Tracking the January 6 Commission - Page 3
The National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex, known colloquially as the January 6 commission, known colloquially as the January 6 commission, was a proposed commission that would have investigated the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
”He is destroying his legacy,“ Laura Ingraham wrote in texts revealed by GOP Rep. Liz Cheney during Jan. 6 committee hearingsAntoinette SiuRep. Liz Cheney on Monday revealed during a House committee hearing that multiple Fox News hosts texted the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol. The messages revealed that Sean Hannity and others had urged former President Trump to act on Jan. 6. The House select committee is investigating the Capitol riot and proceeding with holding Meadows in criminal contempt on Congress for not complying with a subpoena. Cheney read the text exchanges aloud during the hearing, with one from Laura Ingraham that said: “The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. … He is destroying his legacy.” Another text from Sean Hannity to Meadows on the same day said: “Can he make a statement?… Ask people to leave the Capitol?”
CNN's Jamie Gangel reports that text messages between Fox host Sean Hannity and then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on election day reveal that Hannity seemed to be taking direction from Meadows.
By Jonathan Chait“I am not told what to say,” Sean Hannity once told his audience. “We have always been independent, follow our own path on this show.” It’s not clear who believes this, but somebody does or, at least, is supposed to. And so it is at least mildly amusing, though hardly a shock, that CNN’s trove of texts to and from Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows include Hannity being told directly what to say: As subject matter goes, this is innocuous stuff. Hannity is simply being told what states he needs to encourage Republicans to turn out to vote and in what format he should do so.
The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 is seeking an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. In a detailed letter Tuesday, the committee revealed several text messages that Hannity sent to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and others. Those texts raise serious questions about what was going on inside the White House. Rep. Madeleine Dean and political strategist Fernand Amandi join Joy Reid to discuss.
By CNN(CNN) CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's January 20, 2021 inauguration. The vast trove of texts, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump's inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the Capitol on January 6. The never-before-seen texts include messages from Trump's family -- daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. -- as well as White House and campaign officials, Cabinet members, Republican Party leaders, January 6 rally organizers, Rudy Giuliani, "My Pillow Guy" Mike Lindell, Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts. There are also text exchanges with more than 40 current and former Republican members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
By Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart, CNNWashington (CNN) CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's January 20, 2021 inauguration. The vast trove of texts offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump's inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The logs, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, show how the former chief of staff was at the nexus of sprawling conspiracy theories baselessly claiming the election had been stolen. They also demonstrate how he played a key role in the attempts to stop Biden's certification on January 6.
ydzhanova@businessinsider.com (Yelena Dzhanova)Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner believes former President Donald Trump and his former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows "wanted the Capitol to be taken" on the day of the insurrection last year. "Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, and others in Donald Trump's administration deprived the Capitol of the federal law enforcement forces it needed to defend itself," Kirschner said in a video posted to YouTube on Friday. "And that, friends, leads to one pretty compelling inference. We can maybe even call it the only reasonable conclusion: That Donald Trump and Mark Meadows wanted the Capitol to be taken; that Donald Trump and Mark Meadows the angry mob to stop the certification of Joe Biden's win." Kirschner's remarks come after testimony given to the House panel tasked with investigating the Capitol riot revealed that Meadows plotted with Republican lawmakers to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In December 2020, Reps. Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and other Republican lawmakers participated in calls and meetings with Trump and his aides after he lost the 2020 presidential election, according to testimony given to the committee by Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to Meadows.
Ronald J. Hansen, Arizona RepublicRep. Debbie Lesko was among a group of House Republicans who attended a late December 2020 meeting at the White House as President Donald Trump and his advisers strategized about how to sidestep the election results. The special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol released documents late on Friday that included testimony detailing the attendees at the Dec. 21, 2020, meeting that also included Arizona GOP Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. Biggs and Gosar were widely known to have attended the meeting, but Lesko's involvement was not previously disclosed. It only added to Arizona's heavy presence at a meeting that included eight House members in person, according to the documents released on Friday.
Deposition excerpts filed by the Jan 6. select committee underscore the expansive cast of elected Republicans who had enlisted themselves in Trump’s effort to cling to power.By Kyle Cheney and Nicholas WuRepublican members of Congress were heavily involved in calls and meetings with former President Donald Trump and his top aides as they devised a strategy to overturn the election in December 2020, according to new evidence filed in federal court late Friday. Deposition excerpts filed by the Jan 6. select committee — part of an effort to force former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to appear for an interview — suggest that some of Trump’s top allies in Congress were frequently present in meetings where a handful of strategies to prevent then-President-elect Joe Biden from taking office were discussed, including efforts to replace the leadership of the Justice Department with figures who would sow doubts about the legitimacy of the election.
