President after he arrived at Washington D.C., June 14, 2016
And I will also note this. The committee is reviewing testimony regarding potential obstruction on this issue, as well as testimony about advice that was not to tell the committee about this specific topic. We will address this matter in our report.
A few minutes later, they were told the president would leave for the Capitol in two hours. It took until 1:45 PM for the president’s lead Secret Service agent to tell them to stop. We are not going to the Capitol. By then rioters had breached the Capitol and were violently attacking the efforts of the brave men and women in law enforcement trying to resist the mob.
To be completely honest, we were all in a state of shock. Because why? I believe the physical feasibility of doing it, as well as the fact that he was going to walk to the Capitol, meant that this was no longer a rally and that it would move to something else.
I’m not sure if you want to use the word coup, insurrection, or whatever. We all knew that this would move from a normal democratic, you know, public event into something else. Why were we are alarmed?
The president was told about the Capitol violence in the Oval Office after he returned to the White House. From that point until approximately 4:00 PM, over the next two hours and 40 minutes, the president stayed in the White House dining room attached to the Oval Office and watched this unprecedented assault take place at the Capitol.
Here’s Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, describing a conversation with the president after he arrived back at the White House. [Begin videotape]
So, to the best of my recollection, I recall him being — wanting to — saying that he wanted to physically walk and be a part of the march, and then saying that he would ride the beast if — if he needed to, ride in the presidential limo. The end of the videotape.
The email from the Secret Service was sent on the day President Trump got out of the presidential vehicle in the White House. As soon as the president left his motorcade, leadership from the Secret Service contacted Bobby Engel, the lead agent for the presidential detail, and warned him that they were “concerned about an OTR,” an off the record movement to the Capitol.
I don’t know if I can talk about that, but I do know that people need to be told quickly that they need to leave the Capitol.
About when? I found out that people were getting into the Capitol in a violent way, and it was very upsetting.
I don’t think any person who didn’t want people to leave the Capitol on that day. I mean —
Oh, I’m sorry. I — I apologize. I thought you meant who else on the staff. Yeah, I — I can’t reveal communications, but obviously I think, you know — yeah. [End videotape]
Mr. Cipollone’s testimony is corroborated by multiple other White House staff members, including Cassidy Hutchinson. Ms. Hutchinson says what she heard from MarkMeadows. [Begin videotape]
He had said something to the effect of, you know, you heard him, Pat. He wants to not do anything more. He does not think they are doing anything wrong. [End videotape]
On January 6, Trump ignored warnings of violence. He wanted to show his troops on Capitol Hill. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland reminded viewers that he sat passively, watching television, as the attacks against Congress unfolded and as staunch allies pleaded with him to call off the troops. It wasn’t that Trump didn’t act on January 6; it was that he didn’t want to act. “Can you believe this?” Pelosi was heard saying to Thompson that day.
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, Laura, and other allies at Fox News, as well as his son Donald, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, the cabinet and the executive branch.
Donald Trump ignored all of the appeals that they made to him. According to witnesses interviewed by the Select Committee, Donald Trump was watching the violence on television in the dining room that afternoon. He did not call the secretary of defense, the leader of the National Guard, or the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.
The president was in the private dining room the whole time the attack on the Capitol was going on, or was he only at the White House Situation Room?
Yeah. What did the president or Mr. Meadows say to you when they bumped into you in the dining room? What do you remember? I think they were — everyone was watching the TV. Should you know if he was watching tv in the dining room when you talked to him?
Was it in the dining room when the violence at the Capitol was on the television that you saw it?
You will see how everyone was involved in stopping the violence, getting federal law enforcement sent to the scene, and securing the Capitol complex. Republicans like Senate Majority Leader McConnell, as well as Democrats like Speaker Pelosi, are appointees in the administration.
We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re working on the north front. Unless we get more munitions, we are not going to be able to hold. The Capitol has a door that has been broken into.
It’s essential to maintain the sense that people have that government can function and that we can elect the president of the United States. 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 looking for more information.
