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WASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are chronicling at its Thursday hearing all that was happening in Congress and at the White House during the 187 minutes between then-President Donald Trump’s fiery speech and his video encouraging the mob to go home.
Committee members have argued that Trump’s lack of response was a dereliction of duty under the Constitution to protect Congress.
- Hawley fled: The committee spotlighted how lawmakers had to be evacuated to avoid the Jan. 6 mob, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who had thrown a fist in the air in support of the protesters who were at the gates before they breached the Capitol.
- Watching Fox News: The in-person and videotaped testimony detailed what President Trump was doing during the height of the Jan. 6 violence, and witnesses said he was mostly watching cable news, specifically Fox New, for more than two and half hours.
- Thompson by remote: Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, who is the chairman of the committee, is attending Thursday’s hearing remotely after testing positive for Covid-19 this week.
- Witnesses back up Hutchinson: Two witnesses on Thursday supported previous testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, who said during a previous hearing how Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol with protesters. One national security aide, who was kept anonymous by the panel, said if the former president had been allowed join the rioters it would have turned into a “insurrection, coup”
- Taking the lead: The primetime hearing is being led by two lawmakers who are military veterans — Democrat Elaine Luria, of Virginia, and Republican Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/21/jan-6-hearing-trump-updates/10086925002/
Former White House adviser Steve Bannon lashed out on Friday at the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, hours after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the committee’s investigation.
Driving the news: “I support Trump and the Constitution and if they want to put me in jail for that, so be it,” Bannon told Fox News host Tucker Carlson during Friday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight.
What he’s saying: In his remarks, Bannon implied there would be retribution for those involved with the bipartisan commission.
- “I will tell the Jan. 6 staff right now, preserve your documents, because there’s going to be a real committee and this has to be backed by Republican grass-roots voters,” Bannon said.
Catch up fast: Bannon was found guilty Friday of two counts of contempt of Congress after he failed to comply with a subpoena from the Congressional select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
- Bannon was not working for the administration on the day of the riot, but the committee wanted his testimony because he was in communication with other key officials in the lead up to Jan. 6, and it believed his podcasts contributed to what occurred that day, the Washington Post reports.
- Bannon’s lawyers argued the Department of Justice’s case against him was politically motivated.
What’s next: Bannon’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
- Each misdemeanor count could result in a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as fines up to $100,000 per count. Bannon’s attorneys said they would appeal the decision, the Post reports.
Go deeper: Inside Trump ’25: How former president could gut federal bureaucracy in second term
Source Article from https://www.axios.com/2022/07/23/steve-bannon-jail-donald-trump
The Department of Defense (DOD) failed to retain text messages from a number of its top officials relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot because it wiped their phones during the transition, a watchdog group that sued for the records disclosed Tuesday.
American Oversight filed a public records request for the communications of former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy in the days after the attack on the Capitol.
But they were informed during litigation that the records were not preserved.
“DOD and Army conveyed to Plaintiff that when an employee separates from DOD or Army he or she turns in the government-issued phone, and the phone is wiped. For those custodians no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched,” the agencies wrote in a March court filing.
The disclosure follows news that numerous officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also had their messages erased during the transition, including former acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli. Both had their phones reset following the inauguration, losing any texts from Jan. 6 in the process.
The inspector general at DHS also notified Congress last month that text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 were “erased” as part of a device replacement program.
The Secret Service contends any text messages that might be missing were lost through a software transition.
The effort to obtain Pentagon texts could have shed light on why the National Guard faced delays in getting approval to go to the Capitol as it was under siege.
The suit sought the military leaders’ communications with former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows. The request also asked for communications from Kash Patel, Miller’s chief of staff; Paul Ney, the Defense Department general counsel; and James E. McPherson, the Army’s general counsel.
Patel was also subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
American Oversight sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate, noting that each official’s phone appears to have been wiped after their records request was filed.
“DOD has apparently deleted messages from top DOD and Army officials responsive to pending FOIA requests that could have shed light on the actions of top Trump administration officials on the day of the failed insurrection,” Heather Sawyer, the groups executive director, wrote in the letter, referring to the Freedom of Information Act.
“American Oversight accordingly urges you to investigate DOD’s actions in allowing the destruction of records potentially relevant to this significant matter of national attention and historical importance.”
Both DOD and the Justice Department declined to comment.
It’s the second time in less than a week that Garland has been called upon to intervene in a Jan. 6-related matter.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) penned a letter to the attorney general last week asking him to review what he called “the destruction of evidence” at DHS. Durbin also asked Garland to “step in and get to the bottom of what happened to these text messages and hold accountable those who are responsible.”
— Updated at 5:38 p.m.
Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3585008-dod-wiped-phones-of-trump-era-leaders-erasing-jan-6-texts/
“This is only the beginning of the irregularities,” he insisted, reeling off a litany of polling grievances, none of which his team of lawyers was able to substantiate in court after the election. “We’re not talking about Arizona any more. We’re talking about the United States of America.”
The Republican-controlled Maricopa County government has strongly opposed the review conducted by a company called Cyber Ninjas, whose founder has backed Trump’s claims of a stolen election.
Trump repeatedly praised the efforts of the Arizona Senate’s audit, as he has done previously in a stream of press releases issued from his private post-presidency residence in Mar-a-Lago. “You’ve created a movement all over the country,” Trump said.
“I’m hearing Texas wants to do a forensic audit,” he said, bizarrely citing a state he won handily, alongside ongoing efforts to cast doubt on the the long-settled vote in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Previous speakers including Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs, Debbie Lesko and Paul Gosar largely echoed Trump’s remarks about election fraud.
He cast further doubt on the results of the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election, while touting his own popularity and prospects should he decide to run. At one point Trump falsely intimated he could return as president before the next presidential election.
In lengthy diatribes on his loss, he blamed Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Vice President Mike Pence and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while defending the actions of his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
“Like it or not we are becoming a Communist county,” he said, targeting the media over its coverage of Biden and his son, Hunter, during the election.
In a largely familiar speech, he hit Biden on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that runs from Russia to Germany by way of Ukraine. He touted his administration’s actions on Covid, but did not advocate for vaccinations.
In particular, the former president’s remarks on his former vice president garnered a loud chorus of boos from his supporters.
“I only wish that my friend Mike Pence had that additional courage to send the results back to the legislatures,” Trump said of Pence certifying his election loss.
The booing was perhaps only matched by that which followed Trump’s hyping of the “woke” U.S. women’s soccer team’s recent loss in the Olympics to Sweden.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/24/trump-election-claims-rally-500719