The committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol siege convenes Tuesday for a public hearing investigating what it calls the final phase of Trump’s multi-pronged effort to stop Joe Biden’s victory. As dozens of lawsuits and false allegations of voter fraud tumbled, Trump tweeted the rally invitation in a pivotal moment, the panel said. Far-right Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others now facing criminal charges responded easily. “We will present the full body of evidence that we have that speaks to how the president’s tweet in the early hours of December 19, titled ‘Be there, be wild,’ was a siren call to these people,” said a member of the committee, representative. . Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., on “Meet the Press” over the weekend. In fact, Trump wrote on Twitter: “Be there, it will be wild!” Among those expected to testify is Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disorderly conduct in a restricted building. He admitted that on January 2, 2021, he posted an image stating that Trump was “inviting us to come back to Washington on January 6th for a big protest.” Another witness is Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. The witnesses were confirmed by someone familiar with the testimony, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the witnesses had not yet been released. This is the seventh hearing in a series that has featured numerous blockbuster revelations since the January 6 panel. Last month, the panel created a hard-hitting narrative of a defeated Trump “distracted from reality,” clinging to his false claims of voter fraud and working feverishly to overturn his election loss. It all culminated in the deadly attack on the Capitol, the panel said. What the committee plans to investigate Tuesday is whether extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon followers who have rallied for Trump in the past, coordinated with White House allies for Jan. 6. The Oath Keepers denied that there was a plan to storm the Capitol. The panel is also expected to highlight new testimony from Pat Cipollone, the former White House counsel, who “was aware of every major move” Trump made, said spokesman Jamie Raskin, deputy director, who will lead the meeting. . It’s the only hearing set for this week as new details emerge. Thursday’s expected prime time hearing has been postponed for now. This week’s meeting comes after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson provided stunning testimony under oath about an angry Trump who knowingly sent armed supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and then refused to quickly withdraw them as violence erupted, siding with rioters as they menacingly sought out Vice President Mike Pence. Trump said Cassidy’s account is not true. But Cipollone in Friday’s private session did not contradict the earlier testimony. Raskin said the commission planned to use “a lot” of Cipollone’s testimony. The panel is expected to highlight a Dec. 18, 2020, meeting at the White House in which former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and others floated ideas for overturning the election results, Raskin he told CBS over the weekend. That was days after the Electoral College had convened on Dec. 14 to certify the results for Biden — a time when other key Republicans were announcing that the election and their challenges were over. On Dec. 19, Trump would tweet calling supporters to Washington for the Jan. 6 rally, the day Congress was to certify the Electoral College count: “Big protest in DC on Jan. 6. Be there, it’s going to be wild!” The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, far-right extremist groups whose leaders and others now face rare sedition charges for their role in the attack, prepared to come to Washington, according to the courts. On Dec. 29, the Proud Boys president posted a message on social media that said members planned to “walk out in record numbers on Jan. 6,” according to a federal indictment. The group planned to meet at the Washington Monument, and members asked not to wear their traditional black and yellow colors, but to be “incognito.” The Proud Boys claimed membership grew after Trump, during his first debate with Biden, refused to outright condemn the group, but instead told them to “stand back and stand by.” The night before Jan. 6, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio met with Rhodes in an underground parking lot, according to court records along with footage a documentary filmmaker following the group provided to the commission. The Oath Keepers were also organizing for Jan. 6 and set up a “rapid response force” at a nearby hotel in Virginia, according to court records. After the Capitol siege, Rhodes called someone with an urgent message for Trump, another team member said. Rhodes declined the opportunity to speak to Trump, but urged the person on the phone to tell the Republican president to call in militia groups to fight to keep the president in office. An attorney for Rhodes recently told the committee that their client wants to testify publicly. Rhodes has already been interviewed by the committee in private, and it is unlikely that the committee will agree. The panel also plans to discuss how many of the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 appeared to be QAnon loyalists. Federal authorities have specifically linked at least 38 rioters to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press review of court records. One of the most recognizable figures from the Jan. 6 attack was a shirtless Arizona man who called himself “QAnon Shaman,” wielding a spear and wearing face paint and a Viking hat with fur and horns. A core belief among QAnon followers is that Trump was secretly fighting a clan of deep state operatives, prominent Democrats, and Hollywood elites who worship Satan and engage in child sex trafficking. The panel showed, during fast-paced hearings and testimony from the former president’s inner circle, how Trump was told “over and over again,” said Vice President Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. he had lost the election and his false claims of voter fraud were simply not true. Still, Trump called supporters to Washington and then sent them to Capitol Hill in what Speaker Benny Thompson, D-Miss., called an “attempted coup.” ___ Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland, contributed to this report.