I can’t. We need a place for members of the House. They’re all walking over now through the tunnel. Bring her out here. If you don’t bring her out, we’ll come in.
I will call the secretary of DOD. Some Senators are in their hideaways. They need huge personnel now. Can you get the Maryland National Guard to come with you?
I have something to say. I’m going to call the mayor of Washington DC to find out what other efforts she has to reach out to other police departments.
Hey, Governor. This is Nancy. Governor, I don’t know if you have been approached about the Virginia National Guard. I still think you need the OK of the federal government in order to come in to a different jurisdiction if you want to. Thank you.
All kinds of — it’s really that — they said somebody was shot. It’s terrible. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States. Ok, thank you, Governor. I appreciate what you’re doing. I’d like to stay in touch if you want to. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I spoke to the governor and he said that they sent 200 state police and a unit of the National Guard. They broke windows and went in and ransacked our offices. That’s nothing. The concern we have 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. And now if he could, at least someone.
The president should tell them to leave the Capitol. Mr. Attorney General, you need a public statement from them.
The Capitol Building: Where are We Going? Where are we going? What do we need to do? How well can we do this? How do we go about it?
I don’t want to speak for the leadership that’s going to be responsible for executing the operation, so I’m not going to say that. Because they are meeting on the ground and they’re the experts [Inaudible]
For a moment pretend it was the White House or the Pentagon 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 told us that he wanted to speed things up. We can vote if they confine it to one complaint, Arizona, and then move forward 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 back to normal, according to what we were told. We’ve gotten a report about the poor condition of the House floor, as well as the defecation and other things. 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.
There is a counter point that it could take some time to clean up the poo poo they’re making all over the Capitol, and that it may take days to get back.
Nancy, so I’m at the Capitol building. I’m literally standing with the Chief of Police of — you know, the US Capitol Police. Paul Irving is your sergeant-at-arms and he will inform you that they believe the House and the Senate will be able to come back to work within an hour.
They all exploded when they saw little help on the way. “Why don’t you get the President to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility,” Schumer barked at Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. The legislative leaders’ frantic efforts to restore peace were in marked contrast to Trump’s failure to take action as he watched the riot unfold from the confines of the West Wing of the White House.
It was obvious that President Trump was the only one who could end this. He was the only one who could. Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies frantically called the administration. The President did not act quickly. He wasn’t doing his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored.
Another witness, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s former chief of staff, has also come forward and corroborated her shocking account. Begin the videotape.
You know, I asked Kevin McCarthy who’s the Republican leader about this and — and he said he called –he finally got through to Donald Trump He told me that I needed to get on TV. You’ve got to get on Twitter. You’ve got 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. These are anti-fascists. Kevin replied that they’re your people. The staff are running for cover after they came through my office windows. They’re running for their lives. They need to be called 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. There’s a lot of reports of Kevin McCarthy and the President having a swearing conversation. That’s when the swearing commenced, because the President was basically saying, no, I’m — I’m Ok with this.
I had a conversation about the riot with Kevin McCarthy a few days after. Yeah, It was similar to the conversation she had with the President, where she told him how he called and asked him to stop. The President told him that these people may be more angry about this than he is.
Anika Navaroli: A Twitter Employee who came to the Committee on Investigating the Pence-Cosmic-Torsion-Induced Execution Attempt
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 today if he held responsibility for what happened. Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me, he does have some responsibility for what happened and he need to acknowledge that.
It provoked the mob to worse violence by making them chant’hang Mike Pence’. This deliberate decision to further enrage the mob against Vice President Pence cannot be justified by anything that President Trump might have thought about the election. The tweet came precisely at the time Pence’s Secret Service detail was most seriously concerned for the Vice President’s physical safety.
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. Those who were already constructing gallows were the ones who wanted to execute someone and were looking for someone to be killed. It was the individual who was called to start this coup that now is pointing the finger at another person as they prepare to do this.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
What happened at the Capitol on the Day of the 6th April 2017: Donald Trump – a Traitor or a Mistaken Leader?
