“This is our democracy. This was the biggest attack on American democracy in my life. The world is watching to see how we respond to that,” the Rhode Island Democrat told CNN.
Cicilline, a former Trump ousted manager, said the select committee of the House investigating the January 6 U.S. Capitol insurgency has far more evidence than it had in 2021 during the second ouster of the U.S. Capitol. former President Donald Trump. He said the committee has interviewed or dismissed more than 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 135,000 documents.
The select committee formally announced on Thursday that its first public hearing will take place on June 9 at 8pm ET.
“I think there will be substantial evidence that really demonstrates coordination, planning and effort, even though they understood that Donald Trump lost the election and even once the insurgency started and the violence started, there were efforts in progress to persuade the former president to stop the violence and call on people to go home, and he refused to do so, “Cicilline said.
The legislator added: “I think the American people will learn facts about planning and executing this that will be very disturbing.”
During the interview, Cicilline also framed Trump’s adviser Peter Navarro on Friday as a victory, but stressed the importance of congressional oversight authority. He said the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to then-President Trump, and Dan Scavino, a former Trump deputy chief of staff, was “baffled” by echoing the language used in the January 6 committee statement.
He added: “I am confident that the Attorney General (Merrick Garland), when a referral is made, the Department of Justice will make such judgments as it deems appropriate.”
He praised Garland for acting as an American people’s lawyer, not as president, adding that Garland heads the Justice Department “as it is supposed to be run.”
The first hearing on Jan. 6 will be a broad overview of the panel’s 10-month investigation and will set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or topics, sources told CNN earlier.