The House committee also presented evidence that aides and outside agitators knew before the riot that Trump would call on thousands of his supporters to march on Capitol Hill that day. The committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans used the hearings to argue that Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss constitute illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register As the three-hour hearing ended, Republican spokeswoman Liz Cheney said Trump tried to call a potential committee witness, raising the possibility that he illegally tried to influence witness testimony. read more In a video deposition played at the hearing, witnesses described a powerful six-hour late-night meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, in which Trump ignored White House staffers who urged him to concede the November 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Instead, Trump sided with outside advisers who urged him to continue pressing his baseless allegations of voter fraud. Committee members said Trump was ultimately responsible for the chaos that followed. “President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He’s not an impressionable kid … He’s responsible for his actions and his own choices,” said Cheney, the committee’s vice chairman. Committee members said Trump incited the uproar by refusing to admit he lost the election and through comments such as his Dec. 19, 2020 tweet, shortly after the meeting, about supporters flocking to Washington for a “ big protest,” saying, “Be there, it’s going to be wild.” Trump, a Republican who has hinted he will seek the White House again in 2024, has denied wrongdoing and falsely claimed he lost only because of widespread fraud that benefited Biden, a Democrat.
‘NOT HARD ENOUGH’
The panel played taped testimony from White House aides describing the angry Dec. 18 meeting, where a handful of Trump’s outside advisers, including staff lawyer Rudy Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock. com, they encouraged him to fight the election result. “I don’t think any of these people were giving good advice to the president. I didn’t understand how they got in,” Pat Cipollone, a former Trump White House adviser, said in a video deposition. A video of former US President Donald Trump is played as Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, testifies during a public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the 6 January at the US Capitol. , on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., June 28, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Pool via REUTERS read more Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democratic committee member, pointed to a text from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave explosive testimony last month, saying of the meeting: “The West Wing is noncommittal.” Giuliani, who was escorted from the White House grounds, said in a video deposition that his argument was: “You’re not tough enough. I’m pretty sure the word was used.’ The attack on Capitol Hill, after a speech Trump gave to a rally outside the White House, delayed the certification of Biden’s election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths.
“MOHOS ORGANIZED”
The committee presented evidence it said showed Trump’s call for supporters to march on Capitol Hill was not spontaneous but planned in advance. The panel showed an unsent Twitter message about the rally, with a stamp indicating Trump had seen it: “Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. After the march to Capitol Hill. Stop the theft!” The committee also played audio testimony from a former Twitter employee describing his fear after Trump’s tweet in December and his deep concern on Jan. 5 about the possibility of violence on Jan. 6. “It looked like a mob was organizing and gathering their weapons and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were ready to fight,” the Twitter employee said in a voiceover. About 800 people have been charged with involvement in the Capitol Hill riot, with about 250 guilty pleas so far. The hearing also examined the ties between right-wing militant groups, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and the online conspiracy movement QAnon, to Trump and his allies. Many Oath Keepers and Proud Boys participated in the January 6 attack. Two witnesses testified in the courtroom – Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of involvement in the attack on the Capitol, and Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers. Ayres said he marched because he believed in Trump and that he has since lost his job, sold his house and no longer believes Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was stolen. “It changed my life, you know, definitely not for the better.” Trump and his supporters — including many Republicans in Congress — dismiss the Jan. 6 panel as a political witch hunt, but panel supporters say it is a necessary investigation into a violent threat to democracy. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan, additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Doina Chiacu and Rose Horowitch. Editing by Andy Sullivan and Howard Goller Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