Donald Trump does not count on Mike Pence sticking up for him. Mike Pence was a traitor. Mike Pence has screwed us, in case you haven’t heard yet. What happened? What happened? I keep hearing that he has ruined us. That’s the word I keep hearing reports that Mike Pence has screwed us. End the videotape.
The rioters ran up the line that the police were holding on the side of the Capitol they were standing on after 10 minutes of President 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 previous hearings, you’ve heard Matt Pottinger and Sarah Matthews explain why they decided to quit 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.
I was stunned by the violence and the President’s apparent indifference to it. It is time for the President to be commander in chief. I thought he failed at doing it. I thought he failed at a critical time to be the sort 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. And at a particular point, the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue given my personal values and my philosophy. I came as an immigrant to this country.
I think in this country. I believe in a peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. I made the decision myself. [End videotape]
We are delivering the President’s message. Donald Trump has ordered them all to go home. We ordered that. [Inaudible] He says, go home. End videotape.
Finally, at 6:01, President Trump tweeted again not to condemn the mass violence in any way, but rather to excuse and glorify it. Significantly, he made it clear that he considered the violence perfectly foreseeable and predictable. Check it out. These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously, viciously, stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long.
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. According to Trump. January 6 should not be a day that lives in shame in infamy in our history, but rather in glory.
If you could have told the president at any time between when you first advised him to do so and the time when the video statement came out, would he have gone to the podium? Would that have been possible?
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Jefferson Committee on the January 6th Electoral Correlations: Tests of the Constitution and the First Principles of Popular Government
Mr. Chairman, in numerous places, our Constitution strongly opposes insurrection and rebellion. Congress has the authority to call for the militia to suppress insurrections. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualified from holding federal and state office anyone who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, but betrays it by engaging in insurrection or rebellion.
It was President Lincoln, at the start of the Civil War in 1861, who best explained why democracy rejects insurrection. Insurrection, he said, is a war upon the first principle of popular government, the rights of the people. The American people have rights that are not shared by a single man. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The gentleman is about to leave. Four police officers who helped repel the riots on January 6th were some of the witnesses that we heard in July of last year. We asked them what they wanted the committee to accomplish. Officer Grinnell wanted to know why the rioters believed that the election process was rigged.
We were asked to look into actions that took place during 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. Over a year later, we have gotten 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 most complete story it can, and provide recommendations to ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again. We need to be fair and thorough and gain a full context for the evidence we’ve obtained.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Committee on Investigations of the Corrupt Propagation of Protected Elections and Mr. Trump’s Behaviour in January 6th
There is precedent in American history for Congress to get the testimony of a president. Presidential testimony and evidence has been provided before to Congressional investigators. A subpoena to a former president is a serious action and something that we are aware of.
That’s the reason we’re taking this step and the reason is to see the American people, the subject matter at issue is important to the American people and the stakes are high for our democracy. And so, I recognize the Vice Chair, Ms. Cheney of Wyoming, to offer a motion.
Thank you for allowing me to thank you. Mr. Chairman, our committee now has sufficient information to answer many of the critical questions posed by Congress at the outset. There’s enough information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals and to recommend a range of legislative proposals to protect against another January 6th.
We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player. More than 30 witnesses in our investigation have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and many of them did so specifically in response to questions about their dealings with Donald Trump. There are a number of examples.
This is a picture of General Michael Flynn walking with Oath Keepers and he was testifying before our committee. Start the videotape.
There is a logic to suggest the consideration of charges against the lawyer who was outside of the coup and who was Mr. Trump. The committee wrote that Mr. Clark “stands out as a participant in the conspiracy.” A focus on the client and his counsel is symbolic and driven by the evidence that the committee has accumulated. It indicates that a strong case can be advanced against Mr. Trump, Mr. Eastman and others for their scheme to fraudulently declare Mr. Trump president by pushing a staggering variety of falsehoods culminating in proposed fake electoral slates.
You should not discuss your position with this committee on the same topics you discussed in direct conversations with the President of the United States.
