Jan. 6 House committee is to reveal “shocking” details, including evidence from Donald Trump’s Secret Service, about the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in its final public hearing before the midterm elections of November
The committee plans to show new video footage it received from the Secret Service of the demonstration in the White House Oval. Trump spoke there before encouraging his armed supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
The Secret Service has turned over more than 1.5 million pages of documents and surveillance video to the committee, according to agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the committee, said that as she learned about the information being presented Thursday, she found it “pretty amazing.”
Adam Kinzinger, left, speaks during a July 22 committee hearing in Washington, DC, as he sits next to Vice President Liz Cheney. Kinzinger and Cheney, the two Republican members of the Jan. 6 panel, have been recused by their party from participating in the House committee’s investigation. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The committee, having conducted more than 1,500 interviews and obtained countless documents, has since 2021 drawn up a comprehensive investigation of Trump’s activities from his defeat in the November election to the attack on the Capitol.
“He has used this big lie to destabilize our democracy,” Lofgren told CNN. “When did you come up with this idea and what did you know while doing it?”
The committee begins summarizing its findings: Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, launched an unprecedented attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory. The result was the siege of the Capitol by the deadly mob.
Committee member Stephanie Murphy of Florida, in an interview with MSNBC Thursday morning, would not confirm that it would be the last televised hearing at large, but said it would be the last public hearing before the midterm elections on 8 of November
Key behind-the-scenes interviews
Since the last hearing in late July, the committee has worked behind the scenes, conducting interviews with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien and Ginni Thomas, among others .
Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was in contact with White House officials after the election and attended a “Stop the Steal” rally.
As the committee’s work has continued offstage, much public attention has focused on an entirely different matter involving Trump: the Justice Department’s protracted struggle to obtain government documents from his residence staff, after requests from the National Archives failed.
Committee member Zoe Lofgren, seen Sept. 22, said this week that “shocking” information about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, continues to come in. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The January 6 committee has been meeting for more than a year and is expected to issue a report of its findings. It was created by the House after Republican senators blocked the formation of an outside panel similar to the 9/11 commission panel that looked into the 2001 terrorist attacks.
House Republicans are expected to drop the Jan. 6 probe if they win control of the chamber after the midterms.
The two Republican lawmakers on the panel, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, have essentially been rejected by Trump and his party and will not return to the new Congress. Cheney lost the primary and Kinzinger decided not to run.
Electoral denials front and center in midterm races
The seven Democrats and two Republicans on the panel have argued that their work is not just a recapitulation of the past, but a dire warning about ongoing threats to the democratic process.
Millions of Americans still incorrectly believe Trump won in 2020, according to polls, while a Washington Post analysis published last week indicated that half of Republicans entering the races next month for key US congressional and state offices have denied or questioned the 2020 outcome, including the governor. candidates Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania and Kari Lake of Arizona.
These beliefs persist despite dozens of cases challenging aspects of the 2020 election being brought to US courts and dismissed. The Trump administration’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the election in a statement “the most secure in American history,” and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, has rejected many of their electoral denials because they were not based on reality.
Front Burner19:36 The Oath Keepers on trial
The Oath Keepers are a far-right militia, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes. He is one of five members currently on trial in Washington, facing charges of seditious conspiracy and other crimes related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Prosecutors say they planned to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election. Explosive, secretly recorded audio of an alleged insurrection planning meeting was played last week in the courts Joining us today is Andy Campbell, senior editor at HuffPost and author of the new book We Are Proud Boys. He explains who the Oath Keepers are and what was revealed at the trial about how the deadly attack could have been prevented.
Trump associate Peter Navarro faces trial next month for refusing to cooperate with a House committee subpoena, while Steve Bannon will be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to charges of similar disdain.
Outside of the committee’s work, more than 850 people have been criminally charged by the Justice Department in the Capitol attack, some receiving lengthy prison terms for their roles. Several leaders and associates of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been hit with rare charges of sedition.
According to multiple media reports, the Justice Department has also issued subpoenas to several people who worked at the department during the aftermath of the 2020 election, as well as members of the Trump campaign.
Additionally, a special grand jury has been sitting for months in Georgia over attempts to pressure state officials to deny Joe Biden a victory there, which included an infamous phone call from Trump to the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger.