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      From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearings

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      AnalysisFrom Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsMartin PengellyAs the House January 6 committee is set to publish its report, here are some of the key standouts07:50The House January 6 committee is set to publish its report on the attack on the Capitol that shocked both America and the world . After a year of dramatic hearings and bombshell testimony, here are some of the key winners and losers to emerge from its work.Liz CheneyWho: Wyoming Republican congresswoman, with Adam Kinzinger of Illinois one of two GOP members of the committee.Winner or loser: Winner.Why: As vice-chair to Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who began his political career in Mississippi under Jim Crow, the Wyoming Republican and daughter of ex-vice-president and neocon’s neocon Dick Cheney helped bring genuine bipartisan spirit to the committee’s proceedings. Once the committee was in session, Cheney emerged as its star prosecutor. Witheringly focused, she rode losing her own seat in Congress to a Trump-backed challenger in August to keep her eyes on the prize: establishing Trump’s culpability for January 6 and stopping him ever returning to power.Jamie RaskinWho: Democratic Maryland congressman and professor of constitutional law who endured the attack on Congress shortly after losing his son.Winner or loser: Winner.Why: To vastly oversimplify (and not to discount the other committee members), if Cheney was the star prosecutor, Raskin was the best defense attorney the constitution, Congress and even the Capitol building could have, launching heartfelt appeals to the spirit of American democracy while making clear the enormity of the crime in hand. Never far from a reference to Abraham Lincoln or the founders, Raskin provided perhaps a softer public face than Cheney, but one no less determined.Cassidy HutchinsonWho: Former aide to Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff, and special assistant to the president.Winner or loser: Winner.01:42Why: In taped testimony and in person, Hutchinson described Trump’s approval of chants from Capitol rioters about hanging his vice-president, Mike Pence, and attempts by Republicans in Congress to have Trump issue pardons before leaving office. She added details of the behavior of Trump, Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and other key figures before January 6 and throughout that day. Among extraordinary scenes described by Hutchinson: Trump lunging for the wheel of his vehicle when told he could not go to the Capitol with his supporters; Trump throwing food at the White House walls; and Meadows refusing to do anything at all to rein in his boss.Mike PenceWho: Trump’s vice-president, who rejected the idea he could stop certification of election results.Winner or loser: Winner.Why: The panel seemed to make a political decision to portray Trump’s doggedly loyal vice-president as a hero, for not supporting the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s win. Pence did seek counsel as to whether he could do what was asked but he did not do it and faced real danger at the Capitol as the mob shouted for him to be hanged and gallows went up outside. Since the hearings, Pence has continued to shape his likely challenge to Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, conducting a fearsome balancing act: discussing his role in stopping Trump’s assault on democracy while evincing pride in what he says the Trump administration achieved before it.J Michael LuttigWho: Conservative judge who advised Pence he had no power to stop certification.Winner or loser: Winner.02:17Why: Luttig delivered devastating testimony with undoubted authority – and a chilling warning. “A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021,” he said, adding: “Almost two years after that fateful day … Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger.” That, he said, was “because to this very day the former president and his allies and supporters pledge that in the presidential election of 2024, if the former president or his anointed successor as the Republican party presidential candidate were to lose that election, they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, but succeed in 2024 where they failed in 2020.”John EastmanWho: Conservative law professor who claimed certification could be stopped.Winner or loser: Loser More

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      January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpability

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      January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpabilityFinal report by House select committee is scheduled for release in December – but fixation on Trump has opened a rift on the panel The House January 6 select committee’s final report into its investigation is expected to focus heavily on Donald Trump’s involvement in the Capitol attack and his potential culpability, opening a rift on the panel weeks before its scheduled release in the middle of December.Justice department asks Pence to testify in Trump investigationRead moreThe nature of the final report – alongside criminal referrals to the justice department – is expected to be the defining legacy of the investigation that brought into sharp relief Trump’s efforts to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win and return to the White House for a second term.As the final report is currently drafted, an overwhelming focus is on the findings of the “gold team” that has been examining Trump and White House advisers’ roles in orchestrating a multi-part strategy to overturn the 2020 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.The move to home in on Trump, principally driven by the select committee’s vice-chair, Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, was in part because the actions of the former president – which a federal judge has said probably violated several criminal statutes – were particularly compelling, multiple sources said.But that fixation on Trump has exposed in recent weeks a deepening rift on the panel, with the since-departed lawyers on the other teams, including the “blue team” examining issues like intelligence failures by the FBI, angered that their findings were set to be relegated to appendices.The simmering discontent from some of the current and former staff has since reached the panel’s members, and an NBC News story earlier this month has since prompted discussions about changing some of the eight chapters in the final report, though they were already broadly complete.‘Trump should be held accountable’: Guardian readers on the Capitol attack hearingsRead moreThe members, one of the sources said, have discussed inserting some of the findings of the non-gold team investigators in the January 6 narrative. But the members have been reluctant to highlight conduct by Trump’s allies that might have been unsavory but probably not criminal.The final report is still scheduled to be released in the middle of December, and after the Senate runoff election in Georgia, where the Trump-backed candidate Herschel Walker trailed the Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock in the general election in a disappointing midterms for the GOP.At the same time, the select committee is weighing what potential criminal and civil referrals to the justice department might involve; the panel was scheduled on Tuesday to receive a briefing from a special subcommittee led by congressman Jamie Raskin examining the matter.The subcommittee, which also involves Cheney, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren – members with a legal background, or, in the case of Schiff, prosecutorial experience – has also been tasked with resolving other outstanding issues including how to respond to Trump’s lawsuit against his subpoena.A spokesman for the panel could not immediately be reached for comment.The question of whether and what referrals to make to the justice department has hovered over the investigation for months since the select committee’s lawyers came to believe that Trump was involved in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct Congress over January 6.‘Devoid of shame’: January 6 cop Michael Fanone on Trump’s Republican partyRead moreThe select committee won a substantial victory in March when the US district court judge David Carter ruled that Trump “likely” committed multiple felonies in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win.But some members on the panel in recent months have questioned the need for referrals to the justice department, which has ramped up its investigation into the Capitol attack and issued subpoenas to Trump’s allies demanding appearances before at least two grand juries in Washington.The attorney general, Merrick Garland, last week appointed Jack Smith to serve as special counsel overseeing the probe into whether Trump mishandled national security materials and obstructed justice, as well as key elements of the criminal inquiry into the Capitol attack.And even before the appointment of Smith as special counsel, the department asked former vice-president Mike Pence whether he might voluntarily testify to a grand jury hearing evidence about efforts to stop the certification on January 6, the New York Times earlier reported.TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsLiz CheneynewsReuse this content More

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      Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimony

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      Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimonyPanel vice-chair issues statement with chair Bennie Thompson after Trump vice-president gives interview to CBS The chair and vice-chair of the January 6 committee hit back after Mike Pence said they had “no right” to his testimony about the Capitol attack, and claimed they presided over a “partisan” investigation.Trump bills himself as only option but Republicans split on 2024 runRead moreTestimony presented to the panel and to the nation in a series of dramatic public hearings was “not partisan”, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said. “It was truthful.”Pence was speaking to CBS, to promote a new book in which he sets out his version of events on the day supporters of his president, Donald Trump, attacked Congress, some chanting that Pence should be hanged.Pence previously said he would consider testifying. But to CBS, he said: “Congress has no right to my testimony on separation of powers under the constitution of the United States.“And I believe it will establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice-president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”Trump supporters attacked Congress after he told them to “fight like hell” to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win, in service of the lie that it was the result of electoral fraud. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including suicides among law enforcement.Trump was impeached a second time but acquitted when Senate Republicans stayed loyal. On Tuesday, he announced a third consecutive presidential run.Pence is also eyeing a run for the Republican nomination. In doing so he must balance promoting his record as vice-president to Trump, thereby appealing to Trump’s supporters, with distancing himself from a former president whose standing is slipping after Republican disappointment in the midterm elections.Pence said he was “closing the door” on the prospect of testifying.“But I must say again, the partisan nature of the January 6 committee has been a disappointment to me. It seemed to me in the beginning, there was an opportunity to examine every aspect of what happened on January 6, and to do so more in the spirit of the 9/11 Commission, non-partisan, non-political, and that was an opportunity lost.”The January 6 committee was appointed by the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, after the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, tried to appoint Trump allies to a 9/11-style panel. Pelosi rejected those appointments, leading McCarthy to withdraw from the process.The January 6 committee consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans, Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, anti-Trump figures who will soon leave Congress.Who’s next? Republicans who might go up against Trump in 2024Read moreThe panel is wrapping up its work, after it was confirmed on Wednesday that Republicans will take control of the House.In their statement, Thompson and Cheney said: “The select committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice-President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book.“Our investigation has publicly presented the testimony of more than 50 Republican witnesses, including senior members of the TrumpWhite House, the Trump campaign, and the Trump justice department.“This testimony, subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress, was not ‘partisan’. It was truthful.”TopicsMike PenceJanuary 6 hearingsLiz CheneyUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Liz Cheney backs second Democrat, picking Ryan over Vance for Ohio Senate

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      Liz Cheney backs second Democrat, picking Ryan over Vance for Ohio SenateLeading anti-Trump Republican has already endorsed Democrat Elissa Slotkin for re-election in Michigan The Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has now endorsed two Democrats for election in the midterms next week by backing Tim Ryan in his Ohio US Senate race against JD Vance after endorsing Elissa Slotkin for re-election to the US House in Michigan.Michigan Democrat’s lead shows abortion may be the issue that decides midterm racesRead moreIn Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, Cheney told the journalist Judy Woodruff she backed Ryan, currently a Democratic congressman, over Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist who abandoned criticism of Donald Trump in order to publicly embrace him.“I would not vote for JD Vance,” Cheney said.Asked if she would vote for Ryan if she lived in Ohio, she said: “I would.”In an unexpectedly tight race, the polling website FiveThirtyEight puts Vance two points up.The daughter of the former vice-president Dick Cheney is a stringent conservative but has nonetheless emerged as perhaps the leading anti-Trump Republican. She rose to national prominence as vice-chair of the House January 6 committee, seeking to establish Trump’s guilt regarding the US Capitol attack, but in August lost her primary in Wyoming to a Trump-backed challenger.Speculation continues over whether Cheney will mount a presidential run in 2024, whether for the nomination in a party dominated by Trump or as an independent. She has not confirmed or denied any plans.She has said she will leave the Republican party if Trump is the nominee again.Cheney endorsed Slotkin last week, saying: “While Elissa and I have our policy disagreements, at a time when our nation is facing threats at home and abroad, we need serious, responsible, substantive members like Elissa in Congress.”It was Cheney’s first ever endorsement of a Democrat. She was due to campaign for Slotkin on Tuesday evening.Earlier on Tuesday, Slotkin told CNN: “While we disagree – and I look forward to debating her in the future on issues of policy – on democracy, we are in vehement agreement. We agree on one really big thing and that’s that there has to be a democratic system … It’s pretty important to me.”The endorsement happened, Slotkin said, after the Republican approached the Democrat on the House floor in September.“She just said, ‘Look, if there’s anything I can do to help, you just let me know,’ and I said, ‘Really?’ and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and that began the conversation. So I’m appreciative because it’s again just another point of bravery that I think I really admire about her.”JD Vance playing defense in unexpectedly close Ohio Senate race Read moreBefore entering politics, Slotkin was a CIA analyst under Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W Bush, the Republican to whom Dick Cheney was vice-president.Slotkin is running in a newly drawn district against a Republican state senator, Tom Barrett, in what has by some measures become the most expensive midterms race.With a week to go until polling day, Slotkin is pinning her hopes on opposition to Republican abortion bans and the supreme court ruling which this summer overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Cheney has said she remains an opponent of abortion rights.On Tuesday, the polling website FiveThirtyEight gave Slotkin a 74% chance of victory.TopicsLiz CheneyUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      The January 6 panel makes it clear: American democracy needs accountability | Lloyd Green