The Committee on Investigating the Campaign of Mark Meadows against the investigation of his role in the White House investigation of the inauguration of Donald Trump to the House of Representatives
Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump. A jury of his peers found him guilty of contempt of Congress. He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month. There are criminal proceedings against Peter Navarro.
MarkMeadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, refused to testify based on executive privilege. The committee’s litigation with him continues. Mr. Chairman, at some point the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing. But our duty today is to our country and our children and our Constitution.
The resolution was agreed to. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The chair wants those seated in the hearing room to remain so that they can be escorted from the room. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned.
The Case of Donald J. Kinzinger’s Campaign to Overturn the 2020 Election: What the FBI, FBI, and Associated Law Enforcement told the PEOPLE
Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 24 books. He can be followed on the social media site, www.julianzelizer. The views that he has expressed are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
Kinzinger explained that he served on the committee in defiance of his party and will not return to congress, but he still tried to hold Trump to account in his retirement speech.
In public hearings during the past four months, the bipartisan panel attempted to reveal the full context of what happened that day and who was responsible.
Unlike the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974, one of the most distinctive elements of Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election is that so much of it happened in broad daylight.
The committee provided shocking evidence and details as to the dangers of the months at hand, in order to fulfill the story in a very important way.
Steve Bannon told a group of associates that the former president would say he was victorious, but they wouldn’t know it at the time. Trump is going to do some crazy shit, if Biden is elected, predicted the strategist.
When William Barr, the then Attorney General, told Trump and his inner team that the fraud claims were false, they ignored those warnings and moved forward with reckless abandon.
A lot of testimony from figures, such as the former White House strategic communications leader, corroborates that Trump knew he lost. He did not care. He wanted to retain power.
On the day of the “Stop the Steal” rally, January 6, 2021, Trump knew that the protesters were armed and dangerous but did nothing to stop them. He was prevented from visiting Capitol Hill by a Secret Service agent. The former president tried to steer the car while he was told he couldn’t go, and lunged at a Secret Service agent, according to Cassidy Hutchinson.
Rudy Giuliani was one of the attorneys probing to see if any state officials would do Trump’s bidding. The Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives who had supported the administration was worried about being pressured by Giuliani and Trump to invalidate the results of the election in his state. The president’s lawyer John Eastman, who had written the road map for their attempted election steal, pressured Pence’s aides to have him reject the results.
The 2019 January 6 Reconsideration Committee: The 2016 U.S. Capitol Explosion and the Campaign to Overturn the 2022 Midterm Election
January 6 was just one part of a larger story. The January 6 committee is an investigative committee to look at the campaign to overturn the election. This reframing is essential to understanding the months between November 2020 and January 2021.
Throughout these events, we have learned, Trump understood exactly what was happening. He was told many times about how he was making claims that were untrue and warned of the dangers he was taking. Even advisers, lawyers such as Barr and conservative media figures such as Sean Hannity who publicly supported him were privately urging him to stop.
The committee wanted to make clear in Thursday’s important hearing that the danger is not over in years to come. “There remains a clear and present danger to our electoral system and to democratic institutions,” Raskin said, “So, that is something that will come through in our final hearing. This is not ancient history we’re talking about; this is a continuing threat.” There’s a continued threat on many levels. The rhetoric of election denialism has taken hold among many of Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.
Republicans who subscribe to this agenda are also running for several key offices, ranging from gubernatorial positions to secretaries of state in key states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, all of whom will play a key role in overseeing future elections. The former president is the top contender for the Republican nomination.
The committee successfully unpacked the dark days that followed the 2020 election. They have been exposed in clear detail right in front of our eyes. The biggest mystery left is whether as a nation we will close our eyes and simply move forward without demanding accountability, justice and reform.
On the day the U.S. Capitol was ransacked, as stunned lawmakers emerged from hiding and police officers were still counting the injured, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and went live on Fox News.
The comments blaming Democrats and rogue state actors didn’t draw a lot of attention when they were made. Mr. Zeldin was joined by 146 other Republicans in trying to overturn the victory of Joe Biden.
