User:NewsAndEventsGuy/111 Public hearings of the United States House Select Committee on the 2021 Capitol Attack

In July 2021, the United States House of Representatives formed a select committee to investigate the attack on the US Capitol following then-President Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Called by Trump to Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, a mob that wanted to keep Trump in power attacked a joint session of Congress to prevent the counting of electoral college votes that would formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The rioters over-ran and assaulted law enforcement officers, broke in through windows and doors, forcing building occupants to evacuated or shelter-in-place, Over the course of several hours the mob vandalized property and threatened violence against Vice-President Mike Pence and other lawmakers. Many people were injured, including 138 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. monetary damages caused by attackers exceed $2,700,000.

The vote forming the investigative committee in July 2021 broke largely along party-lines. The only republican members on the committee are Vice-Chair Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who were formally censured by the Republican National Committee because of their participation.

By May 2022, the committee had interviewed more than 1,000 people. Some members of Trump's inner circle cooperated with the committee, while others defied it. In June 2022, the committee began holding televised hearings and taking witness testimony mostly from republicans. At the first of these hearings, Vice-Chair Cheney said the hearings would present showing that the attack was the culmination of a 7-part plan by which then-President Donald Trump tried to cling to power. Cheney said the plan consisted of

The hearings are still ongoing, and when the committee's work is done they expect to produce a final report. In the meantime various members of the committee have opined that they already have sufficient evidence for the DOJ to consider indicting Donald Trump.

This was originally copied from United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack public hearings and is a sandbox draft to explore possible chages for proposing to pagewatchers.

On July 27, 2021, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack held its first public hearing.

On June 9, 2022, the Committee began holding live televised public hearings for the year 2022.

During this second hearing, the chair and vice-chair (Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, respectively) said that President Donald Trump tried to stay in power even though he lost the 2020 presidential election. Thompson said it was a "coup".

Cheney said the hearings would present evidence showing that Trump used a seven-part plan, culminating in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The committee has been calling live witnesses, most of whom are Republicans, and some are Trump loyalists.

They testified under oath. The committee is also making extensive use of video from a number of sources, including sworn deposition testimony obtained earlier.

During this hearing, the committee shared footage of the attack, discussed involvement of the Proud Boys, and included testimony from a documentary filmmaker and a member of the Capitol Police.

The third hearing focused on evidence showing that Trump knew he lost and that most of his inner circle knew claims of fraud did not have merit. William Barr testified that Trump had "become detached from reality" because he continued to promote conspiracy theories and pushed the stolen election myth without "interest in what the actual facts were."

The fourth hearing examined how Trump and others pressured Vice President Mike Pence to selectively discount electoral votes and overturn the election by unconstitutional means, using John Eastman’s fringe legal theories as justification.

The fifth hearing included appearances by election officials from Arizona and Georgia who testified they were pressured to "find votes" for Trump and change results in their jurisdictions. The committee revealed attempts to organize fake slates of alternate electors and established that "Trump had a direct and personal role in this effort."

The sixth hearing focused on Trump's pressure campaign on the Justice Department to rubber stamp his narrative of a stolen election, the insistence on numerous debunked election fraud conspiracy theories, requests to seize voting machines, and Trump's effort to install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.

The seventh hearing's exclusive witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Conversations within Trump's inner circle revealed White House officials knew, days in advance of January 6, that violence was possible. Her testimony showed Trump knew supporters at the Ellipse rally were armed with AR-15s and other weapons and that he wanted less stringent security checks at his speech. Trump planned to join the crowd at the Capitol and became irate when the Secret Service refused his request. Closing the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney presented evidence that witness tampering may have occurred.

Schedule

 * Note: The originally scheduled fourth hearing for June 15, 2022 was postponed.

At least two hearings will be held in July 2022. According to Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, the two planned July sessions will describe the attack on Congress by a mob of violent extremists. Evidence will be presented to show how, during a period of three hours, Trump did nothing to call off or deter the insurrection.

Background
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election culminated in a mob of Trump's supporters attacking the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

The House of Representatives passed a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, but it failed due to a filibuster by Republicans in the Senate.

The House then formed a select committee led by seven Democrats and two Republicans.

The hearings are part of the select committee's investigation.

In advance of the hearings, congressional Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, began to organize themselves to defend Trump. This messaging presented a challenge for them, in part because they did not know in advance what information the committee would reveal at the hearings.

McCarthy spoke to donors on the morning of the second hearing, advising Republicans to ignore the proceedings, refuse public comment and avoid the topic. He suggested their party should instead discuss election issues that could garner more votes, such as focusing on rising inflation or fuel prices. Insiders have said former president Trump was not necessarily pleased with this strategy and felt there was "no one to defend" him.

