WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of inciting a crowd of supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch attempt to stay afloat. power fueled by a chaotic meeting with some of his most ardent supporters.
The House committee also produced evidence that outside aides and agitators knew before the riots that Trump would urge thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol that day.
The seven Democrats and two Republicans on the panel have used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to undo his defeat in the 2020 election constitute illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.
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When the three-hour hearing ended, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said Trump had tried to call a possible committee witness, raising the possibility that he might have tried to illegally influence the testimony of witnesses. Read more
In the video testimony shown during the hearing, witnesses described a noisy six-hour meeting on the night of December 18, 2020, where Trump ignored White House employees who urged him to grant the election. November 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden.
Instead, Trump sided with outside advisers who urged him to continue to press his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
Committee members said Trump was ultimately responsible for the chaos that followed.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child … He is responsible for his own actions and his own elections,” said Cheney, the committee’s vice chairman.
Committee members said Trump incited the riots because of his refusal to admit he lost the election and through comments such as his December 19, 2020 post on Twitter, shortly after the meeting, because the his supporters would come to Washington for a “big protest,” saying, “Be there, it will be wild.”
Trump, a Republican who has hinted that he will seek the White House again in 2024, denies the wrongdoing and falsely claims he only lost because of widespread fraud that benefited Biden, a Democrat.
“NOT HARD ENOUGH”
The committee reproduced the recorded testimony of White House attendees describing the furious December 18 meeting where a handful of Trump’s outside advisers, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell and Patrick Byrne , former CEO of Overstock.com, 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 lawyer in the White House, said in a video testimony.
A video of former US President Donald Trump is being played while Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, said during a public hearing of the Select Committee of the House investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. , at the Capitol, Washington, USA, June 28, 2022. Anna Moneymaker / Pool via REUTERS
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Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Democratic committee, showed a text from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave an explosive testimony last month, saying of the meeting, “The west wing is baffled.”
Giuliani, who was escorted from the White House grounds, said in a video testimony that his argument had been, “You’re not tough enough. Or maybe I say it another way: you’re a bunch of pussies, sorry for the expression. I “. I’m pretty sure the word was used. “
The attack on the Capitol, after a speech Trump delivered at a rally in front of the White House, delayed certification of the Biden election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and resulted in several deaths.
“A LOT WAS ORGANIZING”
The committee presented evidence that said it showed that Trump’s call to his supporters to march on the Capitol was not spontaneous, but had been planned in advance.
The panel displayed an unsent Twitter message about the rally, with a stamp showing that Trump had seen it: “Please arrive soon, massive crowds are expected. Go to the Capitol afterwards. Stop the robbery!” “
The committee also reproduced an audio testimony from a former Twitter employee describing his fear after Trump’s December tweet and January 5’s deep concern about the possibility of violence on January 6th.
“It looked like a mob was organizing and they were gathering their weapons and their logic and reasoning behind why they were ready to fight,” the Twitter employee said, his voice disguised.
Some 800 people have been charged with participating in the Capitol riots, with some 250 convictions so far.
The hearing also looked at links between right-wing militant groups, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and the Internet conspiracy movement QAnon, with Trump and his allies. Many Oath Keepers and Proud Boys took part in the January 6 attack.
Two witnesses testified in the courtroom: Stephen Ayres, who has pleaded guilty to one federal charge for participating in the attack on the Capitol, and Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers.
Ayres said he joined the march because he believed in Trump and that he had since lost his job, sold his house and no longer believes in Trump’s “big lie” that the election had been stolen. “It changed my life, you know, definitely not for good.”
Trump and his supporters, including many Republicans in Congress, dismiss the Jan. 6 panel as a political witch hunt, but his supporters say it is a necessary investigation into a violent threat to democracy.
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Report by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan, additional report by Sarah N. Lynch, Doina Chiacu and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Howard Goller
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