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      The January 6 panel makes it clear: American democracy needs accountabilityLloyd GreenSlavery and civil war tested us 160 years ago. Again, we are being tested. Midterms are less than a month away Thursday’s House select committee was one like no other. Shortly after 1pm, Liz Cheney, the daughter of a vice-president and Republican grandees, warned that the US, as a constitutional republic, was in danger. Two-and-a-half hours later, seven Democrats and two Republicans unanimously voted to subpoena Donald Trump. In all likelihood, he will never appear. Regardless, history had again been made.“Why would Americans assume that our constitution and institutions of our Republic are invulnerable to another attack?” Cheney pondered.The real story of January 6 isn’t what Trump did – it’s what he didn’t | Moira DoneganRead moreTrump yearned to be a modern-day Caesar. He knew that he had lost the election, yet he persevered.White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin testified that a week after the election Trump blurted out, “Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?” After his defeat in the supreme court, a wrath-filled Trump remained unbowed.Cassidy Hutchinson, a White House aide and a deputy to Mark Meadows, said that he was “just raging”. Trump seethed, futilely grasping for a way out.“I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark,” he told Meadows, his chief of staff and Hutchinson’s boss. “This is embarrassing.”“Trump had a premeditated plan to declare that the election was fraudulent and stolen before election day,” Cheney said. This is not stuff of democracies, but of banana republics and strongmen.Right-wing stalwarts were there for Trump, offering aid and comfort along the way. “Let’s get right to the violence,” Roger Stone, the veteran Trump-hand, chuckled.Steve Bannon briefed Chinese associates over Trump’s election denial strategy. “And what Trump is going to do is just declare victory, right?” Bannon semi-asked, semi-stated.“He’s gonna declare victory, but that doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner.” Bannon later received a presidential pardon. He will be sentenced later this month for his contempt of Congress conviction and faces fraud charges in New York.Peter Navarro, another White House official, concocted the infamous “Green Bay Sweep”. His trial for contempt of Congress kicks off shortly. It’s a rogues’ gallery.Tom Fitton of the well-funded Judicial Watch helped script Trump’s defiance. In a 31 October 2020 email, he urged Trump to declare himself the winner. “We had an election today– – and I won,” Fitton’s email read. Fitton clamored for mass disenfranchisement too.His memo called for Trump to demand that only votes “counted by the election day deadline” be tallied. This time it went way beyond stripping minorities of their vote – a traditional but unstated Judicial Watch goal. Now he was gunning for urban moms and dads too, the bedrock of the Republican party of yesteryear.More broadly, the Republican party’s sedition wing has plenty of allies who wear suits and ties. Ginni Thomas and John Eastman, Justice Thomas’s wife and clerk, respectively, were definitely not alone. It’s not just about folks in camouflage.The armed mob had embraced Trump, and he loved them back. “I don’t care that they effing had weapons,” he muttered on January 6, according to Hutchinson. If blood were to be spilled and the constitution shredded, so be it. It was about clinging to power without legal justification.Documentary evidence presented by the committee revealed that some members of the Secret Service acted like modern-day praetorians, acting oblivious to threats posed by Trump’s supporters to the certification of the election.“Their plan is to kill people,” one message read. “Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further.” Members of the Secret Service knew that a storm was brewing but turned a blind eye. Their loyalty ran to Trump the man, not the office he occupied.“The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of January 6th was one man, Donald Trump,” Cheney made clear.Amid the hearing, the supreme court rejected Trump’s efforts to tamp down on the justice department’s investigation of his mishandling of presidential documents and classified records. Mar-a-Lago now looks ever more like a prison of the ex-game show host’s making, a custom-built gilded cage complete with gold leaf and dining room. Or a set of The Apprentice.After the 1787 constitutional convention, Benjamin Franklin observed that the US was a republic if we could “keep it”. Slavery and civil war tested us 160 years ago. Again, we are being tested. Midterms are less than a month away.