Yelena DzhanovaRepublican lawmakers held calls with former President Donald Trump in December 2020 to plot ways to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to court records filed by the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. The committee filed deposition excerpts on Friday, which detail how Republican lawmakers, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, plotted with Trump to stop then-candidate Joe Biden from becoming president. Gaetz, Jordan, and other Republican lawmakers participated in calls and meetings with Trump and his aides after he lost the 2020 presidential election, according to testimony given to the committee by Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, authors of "This Will Not Pass", share audio from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) about then-President Donald Trump following the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
NPR StaffPrior to a unanimous vote to refer Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress charges, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the ranking Republican on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, read a series of text messages she said Meadows received during the Capitol attack. In the messages, several figures, including Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, urge Meadows to get then-President Donald Trump to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol. Cheney said Meadows, who was Trump's White House chief of staff during the siege, turned over the materials before he stopped cooperating with the panel. Her full remarks, as well as the remarks of the committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., are below:
By FARNOUSH AMIRI, ERIC TUCKER and MARY CLARE JALONICKWASHINGTON (AP) — A former White House official told the House committee investigating the Capitol riot that President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had been advised of intelligence reports showing the potential for violence, according to just-released transcripts. Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump White House, told the committee “there were concerns brought forward” to Meadows before the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but it was unclear what Meadows did with that information. “I just remember Mr. Ornato coming in and saying that we had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th,” Hutchinson said, presumably referencing Anthony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official. “And Mr. Meadows said: ‘All right. Let’s talk about it.’”
Daniel ChaitinFormer Vice President Mike Pence's pivotal decision to refuse Secret Service agents trying to evacuate him from the Capitol as threatening rioters charged into the building is taking center stage as the select Jan. 6 committee prepares to address the public. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the panel, did not mince words Thursday as he accused former President Donald Trump of orchestrating a "coup" to stay in power along with his "inner circle" of confidants, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who have mightily resisted cooperating with congressional investigators. Getting Pence, who resisted pressure from Trump and his allies to stall the Electoral College vote count, out of the building during the riot was presented as a keen focus. "This was not a coup directed at the president," Raskin said during a Georgetown University event. "It was a coup directed by the president against the vice president and against the Congress."
The messages could strengthen a theory being explored by the House committee that January 6 included a coordinated assaultHugo LowellTop leaders in the Oath Keepers militia group indicted on seditious conspiracy charges over the Capitol attack had contacts with the Proud Boys and a figure in the Stop the Steal movement and may also have been in touch with the Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, newly released text messages show. The texts – which indicate the apparent ease with which Oath Keepers messaged Proud Boys – could strengthen a theory being explored by the House January 6 committee and the US justice department: that the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault. Oath Keepers text messages released in a court filing on Monday night showed members of the group were in direct communication with the Proud Boys leader Enqrique Tarrio in the days before the Capitol attack.
New texts revealed in the investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection show militia leaders trying to connect with former Trump doctor and Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson. Meanwhile, Trump’s former lawyer is hiding more than 37,000 pages of Trump-related emails from the Jan. 6 committee, asserting attorney-client privilege. MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports on the latest in the investigation.
Ankita Rao in WashingtonDonald Trump attempted a coup on 6 January 2021 as he tried to salvage his doomed presidency, and that will be a central focus of for forthcoming public hearings of the special House panel investigating events surrounding the insurrection at the US Capitol, the congressman Jamie Raskin has said. Raskin is a prominent Democrat on the committee and also led the House efforts when Trump was impeached for a historic second time, in 2021, accused of inciting the storming of the US Capitol by his extremist supporters who were trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. “This was a coup organized by the president against the vice-president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin said in an interview with the Guardian, Reuters news agency and the Climate One radio program.
By Scott MacFarlane, Robert LegareMembers of the far-right Oath Keepers group allegedly exchanged messages about the safety of Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson — who was also Donald Trump's former White House doctor — during the chaos of the U.S. Capitol riot. The messages, one of which said Jackson must be protected because he has "critical data," were part of a batch of newly released messages from members of the alleged Jan. 6, 2021 conspirators, according to a new court filing from one of the defendants. Accused Oath Keeper Edward Vallejo of Arizona is seeking release from pretrial detention and submitted a lengthy court filing ahead of an Apr. 29 court hearing on his request. The 337-page filing includes dozens of pages of messages allegedly exchanged by members of the Oath Keepers in the days prior to Jan. 6, 2021 and during the peak of the violence that day.
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and JusticeJohn Eastman, a far-right lawyer for then-President Donald Trump who wanted to block his electoral loss in 2020, is still withholding about 3,200 documents from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to a new court filing this week. Eastman previously was ordered by the court to turn over 101 documents after he unsuccessfully tried to claim some of his emails from January 4 through January 7, 2021, were confidential legal communications related to Trump. Since then, Eastman has continued to work through nearly 100,000 pages of emails from his Chapman University account that the House Committee seeks from other dates around the election. At this time, Eastman is arguing that the thousands of documents, comprising about 36,000 pages, should stay confidential.