Synopsis
The first public House Hearing occurred on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 9:30 am/et/usa entitled, "The Law Enforcement Experience on January 6th [2021]".

According to C-SPAN, "January 6 Committee Meeting with Capitol and D.C. Police: Capitol and District of Columbia police testified at the first hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Witnesses described their experiences on that day and efforts to protect the Capitol and elected officials. Throughout the hearing, graphic video footage captured during the attack was shown."

Synopsis
The second public hearing of the Select Committee was broadcast live on prime time television. The Washington Post emphasized the committee's use of never-before-seen footage of the January 6 riot to provide an accessible and compelling narrative of events for the public.

Opening statements by the panel members
The committee panel observed that Donald Trump attempted to overturn a free and fair democratic election by promoting a seven-part conspiracy. According to Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, "Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government ... The violence was no accident. It represents Trump’s last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power." According to the committee, Trump "lied to the American people, ignored all evidence refuting his false fraud claims, pressured state and federal officials to throw out election results favoring his challenger, encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol and even signaled support for the execution of his own vice president."

Panel members made reference to a federal district court opinion in which the Judge David O. Carter said Trump had "likely" violated two federal statutes and staged a "coup in search of a legal theory". Rep Liz Cheney read part of the opinion, in which the court said: "If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself."

Cheney urged all Americans to read the opinion in full. Cheney said Trump's efforts were part of a "sophisticated seven-part plan", which the committee hearings would establish.

A written version of the above plan was released after the hearing.

Trump knew that he lost
Many in Trump's inner circle informed the president he had lost and there was no evidence of widespread fraud. According to several video clips of prior testimony shown by the committee:
 * A senior adviser to the Trump campaign, Jason Miller, testified that Trump was internally advised he had lost the election. According to Miller, the campaign's top data aide, Matt Oczkowski, told Trump very shortly after the election "in pretty blunt terms, that he was going to lose".
 * Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon testified he'd spoken to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in November 2020 soon after the election and told Meadows there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. According to Cannon, Meadows replied: "So there's no there there."
 * Attorney general Bill Barr said, regarding Trump's desire to put out the message that "the election was stolen": "I told the president [it] was bullshit."
 * Ivanka Trump said she "accepted" Barr's assessment.

Rush to issue presidential pardons
Cheney observed the White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his team of lawyers had threatened to resign in response to an increasingly hostile climate of lawless activity within the Oval Office. Another video clip was then shown in which Jared Kushner characterized Cipollone's concerns as "whining." During his testimony, Kushner claimed that his primary "interest at that time" was to complete as many presidential pardons as possible. Cheney also said that Representative Scott Perry and other Republican members of Congress had "sought Presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election."

Attack on the Capitol


The committee showed video, much of it never before seen by the public, of the mob charging the Capitol and battling police. The video began with scenes of roughly 200 Proud Boys leading the assault on the Capitol. As later scenes showed a violent rampage, audio was overlaid of Trump later saying, "The love in the air. I’ve never seen anything like it." As the attack lasted several hours, the video contained timestamps to illustrate the timeline. Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested provided testimony during the live hearing; he was embedded with the Proud Boys on January 6. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards also testified live and in-person; she was seriously injured on January 6 while defending the Capitol against initial attacks by Proud Boys and during the mob violence that followed.

Quested testified that he joined the Proud Boys at the National Mall at 10:30 a.m., saying "I don't know if violence was a plan, but I do know that they weren't there to attend the rally because they had already left the rally by the time the president had started his speech." According to Quested, they then walked around the Capitol while taking some pictures and observed a sole police officer at the barricades by the Peace Circle. After suggesting the Proud Boys were doing reconnaissance to spot security weaknesses, Chairman Thompson observed that the Proud Boys chose that barricade and breached it at about the same time President Trump directed the rally attendees to march to that same location. He then said: "Now a central question is whether the attack on the Capitol was coordinated and planned. What you witnessed is what a coordinated and planned effort would look like. It was the culmination of a months' long effort spearheaded by President Trump."

Officer Edwards, who had sustained multiple injuries during the attack, testified that the group of Proud Boys who first approached the police barricades began by shouting rhetoric to turn the police into "villains" and then began their assault. She described in detail her experiences and injuries as police fell back. When asked what she remembers most vividly, Edwards described moving from an area with a relatively small field of view to one where she had her first view of the events unfolding before the Western Terrace. "When I fell behind that line and I saw, I can just remember my — my breath catching in my throat, because what I saw was just a — a war scene. It was something like I'd seen out of the movies. I — I couldn't believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up ... Never in my wildest dreams did I think that, as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle. You know, I — I'm trained to detain, you know, a couple of subjects and — and handle — you know, handle a crowd, but I — I'm not combat trained.'"