      Lloyd Green is a regular freelance contributor and served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992
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      Capitol attack panel votes to subpoena Trump – ‘the central cause of January 6’

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      Capitol attack panel votes to subpoena Trump – ‘the central cause of January 6’The committee expressed it had ‘no doubt’ the ex-president led the effort to overturn the election A congressional panel has voted to compel Donald Trump to testify under oath after naming the former president as the “central cause” of the deadly attack on the US Capitol on January 6.The House of Representatives select committee investigating last year’s riot voted unanimously on Thursday to subpoena Trump for testimony and documents in what may prove a mostly symbolic gesture, given time constraints and his likely legal resistance.Trump privately admitted he lost 2020 election, top aides testifyRead more“We have left no doubt – none – that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6,” said Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, watched by police officers who defended the Capitol that day.“He tried to take away the voice of the American people in choosing their president and replace the will of the voters with his will to remain in power. He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from him.”Although some members of Trump’s inner circle, including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have testified to the committee, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and four fellow Republicans have ignored subpoenas. The panel is set to dissolve soon after next month’s midterm elections if Republicans gain control of the House.Trump responded to the subpoena via his Truth Social platform but did not say whether he would comply. “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?” he wrote. “Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’.”The select committee has been investigating the attack on the Capitol for more than a year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses. It surpassed many observers’ expectations over the summer with a series of hearings that, polls suggest, convinced some Republicans that Trump bears some responsibility for the riot.On Thursday, at its ninth and possibly final hearing, the panel sought to reclaim the spotlight less than a month before congressional midterm elections in which hundreds of Republicans who back Trump’s false claim of election fraud are running for office.It presented devastating witness testimony that put Trump at the heart of a premeditated coup attempt and violent assault on American democracy.Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, said in an opening statement: “The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of January 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it.“Exactly how did one man cause all of this? Today, we will focus on President Trump’s state of mind, his intent, his motivations, and how he spurred others to do his bidding, and how another January 6 could happen again if we do not take necessary action to prevent it.”The argument echoed earlier hearings which maintained a tight focus on Trump as the singular architect of the insurrection, albeit with the help of aides and enablers, white nationalist extremists and a mob of supporters ready to follow his lead.Cheney – nearing the end of her tenure in Congress after losing a Republican primary race in Wyoming – noted that the committee may ultimately decide to make criminal referrals to the justice department.Leaving no doubt about Trump’s culpability, she added: “Claims that President Trump actually thought the election was stolen are not supported by fact and are not a defence. There is no defence that Donald Trump was duped or irrational. No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in a republic, period.”Unlike past hearings, there was no live witness testimony but, one by one, committee members presented video evidence from witnesses – some of whom had not been seen at its earlier hearings – and information from nearly a million emails, documents and recordings obtained from the Secret Service.Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic congresswoman and member of the panel, argued that Trump planned well in advance to declare victory even before all the ballots had been counted.She said: “We now know more about President Trump’s intention for election night. The evidence shows that his false victory speech was planned well in advance before any votes had been counted. It was a premeditated plan by the president to declare victory no matter what the actual result was. He made a plan to stay in office before election day.”On 31 October 2020, it emerged, the conservative activist Tom Fitton sent an email to Trump aides Molly Michael and Dan Scavino providing a draft statement for Trump to declare victory before mail-in ballots had been counted. It stated: “We had an election today – and I won.”At around 2.30am on 4 November 2020, in the east room of the White House, Trump held a celebratory event in which he declared: “Frankly, we did win this election.”Video evidence showed that Brad Parscale, a former Trump campaign manager, testified to the panel that, as early as July, Trump had planned to declare victory in the 2020 election even if he lost.