He said the riot that he condemned was not just about the president of the United States. This is about people on the left who have double standards.
Correlations Between Right-Wing Extremism and the January 6th Capitol Attack: A View from Rep. Bennie G. Thompson
Editor’s Note: Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. His views are his own in this commentary. View more opinion on CNN.
After the federal search warrant was executed at Mar-a-Lago in August, the rhetoric of the far-right quickly took off, including calls for civil war. There will be riots if President Trump is charged, warned Lindsey Graham, a Republican lawmaker from South Carolina. MAGA Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona compared the FBI to “brown shirts,” a term used to describe Nazi storm troopers.
Unfortunately, public figures on the extreme right are not helping our effort to curb this violence by attacking the rule of law and giving extremists the go-ahead, either tacitly or explicitly.
In January 2021, hours before the tragic January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Trump declared to his followers on the National Mall, “[I]f you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” During a campaign speech for Trump in Alabama, GOP Representative MoBrooks said that today was the day that American patriots would start taking down names and kicking ass. As rioters gathered at the Capitol, Josh Hawley of Missouri pumped his fist to show his solidarity with them.
insurrectionists testified in court that they were only following presidential orders when they attacked the Capitol, and that they were threatening the lives of all the workers there.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been an all-time high of 333 domestic terrorism plots or attacks in the US. Right-wing extremists have perpetrated 80% of those attacks, resulting in 91 tragic deaths.
Our public spaces increasingly face violence. Mass shootings, hostage taking and other violent plots have reduced state capitols, grocery stores, schools, houses of worship, and concerts to crime scenes. Just last week, the federal government released a bulletin warning that there is a heightened threat to next week’s midterm elections by a rise in violent domestic extremism.
According to experts at the University of Chicago, an estimated 13 million Americans believe force would be justified to restore Trump to the White House, and an estimated 15 million Americans would support using force to prevent the former president from being prosecuted. The rule of law as well as our security are under attack according to these startling numbers.
The FBI execution of a lawful search warrant for highly classified documents at the former President’s beach club is the epitome of how GOP extremists exploit their followers and dog-whistle at violence. According to the wide breadth of public reporting, the Department of Justice followed the law and all normal procedures after attempting to obtain the classified documents voluntarily. The rule of law and dog whistle at violence were the targets of the reaction by Trump and his demagogues.
What ensued has been all too predictable. Twitter posts about “civil war” rose nearly 3,000% in a matter of hours after the search. Threats against federal law enforcement officers increased. A week later, an armed man tried to break into the FBI office in Ohio and engaged in a standoff with police. Police shot and killed the man after he pointed his gun at them.
Members of Congress have also been targeted, with one Democratic Congressman reporting that a caller to his office threatened to use a firearm to assassinate him. I have also gotten threatening messages. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had her home invaded last week by an armed person that was believed to be trying to kill her.
Echoing the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the intruder shouted, “Where is Nancy?” before bludgeoning her 82-year-old husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer, sending him to the hospital with a fractured skull. Of course, rhetoric directed at the Speaker has been violent in nature for years – and pushed by members of Congress.
The Capitol Against Trump: A Murder Against a White-Hole Insurrection and the Case Against Joe Biden
A question hanging over the congressional committee is if higher standard of evidence will lead prosecutors to think that it will be hard to convict the former president. It is difficult to judge the strength of a criminal case against Trump because the witnesses and evidence were not subjected to the kind of challenge and cross-examination seen in court.
The panel is expected to be wiped out next month by an incoming Republican House majority featuring many lawmakers who voted against certifying the last presidential election, and who continued to whitewash it two years later.
The committee, with its seven democrats and two Republicans who split from their own party to take part, painted a picture of horrible violence and the effort to steal Joe Biden’s presidency.
A Capitol Police officer told how she had slipped on spilled blood during the melee caused when the ex-president’s mob smashed its way into the Capitol. A mother and daughter who worked as election workers in Georgia described how they faced racist threats after Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, accused them of vote stealing. Trump calling for him to meddle with the election was alien to the speaker of the state House, according to his testimony.