Pence called for the National Guard
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, in videotaped testimony, said the White House encouraged him to claim that Trump had ordered the National Guard to respond on January 6, even though it was Pence who in fact gave the order. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on January 6 that former President Trump had "directed" the National Guard to respond. The reasons that the White House attempted to falsely credit Trump for National Guard mobilization remains unclear.

It was always known that Pence gave the order. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller had publicly stated so on the day of the attack. As a result, CNN later questioned whether Pence was "acting as commander in chief." Miller gave similar testimony to Congress on May 12, 2021, before the House select committee was formed.

Synopsis
The third hearing concentrated on both how and why Trump and surrogates spread false claims of voter fraud in various jurisdictions proliferated following the 2020 United States presidential election.

Witness testimony
Former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia B.J. Pak testified. Pak resigned from his position days before the January 6 attack; he later told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the White House informed him Trump would fire him if he did not publicly state his office had found election fraud in Georgia.

Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News politics editor, testified. Fox News was the first network to declare Biden as having won Arizona in the 2020 election; Stirewalt testified that as the vote count wrapped up, he saw Trump's statistical chances of winning shrink to essentially zero. After Stirewalt defended that journalistic choice, Fox News fired him in January 2021.

Al Schmidt, the Republican former city commissioner of Philadelphia, testified. He had drawn Trump's ire for refusing to publicly announce the city's election results were rife with fraud. He resigned in 2021, saying he had received death threats.

Ben Ginsberg, a long-term Republican election attorney involved in the controversial Bush v. Gore litigation, testified as an expert about why Trump's election lawsuits failed.

Subpoena and absence of Bill Stepien
Bill Stepien was subpoenaed to testify, but his wife went into labor and he canceled his appearance; his attorney was then to have read a statement on his behalf, but did not. Stepien is a longtime Republican operative who joined Trump's 2016 campaign, later becoming the White House political director, before becoming Trump's campaign manager two months before the 2020 election. He was involved in the Stop the Steal effort, including spreading false information about voting machines despite a staff memo finding the allegations were false. Stepien had provided the committee a deposition under subpoena in December 2021. The Select Committee made ten video clips of Stepien's deposition available following the meeting.

Knowledgeable insiders dismiss voter fraud allegations
The Select Committee showed several video clips of White House and Trump campaign insiders patly dismissing claims of voter fraud.
 * Trump adviser Jason Miller said Rudy Giuliani was "definitely intoxicated" on election night when he advised Trump to lie that he had won.
 * Trump campaign staffer Bill Stepien said he disagreed with Giuliani's advice on this matter: "Ballots were still being counted. It was far too early to be making any proclamation like that." Stepien said that Trump's advisers fell into two camps on this matter, and Stepien considered himself to be on "Team Normal".


 * More video of Barr's testimony was presented. At times he could not control his laughter at the absurdity of some fraud allegations, such as the "Italygate" conspiracy theory, which claims that satellites controlled from Italy had been compromised and used to attack voting machines, and that former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez had orchestrated an election fraud scheme, despite having died seven years earlier. Barr testified Trump never gave "an indication of interest in what the actual facts were," adding the president had "become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff." Barr also laughed at the mention of Dinesh D'Souza's recent film 2000 Mules, dismissing the fictional assertions of widespread election fraud.

False claims appeared in Trump fundraising
Committee member Zoe Lofgren and the Select Committee's senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick described how Trump used false claims of election fraud by a "left-wing mob" to solicit donations for an "Official Election Defense Fund" beginning days after the election. The solicitation raised some $250 million in total, nearly $100 million in the first week. Lofgren noted most election-related litigation had ended within weeks of the election, yet the requests for cash contributions continued. Reuters analysis of the legal language of the email solicitations days after they began showed that donors were asked to register for recurring donations and that donations under $8,000 would not go into a defense fund, but rather to Trump's Save America PAC and to the Republican National Committee, which would have broad discretion over the funds. Lofgren asserted, "Not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off." Lofgren later said on CNN that the committee had evidence that members of Trump's family and inner circle had personally benefited from the post-election fundraising, specifically stating that Kimberly Guilfoyle had been paid $60,000 for delivering a 2½ minute introduction at the Stop the Steal rally, though that fee was paid by Turning Point Action.

Synopsis
The fourth public hearing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 15 but was postponed due to "technical issues." Committee member Zoe Lofgren said that the small audiovisual team needed more time to prepare video and exhibits. The next hearing was held one day later, on Thursday, June 16, at 1 P.M. (ET). The hearing examined how Trump and others pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results. Pence himself was not present at the hearing and did not offer video testimony.

