Committee aides wouldn’t say whether or not they had any additional engagement with Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence about testifying. Pence said this summer that he’d “take into account” testifying earlier than the committee.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, said final month that the committee plans to place collectively an interim report in mid-October, with a last report to come back earlier than the tip of the yr, after the midterm elections.
The committee held a collection of public hearings over the summer season that had been additionally broadcast nationally. The hearings confirmed never-before-seen video from the assault but in addition confirmed video testimony from Trump administration officials about his refusal to just accept election outcomes and plans by his allies to replace electors in battleground states that President Joe Biden received whereas additionally threatening local and state elections officials.
Thompson confirmed over the summer that the committee has been having “conversations” with the Justice Division concerning the phony elector plan. Within the June 21 public hearing, committee member Rep. Adam Schiff stated these faux electors finally met on Dec. 14, 2020, in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin, signing paperwork claiming they had been duly elected electors from their state.
The committee stated that GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin wished handy ship alternate, fraudulent electors to Pence forward of the joint session of Congress, based on texts the committee offered.
The hearings highlighted Trump and his allies’ strain campaigns on totally different branches of presidency to overturn the 2020 election outcomes, together with the previous president’s try and install environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark on the helm of the Justice Division, lawyer John Eastman’s argument to Pence that he had the facility to override the Electoral Faculty, and Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to influence native and state elections officers.
The hearings additionally featured in-person testimony from former Trump administration officers, a former Fox News political editor, a Capitol police officer, a rioter who pleaded guilty, amongst others.
The hearings included bombshell revelations about Trump’s response to the Jan. 6 assault.
Hutchinson and different former White Home aides testified – each in individual and on video testimony – that they knew Trump had misplaced the election and that pushing the narrative that he had received was a lie. Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary, testified that as violence erupted at the Capitol, the press workplace was arguing over Trump’s response and appeared stunned {that a} colleague did not wish to condemn the rioting as a result of doing so could be “handing a win to the media.”
“I could not consider that we had been arguing over this in the midst of the West Wing .. And so, I motioned up on the TV and stated, ‘Do you assume it appears like we’re f’ing successful? As a result of I do not assume it does,'” Matthews stated.
In that very same listening to, the committee performed a never-before-seen video exhibiting Trump rehearsing to present an announcement on Jan. 7, 2021. Even after the mayhem of Jan. 6 and that Congress had licensed the Electoral Faculty depend, Trump refused to say he had misplaced the election.
“I want to start by addressing the heinous assault yesterday, and to those that broke the regulation, you’ll pay,” Trump stated within the footage. “You don’t symbolize our motion, you don’t symbolize our nation, and in the event you broke the regulation — cannot say that. I already stated you’ll pay…”
“However this election is now over. Congress has licensed the outcomes,” he continued, earlier than stopping and presumably addressing his aides. “I do not wish to say the election’s over. I simply wish to say Congress has licensed the outcomes with out saying the election’s over.”
