The House Select Committee on Jan. 6 voted Thursday to issue a subpoena to seek testimony from the man whose actions have been at the center of the nine-member panel’s investigation over the past year: l ‘former president Donald Trump.
Committee members unanimously approved a motion to subpoena the twice-impeached former president at the end of the panel’s ninth investigative hearing, likely the last public session before November’s midterm elections.
The chairman of the select committee, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, called Trump “the only person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6” and said the panel must hear from a way that goes “beyond” the fact. – Find out what you have committed to in the last year.
“This is a question of accountability to the American people. He must be held accountable. He must be held accountable for his actions. He is being held accountable for those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is being asked to answer to those millions of Americans whose votes he wanted to throw away as part of his plan to stay in power and whatever is in place to ensure that accountability under the law,” he said . “This committee will demand full accountability from every American person for the event of January 6th. Therefore, it is our obligation to demand testimony from Donald Trump.”
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman and one of two Republicans on the select committee, introduced a series of videos showing Trump associates invoking their right against self-incrimination rather than answering questions about conversations with the former president
He also said the panel can make criminal referrals, but stressed that a singular task remained: getting answers from Mr. Trump.
“At some point, the Justice Department could uncover the facts that these and other witnesses are currently hiding,” he said, adding that the panel’s “duty” today was “to our country, our children and our constitution”.
“We are compelled to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And all Americans have a right to those answers,” he said.
He said other witnesses “have gone to great lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with” the former president, noting that one, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, has been convicted of criminal contempt of Congress as a result of refusing to testify.
New footage from Jan. 6 shows Speaker Pelosi’s response as Capitol riots unfold
Trump is likely to fight having to appear before the committee, where he would be required to testify under oath and face the risk of perjury charges if he lies. But if he does testify, he will be the first former president to testify before a congressional committee since March 1983, when former President Gerald Ford appeared at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the bicentennial of the US Constitution.
The vote to compel the former president’s testimony came after a two-and-a-half-hour hearing, during which committee members presented evidence showing Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office against the wishes of the American voters. as a “coordinated plan by several parties to ensure that he stayed in power” despite being well aware that he had lost the election.
Thursday afternoon’s hearing did not feature any live testimony, but the court filing included new documentary and testimonial evidence, as well as a summary of the myriad bombshells delivered by witnesses who testified during the eight-plus sessions held in the months of June and July.
Video evidence showed Trump allies celebrating the violence
Earlier in the hearing, the committee played a video of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone calling for violence and saying Trump should simply declare victory before the 2020 presidential election is called.
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” he said in the video presented by the committee. “We won. Fuck you.”
The January 6 panel shows Roger Stone calling for violence before the attack on the Capitol
The video also showed that Mr. Stone told his supporters: “F**k the vote”, before adding “let’s go straight to violence”.
Another previously unseen video showed members of the House and Senate leadership struggling to get help from Defense Department officials as their workplace was being ransacked by a riotous mob of Trump supporters.
In one clip, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was seen on a phone call with then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to enlist the assistance of hundreds of police and National Guard troops to support the Capitol Police and the Washington DC police officers who had been fighting a medieval war. -hand-to-hand battle style against hordes of armed Trumpists.
Another showed Senator Chuck Schumer, then the House Minority Leader, in conversation with then-Attorney General William Barr.
Schumer angrily demanded that Mr. Barr tell Trump to order his supporters to disperse.
“Yes, why don’t you have the president tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General with your responsibility to enforce the law,” he said, his voice dripping with contempt.
Secret Service emails show warning of violence
Other new evidence made clear how much warning federal officials had of the dustbin Mr. Trump would light on the day Congress made his loss official.
Representative Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee in addition to his role on the select committee, released emails obtained from the U.S. Secret Service that showed the agency tasked with protecting Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, as well as then-President-elect. Joe Biden and then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris knew Trump’s supporters were planning violence on the day Congress convened to certify Trump’s defeat.
Schiff said the Secret Service had notice of the strong possibility of violence at least 10 days before the Capitol riot, based on a Dec. 26, 2020 tip received from the FBI informing the agency that members of the Proud Boys, a violent pro-Trump gang, “plan[ned] march armed to DC”. One FBI source said the group thought they would be in large enough numbers to “outnumber the police” who would be unable to stop them.
Rep. Pete Aguilar of California also presented internal Secret Service emails showing that rally-goers present at Trump’s speech at the Ellipse were armed with rifles and handguns and intended to march on the Capitol.
“What is clear from this record is that the White House had more than enough notice to justify halting any plans for an ellipse rally and certainly to halt any march to the Capitol,” he said. “The Secret Service knew that members of the crowd were armed, President Trump had been told, and there was no doubt that President Trump knew what he was going to do: send in an angry mob, some of them tactically dressed. military equipment and clothing, armed with various weapons to the Capitol.”
Video shows U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacting to the Capitol riots as they unfolded
(AFP via Getty Images)
Aguilar said there was “no scenario” under which Trump’s actions that day would have been “benign,” nor was there any scenario under which any American president would have been justified in engaging in similar conduct.
Trump’s actions showed that he knew he had lost the election
The committee also presented additional evidence that Mr. Trump was aware that his loss to Biden had been legitimate and was unlikely to be overturned.
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the other Republican on the committee who is retiring at the end of the year, revealed that Trump sought to withdraw all US troops from Somalia by December 31, 2020, and that troops from Afghanistan before January 15, 2021, a clear indication that Mr. Trump knew he would leave office five days later.
In a committee interview, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as the vice president’s national security adviser, said the results would be “catastrophic.”
“Note that the order was for an immediate withdrawal,” Kinzinger said. “It would have been catastrophic, but President Trump signed the order.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, right, chairs the committee
(Getty Images)
For her part, Democratic representative Elaine Luria of Virginia spoke about how Mr. Trump continued to spread misinformation and said the committee’s report will document “intentional lies made in public directly at odds with what Donald Trump he knew from unassailable sources, the Justice Department’s own investigations, and his own campaign.”
“Donald Trump maliciously repeated this nonsense to a wide audience over and over again,” he said. “His intention was to deceive.”
Ms. Luria, who is running for re-election in Virginia’s competitive 2nd District, also highlighted how she tried to coerce state officials into altering the election results.
“These actions taken directly by the president himself made it clear what his intentions were to prevent the orderly transfer of power,” he said, specifically pointing to his attempt to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The final hearing comes less than a month before November’s midterm elections. Rep. Jamie Raskin said he wasn’t worried about how the committee’s findings would play with voters.
“We have a mandate to make a report to Congress and to the entire American people about what happened on January 6, and what were the causes behind it and what are our recommendations going forward,” he said.