Experts testimony on the Constitutional role of the Vice President in the election
J. Michael Luttig, a longtime Republican who had clerked for Antonin Scalia and Warren Burger before becoming a federal appeals court judge, testified in-person. Had Pence "obeyed the orders from his president," it "would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis," he said.

Before the hearing, Luttig wrote a statement for the record that Trump and his allies "instigated" a war on democracy "so that he could cling to power." He continued, "It is breathtaking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the President of the United States at that perilous moment in history" and that January 6 "was the final fateful day for the execution of a well-developed plan by the former president to overturn the 2020 presidential election at any cost." On the day before the Capitol attack, Luttig had—at the request of Pence's aides—publicly opined that the vice president had no constitutional authority to intervene in the election certification, which Pence cited in his January 6 letter stating he would not intervene.

Greg Jacob, former counsel to Pence, testified in-person. He had advised Pence he did not have the authority to overturn the election results. In his legal opinion, he said, those who wrote the Constitution wouldn't have "put it in the hands of one person to determine who would be the president of the United States". He also said that John Eastman had told him privately that he didn't expect a single Supreme Court Justice would support the validity of the fake electors scheme.

A video was shown of testimony by Marc Short, former Pence chief of staff. According to Short, Pence knew he had no legal authority to overturn the election and had said so "many times" to Trump.

Narrative of Vice President Pence and the events of January 6
Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann had told the committee that Rudy Giuliani privately admitted on the morning of January 6 that Pence didn't have authority to overturn the election, even though Giuliani gave a speech at the Ellipse that afternoon telling the opposite to the crowd. Herschmann's videotaped testimony was publicly revealed for the first time.

According to a timeline presented by the committee, by 2:10pm the Capitol had been breached and the mob began swarming in. Trump became aware of the breach and at 2:24pm tweeted, "Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary." The committee revealed that the mob, some chanting "hang Mike Pence," came within 40 feet of the vice president as he was evacuated from his office to an underground loading dock. Greg Jacob testified the Secret Service instructed Pence and his aides to get in cars, which most did; Pence declined, and the head of his security detail assured the vice president he would not be evacuated from the Capitol without his permission. Pence responded that he knew and trusted his security chief, but that he was not the one driving the car. Jacob said Pence did not want the world seeing him fleeing and giving the insurgents any satisfaction from it. Pence then spent the next five hours in a secure underground location within the Capitol Building complex. The Department of Justice spoke to a confidential witness who traveled to Washington with the Proud Boys and swore under oath that they would have killed Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi if given the chance.

The committee alleged that Eastman was aware his "coup memo" and other legal recommendations and political activities were potentially criminal. He emailed Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani several days after the attack on the Capitol, saying, "I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works", but he did not receive a pardon. During his taped deposition, he pleaded the Fifth 100 times―reserving the right to avoid self-incrimination―and refused to answer any questions regarding his participation in the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Luttig warns about 2024
At the close of the hearing, Luttig said:

"Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy. They would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, but succeed in 2024 where they failed in 2020. I don't speak those words lightly. I would have never spoken those words ever in my life, except that that's what the former president and his allies are telling us ... [that they] are executing that blueprint for 2024 in the open, in plain view of the American public."

Synopsis
While the fourth hearing focused in large measure on efforts to pressure Pence to falsely certify Trump as the victor, the fifth hearing examined a scheme to refuse and return certified Biden elector slates back to seven key states, which had Republican-controlled legislatures. Leveraging the false allegations of election fraud, it was at Trump's "direct request" that the RNC assisted by organizing the fake slates of electors for Pence to certify. The scheme, promoted by Trump attorney John Eastman, came to be known as the Pence Card. The committee presented part of a video deposition of Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, who testified Trump had called her about helping to further the scheme; Eastman also participated in the call.

Trump calls the Georgia Secretary of State
Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, whose phone call with Trump was cited in the former president's second impeachment, testified that his office pursued hundreds of allegations of voter fraud but found no widespread fraud that would have changed the election result. In the end, he found only 74 votes from people who had been ineligible to vote because of felony convictions and only 4 votes in the names of deceased people. There were no votes from underage or unregistered voters. (Biden had won the Georgia election by 11,779 votes.) Gabriel Sterling, Raffensperger's deputy, also testified.