‘Start smashing pumpkins’: January 6 panel shows Roger Stone discussing violenceRead moreThe committee recently obtained footage of Roger Stone, a political consultant and self-proclaimed dirty trickster who worked for Richard Nixon, from a Danish film crew that followed Stone before and after the election for a documentary entitled A Storm Foretold.A clip from 2 November showed Stone commenting: “I said, fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence.” Although it does not have all relevant records of Stone’s communications, the panel said, even Stone’s own social media posts acknowledge that he spoke with Trump on 27 December – as preparations for January 6 were under way.Lofgren pointed out that Stone was in close contact with two rightwing groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, that had numerous members attack Capitol police officers. Secret Service records showed that agents received tips ahead of January 6 that the Proud Boys planned to march armed into Washington.Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, told the hearing: “A newly obtained secret service message from that day shows how angry President Trump was about the outcome. ‘Just fyi. POTUS is pissed – breaking news – Supreme Court denied his law suit. He is livid now.’”White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then chief of staff Mark Meadows, recalled Trump as being “livid” and “fired up” about the court’s ruling. Trump told Meadows “something to the effect of: ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out,’” Hutchinson told the panel in a recorded interview.The hearing also saw vivid film of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders at a secure location in the Capitol. Schumer was seen urging Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general, to tell Trump to call off the rioters.Trump and his supporters – including many Republicans on Capitol Hill – have dismissed the January 6 panel as a political witch-hunt, but the panel’s backers say it is a necessary investigation into a violent threat against democracy.But Thompson started Thursday’s hearing by making the case that its work is not politically motivated, but rather a bipartisan attempt to get to the bottom of an assault on America’s democracy.“Over the course of these hearings, the evidence has proven that there was a multi-part plan led by former president Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election,” the Mississippi congressman said. “When you look back at what has come out through this committee’s work the most striking fact is that all this evidence has come almost entirely from Republicans.”Trump, a businessman and former reality TV star denies wrongdoing, repeatedly hinting he will run for the White House again in 2024. He regularly holds campaign rallies where he continues to push his “big lie” falsely that he lost because of widespread fraud.The attack on the Capitol injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths. More than 880 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, with more than 400 guilty pleas so far.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpLiz CheneyUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      January 6 panel’s next hearing will focus on Trump’s ‘state of mind’ during attack

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      January 6 panel’s next hearing will focus on Trump’s ‘state of mind’ during attack House select committee will reconvene Thursday with new video footage showing measures to respond during violence at Capitol The ninth and possibly final hearing of the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will focus on Donald Trump’s “state of mind” as the insurrection unfolded.The House of Representatives select committee will reconvene in Washington at 1pm on Thursday after a two-and-a-half month break, and is expected to present new video footage showing efforts to respond to the violence as it was unfolding.House January 6 committee postpones public hearing, citing Hurricane IanRead more“There is going to be some discussion of events that took place prior to election day and there’s going to be some looking at events that took place after January 6,” said an aide to the committee, who did not wish to be named. “We’re going to bring a particular focus on the president’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfold.“So what you’re going to see is a synthesis of some evidence we’ve already presented with that new, never-before-seen information to illustrate Donald Trump’s centrality to the scheme from the time prior to the election.”The committee surpassed many observers’ expectations over the summer with a series of televised hearings that put Trump at the heart of an attempted coup – a premeditated assault on American democracy that sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.On Thursday it will seek to reclaim the spotlight less than a month before congressional midterm elections, in which hundreds of Republicans who back Trump’s false claim of election fraud are running for office.The committee will present documentary evidence that includes information from hundreds of thousands of pages that the Secret Service handed over in response to a subpoena. The records will show how Trump – who encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” in a speech on the morning of January 6 – was repeatedly alerted to danger yet still tried to stoke the violence, the Washington Post reported.Unlike previous hearings there will be no live witnesses, the aide said, but there will be new witness testimony, including from individuals who have not been heard from before. It is unclear whether that will include Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. Her interview by the panel last month was transcribed but not videotaped.Thursday’s hearing is expected to last about two and half hours and include statements from the panel’s chair, Bennie Thompson, and vice-chair, Liz Cheney – nearing the end of her tenure in Congress after losing a Republican primary race in Wyoming – as well as all seven other members of the committee, each presenting different elements of the evidence.Whereas past hearings concentrated on a particular topic, earning comparisons with TV crime dramas or podcasts, this one will take “a step back” and examine “the entire plan”. But in a background briefing with reporters, the aide denied it amounted to a closing argument, saying it was difficult to know the select committee’s schedule going forward.“The investigation is ongoing and, of course, at some point there will be a comprehensive report released which will present the committee’s findings in a more complete manner. That work goes on. I would resist any characterisation that makes this seem like the final time you’re going to hear from the committee.”TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpLiz CheneyUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      House January 6 committee postpones public hearing, citing Hurricane Ian