It was often Republicans who testifiedcourageously about Trump’s assault on the Constitution, including Cassidy Hutchinson. The ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows recalled, “It was unpatriotic. It was not American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”
The panel believed that Trump was in the middle of an election-stealing conspiracy after conservative retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig warned in a June committee hearing that there was a danger to American democracy. With that in mind, it would be surprising if the 45th president, who earned his second impeachment over the insurrection, was not referred to the DOJ for the possibility of criminal action.
Furthermore, the committee contended in its hearings that Trump also helped to plot a nefarious scheme to use fake electors to subvert the election in Congress. According to the committee, Trump called a mob to Washington and incited a vicious attack on the Capitol after Vice President Mike Pence refused to wield his powers. The committee members argued that his lack of action as violence raged amounted to disrespect to his duty to protect Congress and the Constitution.
The person tried to pressure the state into finding the votes that didn’t exist. The chair of the House intelligence committee and member of the January 6 Committee said on Sunday that someone was trying to interfere with a joint session and inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. “If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what it is.
CNN reported last week that the former president is being investigated by the committee on potential charges such as insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. The committee weighed referrals or other action against Trump allies, including attorney John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. And Schiff said on Sunday the panel would also consider possible ethics and legal sanctions against others, including Republican lawmakers who defied committee subpoenas.
Sending criminal referrals to the DOJ could possibly be seen as furthering the perception of political vendettas after January 6.
Will an impression be made of Trump being hounded by any referrals after leaving office, that will help rally Republicans to his misfiring campaign?
And do Americans as a whole, at a time of national strain amid high inflation and the aftermath of a once-in-a-century pandemic, really care about events that rattled US democracy nearly two years ago?
The refusal of many of Cheney’s fellow Republicans to even acknowledge the ex-president’s conduct suggests that her effective sacrifice of her career in the House GOP may be in vain. The Senate Watergate hearings took place in the 70s and 80s, but the public didn’t seem to care much about this act of accountability. Today’s polarized times and the power of conservative media to distort what really happened on January 6 may help explain this dichotomy.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/jan-6-committee-investigation-final-session/index.html
The Illinois House of Representatives Committee on Election Correlations: The Case for a Better Look at the Congressional Report on Donald Trump’s Insurrection
Americans rejected many of Trump’s candidates in swing state races who promoted his false claims of election fraud, suggesting a desire to protect American democracy.
It is impossible to quantify how the committee’s work affected voters in November. It kept evidence of Trump’s insurrection in the news throughout the year, even as the ex-president launched a new campaign to cast the probes into his conduct as politically motivated persecution. This is priceless as some pro-Trump Republicans try to get around the fact that the Capitol was attacked.
“This is a massive investigation that the committee has undertook. A former federal prosecutor told CNN on Saturday that there was huge amount of evidence and witnesses being identified.
“I think it’s the detail that accompanies the referrals themselves and the report that will give a roadmap to DOJ. It has been a while since this party has been playing catch-up with the DOJ so they are playing catch-up, but that detail could be very helpful and will put a lot of pressure on them.
Future generations will be able to judge the determination of the panel members, and the courage of witnesses who told the truth, if nothing else.
In today’s world, a lie is a lie, and democracy is being challenged by authoritarianism according to the Illinois Republican.
“If we, America’s elected leaders, do not search within ourselves for a way out, I fear that this great experiment will fall into the ash heap of history.”
The committee demonstrated its seriousness of purpose by refusing to put forth a laundry list of defendants. The committee members have all along thought as legislators and public educators, but also have put themselves in the minds of prosecutors. That led them to rightly focus on a short list of prospective defendants against whom the evidence is most damning, providing critical context to the prosecutors. Focusing on the very best cases avoids diluting the effect of the referrals with more tenuous theories against a large number of actors, and emphasizes the cases the prosecutors can actually win.