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title: “Panel Reconvenes On 6 January Live Updates Of Today S Hearing " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-29” author: “Marlene Schulman”
“We will take any attempt to influence testimony very seriously,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. He said the committee had informed the Ministry of Justice. The person Trump tried to reach refused to answer or return his call, Cheney said. Instead, the individual notified his lawyer who contacted the commission. Cheney’s disclosure was not the first time the committee has raised concerns about witnesses being contacted by the Trump team in ways that could reflect or at least create the appearance of improper influence. He revealed examples last week of other times witnesses received communications from Trump allies, some suggesting he knew they were talking to the committee, before testifying before the committee. A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tuesday’s hearing was the seventh for the Jan. 6 commission. Last month, the committee created a narrative of a defeated Trump “distracted from reality,” clinging to false allegations of voter fraud and working feverishly to overturn his election loss. It all culminated in the attack on the Capitol, the committee says. Tuesday’s session revealed details of an “anecdotal” late-night White House meeting with Donald Trump’s outside lawyers who suggested the military seize state voting machines in a last-ditch effort to pursue his false claims of voter fraud before the defeated president call a mob. the US Capitol. The committee investigating last year’s attack on Capitol Hill is working to show how far-right extremists responded to Trump’s call for a large rally in Washington. As his dozens of lawsuits and allegations of voter fraud crumbled, Trump met late on the night of Dec. 18 with lawyers at the White House before tweeting out the rally invitation — “Be there, it’s going to be wild!” Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups now face rare sedition charges over the siege. “This tweet served as a call to action — and in some cases a call to arms.” said a committee member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. The panel featured new video testimony from Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, recalling the explosive meeting at the White House when Trump’s outside legal team brought a draft executive order to seize states’ voting machines — a “terrible idea,” he said. “That’s not how we do things in the United States,” Cipollone testified. Another associate called the meeting “independent.” Cipollone and other White House officials tried to interfere with Trump’s late-night meeting with lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, retired national security aide Michael Flynn and the head of online retailer Overstock. He burst into yelling and screaming, another aide testified. “Where’s the evidence?” Cipollone pleaded guilty to false allegations of voter fraud. “What they proposed, I thought, was crazy,” testified another White House official, Eric Hersman. But Trump was intrigued and essentially told his White House lawyers that at least Powell and foreign allies were trying to do something. “You’re not tough enough,” Giuliani recalled in videotaped testimony the president told White House lawyers. “You’re a p——-,” he said, using dumb language. As night turned to morning, Trump tweeted a call for supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6, when Congress will count the results of the Electoral College. “Be there. It’s going to be wild,” Trump wrote. Immediately the extremists reacted. The panel showed graphic and violent text messages and played videos of right-wing figures, including Alex Jones, and others saying January 6 would be the day they fight for president. In vulgar and often racist language, the messages broadcast on far-right forums planned for the big day were said to be Trump’s demand in Washington. It would be a “red wedding,” said one, a reference to mass murder. “Bring handcuffs.” Several members of the US Capitol Police who fought the mob that day sat stone-faced in the front row of the committee room. “The problem of politicians resorting to mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in his opening remarks. On the witness table to testify in person was Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. Another witness was Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive behavior in a prohibited building. He has said that on January 2, 2021, he posted an image stating that Trump was “inviting us to come back to Washington on January 6th for a big protest.” The committee is investigating whether extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon followers who have rallied for Trump in the past, coordinated with White House allies for Jan. 6. The Oath Keepers denied that there was a plan to invade the Capitol. The committee began the second half of the hearing by drawing connections between Trump allies Flynn and Roger Stone and extremist groups preparing to come to Washington. It showed a photo of Rhodes, the Oath Keeper leader, walking with Flynn, Trump’s former national security aide, outside the Capitol at one point. This was the only hearing this week as new details emerged. Thursday’s expected prime time hearing has been postponed for now. This week’s meeting comes after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson provided stunning testimony under oath about an angry Trump who knowingly sent armed supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and then refused to quickly withdraw them as violence erupted, siding with rioters as they menacingly sought out Vice President Mike Pence. Trump said Cassidy’s account is not true. But Cipollone in Friday’s private session did not contradict the earlier testimony. Raskin said the commission planned to use “a lot” of Cipollone’s testimony. The Proud Boys have said their participation increased after Trump, during his first conversation with Biden, refused to condemn the group outright, but instead told them to “stand back and stand by.” The Oath Keepers were also organizing for Jan. 6 and set up a “rapid response force” at a nearby hotel in Virginia, according to court records. The panel also noted that many of the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol appeared to be QAnon loyalists. Federal authorities have specifically linked at least 38 rioters to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press review of court records. One of the most recognizable figures from the attack was a shirtless Arizona man who called himself “QAnon Shaman,” wielding a spear and wearing face paint and a Viking hat with fur and horns. The panel showed, during fast-paced hearings and testimony from the former president’s inner circle, that Trump was told “over and over again,” as Vice President Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said, that he had lost the election and the his allegations of voter fraud were simply not true. But Trump called supporters to Washington and then sent them to Capitol Hill in what committee chairman Benny Thompson, D-Miss., called an “attempted coup.” ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Michael Balsamo in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland, contributed to this report.
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