During the Raffensperger testimony, the committee played audio excerpts of the phone call he had with Trump on January 2, 2021, and another call with Frances Watson, the chief investigative officer for Raffensperger's office. Trump told Watson, "when the right answer comes out you'll be praised." Trump is heard to tell Raffensperger he had won Georgia by at least 400,000 votes, though he actually lost by 11,779 votes. He told Raffensperger, "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state." Trump repeated a debunked allegation that a video showed a suitcase containing a minimum of "18,000 ballots, all for Biden" brought to a ballot counting facility late at night for counting. Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to find "the real truth" and suggested Raffensperger could be criminally liable if he did not accede to the president's wishes:"Why wouldn't you want to find the right answer, Brad, instead of keep saying that the numbers are right? So look, can you get together tomorrow? And Brad, we just want the truth. It's simple. And – and everyone's going to look very good if the truth comes out. It's Ok. It takes a little while, but let the truth come out. And the truth — the real truth is I won by 400,000 votes, at least. So — so what are we going to do here? Because I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break...I think you're going to find that they are shredding ballots because they have to get rid of the ballots because the ballots are unsigned, the ballots are — are corrupt and they're brand new and they don't have seals and there's a whole thing with the ballots, but the ballots are corrupt and you're going to find that they are — which is totally illegal. It's — it's more illegal for you than it is for them. Because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a — you know, that's a criminal — that's a criminal offense. And you know, you can't let that happen. That's — that's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. And that's a big risk."

Surrogates pressured the Arizona House leadership
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testified. Bowers said that Trump had personally pressured him to overturn the state's election results, as had Rudy Giuliani, Ginni Thomas, and John Eastman. Bowers said that Eastman told him: “Just do it and let the courts sort it out.” Bowers characterized Trump's scheme as "cheating", since there was "no evidence being presented of any strength" of the claims. He said that participating in Trump's lie would have been "foreign to my very being." He also testified that Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs called him on the morning of January 6, asking him to overturn the Arizona results. Shortly before the committee hearing, Trump released a statement saying that Bowers had privately agreed with him in November 2020 that the Arizona election was rigged and stolen, but Bowers specifically denied Trump's allegation during the hearing while under oath. Bowers testified Giuliani told him, "We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence."

Sean Riley "alternate electors" plan for Wisconsin and Michigan
The committee revealed a text message sent by Senator Ron Johnson's aide Sean Riley minutes before the vote certification began on January 6. In the message, Riley informed Pence's aide Chris Hodgson that the senator wanted to personally hand deliver information to the vice president about "alternate slates of electors for MI and WI" to which Hodgson replied, "do not give that to him."

Impact of false fraud allegations on election workers
Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss testified about their experiences. After the election, Trump and Giuliani amplified a video that was taken out of context, and used the footage to make baseless claims that Freeman and Moss had committed election fraud. The women and their family members were subjected to anti-Black racist smears and death threats and were warned by the FBI that they would not be safe in their home. During her testimony, Freeman said "There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?" Ms. Moss said that the false accusations made against her had impacted her well-being "in a major way — in every way — all because of lies."

Reactions to fourth hearing
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum acknowledged on June 21 after the fourth hearing: "The lack of [election fraud] evidence is the huge stunning clear moment here, where these [Republican] people are saying, 'Look, I supported you, please give me something to work with,' and it simply doesn’t materialize." Fox News host Brian Kilmeade similarly said on June 26 that Trump's allies "couldn’t prove" any cheating had occurred.

By the fourth hearing, committee members saw an increase in threats against them and were likely to be assigned security details. Kinzinger's wife received a handwritten letter that threatened to execute her, her husband and their five-month-old baby.

Synopsis
The sixth public hearing focused on Trump's pressure campaign to influence top Justice Department officials, demanding they investigate election fraud conspiracy theories and rubber stamp his narrative that the election was stolen, despite any factual evidence to support this claim. The hearing additionally detailed Trump's request to seize voting machines in late December 2020; plans to install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general were also revealed. Witnesses included Jeffrey Rosen, former acting attorney general; Richard Donoghue, former acting deputy attorney general; and Steven Engel, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.

"Just say it was corrupt"
At Trump's request, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller contacted an attaché in Rome about the debunked QAnon theory which alleged an Italian defense contractor uploaded malware to a satellite in order to hack the election results and remotely switch votes from Trump to Biden. The conspiracy theory was relayed by Congressman Scott Perry to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who then asked Rosen and Donoghue to investigate on behalf of the Department of Justice. They flatly rejected the request as "patently absurd." The conspiracy theory was also pushed by former CIA employee Bradley Johnson, who was among those who gave video testimony.

Rosen and Donoghue continued to strongly resist Trump's efforts to have the Justice Department announce election fraud had been found, just days after outgoing attorney general Bill Barr had resigned and announced that there was no significant evidence found which could have influenced the election. Donoghue testified that during a phone call with then president Trump on December 27, he was told to "Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."

