Former President Donald Trump supporters take part in a demonstration in Washington, DC, near the White House on January 6, 2021. (John Minchillo / AP / Archive)
With public hearings starting today, the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 is focusing on former President Donald Trump and preparing to use his platform to argue that he was responsible for serious abuses of power that almost disrupted American democracy.
Here’s a breakdown of what the panel – and the press – found out about Trump’s leadership role in the anti-democratic scheme and how it all fits into ongoing criminal investigations:
Trump’s election subversion before January 6, 2021: The committee has interviewed officials in Michigan and Georgia, among other states, where Trump tried unsuccessfully to persuade local officials to annul Biden’s votes and call him winner. Trump also tried to recruit senior Justice Department officials to help with these efforts.
Lawmakers have also investigated the “fake voter” conspiracy, which was led by Trump campaign officials and was an attempt to undermine the Electoral College process in December 2020.
Congressional investigators have obtained hundreds of emails from right-wing attorney John Eastman, who directly advised Trump to look for legally dubious methods to stay in office. This included a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to run for election on January 6 while presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify the victory of the Biden Electoral College.
In another committee victory, Eastman’s civil case judge said Tuesday that the potentially criminal plan between Trump and Eastman to obstruct the Electoral College’s procedures was formed in December 2020, weeks ahead of schedule. had previously established. The ruling paves the way for the panel to receive additional emails that Eastman tried to keep secret.
Trump and his allies pushed the effort forward and promoted the “big lie,” even after senior officials, including then-Attorney General Bill Barr, told him the election results were legitimate and that he lost. Even Eastman acknowledged in emails at the time that his plans were not legally sound. Lawmakers have said this suggests Trump had a corrupt mood.
“The data will be convincing from the committee,” former Denver Riggleman, a former Republican adviser to the committee, told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360 °” last week. “I think it’s up to the American people, after presenting it, to consider, using facts, not fantasies or opinions, about the guilt of the president and the people around him.”
Trump, Eastman and other GOP figures involved have denied any wrongdoing. Trump spokesmen did not respond to a request for comment on the story.
Trump’s abandonment of duty during the Capitol riots to power. The facts of that tragic day are well known, but the panel will try to bring home a clear narrative of chaos: Trump knew his supporters could be violent, but he incited them anyway and was abandoned when he did not. tries to stop the violence.
“They were warned that January 6 could, and probably would, turn violent,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican vice president of the panel, said at a committee hearing in March.
Pence employees were so worried before January 6, 2021 that they warned the U.S. Secret Service that Trump could fuel violence against him because he was unwilling to cancel the election, according to The New York Times. (The Secret Service has since stated that it is “unaware” of this conversation.) Some of Pence’s top advisers, who have cooperated with the committee’s investigation, could be called as witnesses during the public hearings.
Leading Republican officials and right-wing media figures knew in real time that only Trump could call off the mafia and end the deadly carnage at the Capitol, according to text messages that these Trump allies sent to the cabinet chief. Trump, Mark Meadows. on January 6th. CNN obtained its texts after it partially complied with a subpoena to deliver the messages.
Despite these pleas, according to committee members, Trump spent 187 minutes during the riots watching television and working on the phones, apparently pleased with how his supporters fought for him at the Capitol. He reacted with approval when he learned that some of the rioters were singing “Hang Mike Pence,” according to testimony the panel received from a Meadows aide.
To focus on those crucial hours in the White House, the panel interviewed people who were with Trump that day, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Clips of his videotaped statements are likely to be played for the first time in public hearings, which are just some of the never-before-seen details that lawmakers have provoked.
Read more about the research here.