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      House January 6 committee postpones public hearing, citing Hurricane IanStorm bearing down on Florida nixes session that had been expected to feature footage of Trump ally Roger Stone The House January 6 select committee announced that it would postpone what was expected to be its final investigative hearing scheduled for Wednesday over concerns about a hurricane and as it considers how best to present a number of unresolved questions surrounding the US Capitol attack.McConnell endorses bipartisan bill to prevent efforts to overturn US elections Read more“In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to postpone tomorrow’s proceedings,” the panel’s chairman Bennie Thompson and the vice-chair Liz Cheney said in a joint statement. “We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path.”The hurricane is forecast to reach category 4 and make landfall on Florida’s gulf coast around the time the hearing is scheduled to begin in Washington, bringing hurricane-force winds and major flooding around the Tampa area, which has not suffered a direct hit from a major storm since 1921.That was not the optimal time to be holding the hearing, sources close to the investigation said: members felt it was insensitive to have a hearing during a potential natural disaster, while television coverage of the findings surrounding Donald Trump would probably be diminished.And at least one of the select committee’s members, Stephanie Murphy, had communicated that she was unable and unwilling to leave her Florida district at a time of a statewide crisis to make a rehearsal the night before the hearing, the sources said.The panel had not disclosed the topics it intended to cover in the hearing – expected to be the final “investigative” hearing, though the select committee could hold another around the time it releases its final report and makes recommendations to prevent future repeats of the 6 January 2021 events.But the select committee was expected to focus at least in part on how Trump political operatives planned to declare victory in the 2020 election regardless of the actual outcome, through court battles and other extrajudicial means to secure Trump a second term, the sources said.The select committee was also expected at the hearing to play several short clips from a documentary by Danish film-makers who captured on camera Trump operative Roger Stone predicting violent clashes over the election results months before it took place.It was not immediately clear what date the hearing, which was originally slated for Wednesday at 1pm, would be rescheduled for, though one of the sources suggested sometime in October. The panel said in the statement: “We will soon announce a date for the postponed proceedings.”The hearing is supposed to mark the winding down of the investigative phase of the select committee’s work, though several pressing issues remain unresolved since the panel last convened in July and made the case that Trump violated the law in refusing to call off the Capitol attack.Among them is whether there existed an indubitable through-line from the former president to operatives such as Stone and Michael Flynn, who were in close contact with the far-right extremist groups – including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – since indicted for seditious conspiracy over the insurrection.The select committee has found some circumstantial evidence about such ties and previously revealed that Trump directed his then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to call Stone and Flynn the night before as the extremist groups finalized their plans for the day.Another issue for House investigators is whether Trump’s ouster of former defense secretary Mark Esper was an effort to install a loyalist in his place, one who might have had no objection to using the national guard to seize voting machines or delay their deployment to stop the Capitol attack.Republican ex-congressman suggests colleagues ‘had serious cognitive issues’Read moreThe panel has viewed the plot to seize voting machines – suggested by Flynn during a contentious White House meeting in December 2020, hours before Trump sent a tweet urging his supporters to attend a “wild protest” on 6 January 2021 – as a crucial moment in the timeline.House investigators have also spent time in recent weeks examining Microsoft Teams chats and emails sent between Secret Service agents on security details for Trump and former vice-president Mike Pence that day, as well as discussions about invoking martial law even after the riot.The select committee has also debated in private about how best to highlight other information that it has uncovered, with the members differing on what to present in made-for-television hearings that might reach a broader audience than the contents of a report published later this year.The final stages of its investigation is also playing out against a shifting political situation that could impact how the select committee moves next, including on the question of whether to subpoena Trump himself, as Democrats contemplate potentially losing the House in the midterms in November.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsExtreme weatherLiz CheneyDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More