On December 31, Trump rushed back to Washington, D.C. from his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate in order to hold an emergency meeting at the White House, in which Justice Department officials were called upon to attend. At one point, Trump told them that voting machines had been hacked and the election stolen. Trump then asked "why don’t you guys seize these machines?" Richard Donoghue explained that experts at DHS had already investigated and that there was "nothing wrong with the voting machines ... and no factual basis to seize machines." Trump then yelled: "Get Ken Cuccinelli on the phone" and proceeded to insist that it was his job, as the Homeland Security deputy secretary, to seize voting machines. He told Cuccinelli "you’re not doing your job." During the public hearing, Jeffrey Rosen testified that the Department of Justice has no legal authority to seize voting machines and that he never informed Trump that the Department of Homeland Security could seize voting machines either.

Aborted attempt to install Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General
Clark was shown to have provided a "proof of concept" letter, that was composed by John Eastman and Justice Department lawyer Ken Klukowsi, intending that the letter be delivered to Georgia officials. The letter falsely asserted that the Justice Department found election irregularities in that state and others, in an effort to persuade the state legislature to rescind Biden's certified victory in Georgia. In response to this proposed letter, a "contentious" meeting was held between Clark, Attorney General Rosen, and Deputy Attorney General Donoghue, in which Donoghue told Clark: "What you are doing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election." When Rosen refused to send the letter, Clark then sought to take over the Department of Justice so that he could send the letter himself.

According to The New York Times it was Rep. Scott Perry who had first introduced Trump and Clark, because of Clark's "openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud" and willingness to do the president's bidding. The committee presented text messages from December 26, 2020 between Rep. Perry and Mark Meadows, that revealed the congressman's role in the attempted scheme that unfolded days later to oust Rosen and install Clark as the top DOJ official.

White House call logs from the afternoon of January 3 showed that officials within the Oval Office were already referring to Clark as the "Acting Attorney General" although not having been officially appointed to the position. Later that day, in a meeting at the White House with top Department of Justice officials, Trump openly considered a move to replace Rosen with Clark, saying "What do I have to lose?" to which Deputy Attorney General Donoghue replied "Mr. President, we'd resign immediately. I'm not working one minute for this guy, who I just declared was completely incompetent ... I'm telling you what's going to happen. You're gonna lose your entire department leadership. Every single one of us will walk out. Your entire department of leadership will walk out within hours."

Ultimately, the effort to appoint Clark, send the letter to Georgia officials, and attempt to decertify election results was averted when a majority of the DOJ Assistant Attorneys General threatened to resign en masse if the scheme went forward. During Clark's video taped deposition with the committee, he refused to answer most questions, and pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times during his 100-minutes-long interview with investigators.

Request for preemptive pardons
Extracts of a January 11 email sent by Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks were shared. The congressman, who had championed efforts in the House to overturn the election in Trump's favor, contacted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows with pardon requests for himself, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert and "every Congressman and Senator" who recently voted to reject official electoral college submissions for Arizona and Pennsylvania. White House aides mentioned that Andy Biggs of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania had all requested preemptive pardons. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, previously told the committee that Rep. Jim Jordan also talked generally about pardons for members of Congress.

Synopsis
The seventh hearing was dedicated entirely to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Meadows had provided a large amount of documentation to the committee but then stopped cooperating, sued the committee, and was held in criminal contempt of Congress in December 2021.

Due to heightened security concerns surrounding Hutchinson's testimony, the committee announced this hearing only one day in advance. Ms. Hutchinson obtained her own security prior to her public appearance, and the committee enhanced its security for the sixth hearing at which she testified.

Prelude to January 6
Hutchinson said that Rudy Giuliani told her on January 2 that Trump and his allies planned to go to the Capitol on January 6. When she reported this to her boss, Meadows, he "didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of ... 'things might get real, real bad'." The committee also showed prior videotaped testimony in which Hutchinson said the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were mentioned in the context of planning the January 6 rally, especially in Giuliani's presence. She said that White House counsel Pat Cipollone tried to prevent anyone from the White House from marching to the Capitol and told her personally: "Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cass. ... We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable."

Hutchinson said that Meadows wanted to go to Giuliani and Eastman's "war room" at the Willard Hotel on the evening of January 5. She said she persuaded him not to, and he said he would phone into their meeting instead.

Former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn who was present at that meeting, was subpoenaed by the committee to testify. Some of this video deposition was shown at the hearing. During the interview, Rep. Cheney asked: "General Flynn, do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America?" He refused to answer the question, and responded with: "The Fifth."

Hutchinson testified that on the day before the Capitol attack, Trump directed Meadows to contact Flynn and Roger Stone, who both had extensive ties to extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, leaders of which would later be indicted for seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the attack.

Hutchinson account of January 6
Trump had insisted on specific language for his speech at the January 6 rally. Hutchinson recalled legal advice given by Eric Herschmann, who said it would be "foolish" to include some of the phrases, such as "We’re going to March to the Capitol" and "Fight for Trump ... Fight for the movement." Herschmann also warned against making negative references to Mike Pence.

Some people brought weapons, including AR-15s, to Trump's speech, according to police radio transmissions. Trump knew the crowd was armed yet wanted security checks loosened; he specifically wanted the magnetometers removed. Hutchinson, who was present at the rally, testified that she heard Trump say "something to the effect of 'I don't F-ing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me.'" Meadows and deputy chief of staff for operations Tony Ornato were also aware of the weapons, according to Hutchinson. As the mob became more vocal, calling for Pence to be hanged, Hutchinson overheard a conversation between Cipollone and Meadows, in which Cipollone argued that they needed to act urgently to prevent violence. Meadows, however, reminded Cipollone of Trump's current feelings that Pence "deserves it" and that Trump "doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."

She testified that Trump wanted to appear in-person at the Capitol following his speech to supporters. Secret Service agent Robert Engel said it would not be safe to go to the Capitol and insisted on taking him to the White House instead. Hutchinson was told later that day by Tony Ornato that Trump became very angry and insisted he wanted to go to the Capitol. Ornato said Trump grabbed for the steering wheel of the presidential SUV with one hand and lunged at Engel with his other hand, according to Hutchinson. She testified that Engel was sitting in a chair, looking "somewhat discombobulated and a little lost" while Ornato related the account of these events, and that Engel never contradicted the story.

CNN reported three days after Hutchinson's testimony that it had spoken with two Secret Service agents who had heard accounts of the incident from multiple other agents since February 2021, including Trump's driver. Although details differed, agents confirmed there was an angry confrontation, with one agent relating that Trump "tried to lunge over the seat — for what reason, nobody had any idea," but no one asserted Trump assaulted Engel. Politico reported the same day that Engel told the committee during an early 2022 deposition that he had kept his full account of the incident from his Secret Service colleagues for at least fourteen months.

While the committee questioned Hutchinson, they showed brief clips of the videotaped testimony of others. National Security Council records, which identified Trump by his codename "Mogul," also backed Hutchinson's claim that security was loosened, and that orders were made to NSC and Secret Service for "clearing a route".

Immediate January 6 aftermath
Hutchinson testified that during the riot she wrote down from Meadows' dictation a proposed statement the president might release, instructing the insurgents to leave the Capitol. She said White House attorney Eric Herschmann "chimed in" with his input. The note was displayed during the hearing, and Hutchinson confirming it was in her handwriting. After the hearing, Herschmann said through a spokesperson that he had written the note.

Hutchinson testified that both Meadows and Giuliani sought presidential pardons.

Rep. Cheney addresses possible tampering
In closing remarks, Cheney expressed concern that some witnesses may have been given messages intended to influence their testimony. She said a witness, whom she did not name, told the committee they had received multiple such messages prior to giving testimony to the committee: "What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I'm on the team, I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect, you know, I'll continue to stay in good graces in Trump world." She quoted another unnamed witness being told that "he is thinking about you", that "he knows you're loyal" and "will do the right thing." Two days after the hearing, Politico reported that Hutchinson was the recipient of the quoted communications, prior to her March 7 deposition, and that the "he is thinking about you" message came from an intermediary for Mark Meadows. Cheney stated that the committee was taking allegations of witness tampering seriously and that they would consider the "next steps" necessary to address the issue.

Reactions to seventh hearing
According to Time, "Hutchinson’s testimony garnered a reaction that no other had received to date. As she exited the hearing room when the committee broke for a short recess, a crowd in the back applauded her." Fox News host Bret Baier said her "testimony was very compelling from beginning to end"; conservative commentator George Conway said "This is the most astonishing testimony I have ever seen or heard or read. You could litigate or investigate for a thousand years and never see anything as mind-blowing as this." The Lawfare blog editorialized, "Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony Changed Our Minds about Indicting Donald Trump". The testimony was widely characterized by legal analysts and the press as highly significant, particularly in the context of possible indictments of Trump and his associates. The Justice Department had been pursuing a criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Former Trump attorney general Bill Barr remarked, "the department is clearly looking into all this, and this hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on."

After Hutchinson's testimony, CNN reported that an unnamed "Secret Service official familiar with the matter" said Ornato denied telling Hutchinson about a physical altercation. CNN also reported that the DHS Office of Legislative Affairs would make involved agents available to the committee for sworn testimony, at which time they would be prepared to say the incident did not occur.

Ornato led Trump's Secret Service detail until the president named him White House deputy chief of staff for operations in December 2019; Ornato took an unprecedented leave of absence from his civil service Secret Service position to accept the political appointment. Politico reported two days after Hutchinson's testimony that members of the committee were skeptical of Ornato's credibility due to assertions made in his January and March depositions. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig, author of the 2021 book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, characterized Engel and Ornato as "very, very close to President Trump." During an MSNBC interview she stated: "some people accused them of at times being enablers and 'yes men' of the president — particularly Tony Ornato — and very much people who wanted to ... see him pleased." Leonnig said there was a large contingent of Trump's Secret Service detail that wanted Biden to fail and some "took to their personal media accounts to cheer on the insurrection and the individuals riding up to the Capitol as patriots."

Trump responded by attacking Hutchinson repeatedly on the Truth Social platform which he owns. He disputed the veracity of many of her statements and called her a "liar" and "total phony." With regard to Trump's denials about Hutchinson's testimony, Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted on June 28: "Cassidy Hutchinson is under oath on Capitol Hill. The President is on Truth Social ... [Her] testimony in and of itself is really, really powerful."

On the same day as Hutchinson's testimony, anonymous conspiracy theorist "Q" posted to 8kun, claiming Hutchinson was involved in a plot to disparage Trump. QAnon influencer Jordan Sather called Hutchinson a "plant", writing on his Telegram channel: "Is Cassidy being used as a Trojan Horse to destroy the credibility of these hearings with her obviously fake testimony?"

In response to the sixth hearing, conservative author David French wrote an article for The Dispatch titled "The Case for Prosecuting Donald Trump Just Got Much Stronger." According to The Guardian, "In French's view, Trump demonstrably summoned the mob, knew it was armed and dangerous, told it to 'fight like hell' and tried to march with it." French wrote that "Hutchinson's sworn testimony closes a gap in the criminal case ... Trump is closer to a credible prosecution than ever before."

On the day after Hutchinson's testimony, the Washington Examiner, a conservative publication widely read by Trump supporters, published an editorial entitled "Trump proven unfit for power again." The paper's board wrote, in part, "Cassidy Hutchinson's Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump's political career ... Trump is a disgrace. Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024. No one should think otherwise, much less support him, ever again."

Synopsis
The eighth hearing is expected to present links between then-President Donald Trump and the extreme domestic militias that helped coordinate the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, according to January 6th Hearing Member U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin. The New York Times stated that the committee and panel of witnesses is expected to discuss "the rise of the right-wing domestic violent extremist groups that attacked the Capitol and how Mr. Trump amassed and inspired the mob." In addition, the panel is expected to describe "known links and conversations between political actors close to Mr. Trump and extremists." Raskin reportedly stated, "Donald Trump solicited the mob; he summoned the mob to Washington ... All of this was targeted on the joint session of Congress." Former Trump White House deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews has agreed to publicly testify during this hearing.

Synopsis
A ninth hearing has been scheduled for July 14, 2022. This hearing, which may be broadcast on prime time television, will focus on outlining efforts which were made to pressure Vice President Pence to reject Electoral College votes from a handful of states that gave Joe Biden his election victory.

June 9, 2022
The first public hearing of 2022 was carried live by all the major networks except Fox News. Live coverage was provided by major broadcast television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as cable channels such as C-SPAN, CNN, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, and Newsmax, as well as various live streaming outlets. Nielsen Media Research estimates that at least 20 million households watched the first hearing on traditional television, comparable to the average rating for NBC Sunday Night Football, which ranks as television's number one program.

Instead of airing the hearing live, Fox News broadcast Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity without commercial breaks for the entire two-hour hearing. During Carlson's show, he repeated false claims about FBI involvement, stating that federal agents had instigated the violence during the January 6 riots. On Sean Hannity's show, he referred to the January 6 House Select Committee hearing as a "boring ... Hollywood production" and blamed the Capitol Police for their inability to defend the U.S. Capitol Building and prevent mob violence.

The New York Times observed that by "not carrying the hearings live in prime time" Fox News was able to avoid a potentially "awkward on-screen moment." During the weeks following the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity promoted Trump's election fraud narrative. Previously disclosed text messages between Hannity and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany were presented during the hearing, which revealed a coordinated internal strategy and agreed-upon public messaging campaign with the Fox News host.

NPR's David Folkenflik said coverage of the hearing would have required Fox News to "broadcast flat contradictions of what many leading Fox News personalities have told their audiences in the past year and a half." Chris Hayes, of MSNBC, condemned Fox News saying they "went to great lengths" by not airing the hearing and that the network simultaneously countered the findings of the House Select Committee investigation by doing "everything in their power to make sure their viewers were shielded from the brutal truth about the violent coup that Donald Trump fomented." For example, Hayes said their skipping of commercial breaks would cost the network unknown thousands of dollars but tended to keep viewers from switching to the other networks, where they would have found live hearing coverage.