By Richard CowanWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Then-President Donald Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and that will be a centerpiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Trump's second impeachment. On that day in 2021, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, encouraged by the Republican president in a speech outside the White House to protest formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory over Trump in a November 2020 election. "This was a coup organized by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election," Raskin said in an interview with Reuters, National Public Radio and The Guardian newspaper, when asked what he has learned so far from the committee's probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers pressed Stephen Miller, a top aide to former President Donald Trump, during a daylong closed-door interview about Trump’s speech at a rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, according to two people familiar with Miller’s testimony. Miller was questioned for roughly eight hours Thursday by the House committee investigating the riot, which occurred when large crowds of Trump supporters stormed the building in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Miller’s appearance grew contentious at times times, particularly as he pushed back against claims that Trump’s speech contained incendiary, coded language that had spurred his supporters to act, according to two people familiar with the questioning. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the back-and-forth during the closed interview.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) warned President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about overturning the election without evidence, new text messages reveal.
By ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRIWASHINGTON (AP) — Stephen Miller, who served as a top aide to President Donald Trump, was questioned for hours Thursday by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Miller was a senior adviser for policy during the Trump administration and a central figure in many of the Republican’s decisions. He had resisted previous efforts by the committee, filing a lawsuit last month seeking to quash a subpoena for his phone records. Miller was interviewed virtually for about eight hours, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony. A second person also confirmed that Miller appeared before the committee. A spokesperson for the committee said the panel had no comment, and Miller did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
By Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Jamie Gangel, CNNWashington (CNN) In the weeks between the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, almost 100 text messages from two staunch GOP allies of then-President Donald Trump reveal an aggressive attempt to lobby, encourage and eventually warn the White House over its efforts to overturn the election, according to messages obtained by the House select committee and reviewed by CNN. The texts, which have not been previously reported, were sent by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The text exchanges show that both members of Congress initially supported legal challenges to the election but ultimately came to sour on the effort and the tactics deployed by Trump and his team.
The panel says the former Trump senior White House adviser promoted lies about the 2020 election and aided efforts to overturn it.By Jonathan AllenWASHINGTON — Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to then-President Donald Trump, testified virtually Thursday morning before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a person familiar with the panel's activities. When he was subpoenaed in November, the committee wrote that Miller "participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election, as well as efforts to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election by appointing alternate slates of electors." Miller filed suit in federal court last month to block the committee from gaining access to his records.
By Zoe StrozewskiStephen Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump during his presidency, will appear Thursday before the House committee probing the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a source familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. Miller had previously resisted appearing and even filed a lawsuit over a subpoena for his phone records from the committee. The source who spoke about Miller's appearance did so on condition of anonymity, according to the AP. Miller is one of several former administration officials with ties to Trump who have been subpoenaed by the committee as it investigates the causes of the January 6 riot, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to halt or delay the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.
Jason LemonFormer U.S. Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner assessed Friday that Ivanka Trump's testimony before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack against the U.S. Capitol "incriminated" her father. Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, who served as a White House adviser, testified before the House commission on Tuesday. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who chairs the select committee, described her testimony as cooperative in comments to reporters. Kirschner, who has repeatedly called on the Justice Department to indict the former president, argued during an episode of The Stephanie Miller Show that Ivanka Trump's testimony was bad for her father. He also explained that it's been previously reported that she attempted multiple times on January 6, 2021 to convince her father to call off his supporters as they wreaked havoc at the U.S. Capitol.
Republican on House select committee, however, refuses to say whether Trump should be referred for criminal chargesMartin PengellyA key Republican on the House January 6 committee disputed a report which said the panel was split over whether to refer Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal charges regarding his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, leading to the Capitol attack. “There’s not really a dispute on the committee,” the Wyoming representative Liz Cheney told CNN’s State of the Union. The New York Times said otherwise on Sunday, in a report headlined: “January 6 Panel Has Evidence for Criminal Referral of Trump, but Splits on Sending.” “The debate centers on whether making a referral – a largely symbolic act – would backfire by politically tainting the justice department’s expanding investigation into the January 6 assault and what led up to it,” the paper said.
insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman)The leaders of the House committee probing the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, are split on whether to issue a criminal referral to the Justice Department of former President Donald Trump, according to The New York Times. A criminal referral has no concrete legal effect but would allow Congress to notify the Justice Department of the possibility of criminal conduct. However, there is a debate on whether a referral would tarnish the Justice Department's growing investigation into the origins of the January 6 riot. The House committee previously found former top Trump aides Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about the Capitol attack and referred the matter to the DOJ. Since last year, a group of ex-federal prosecutors working for the January 6 panel have been chronicling the insurrection and the effort by Trump and his loyalists to overturn the former president's 2020 election loss to now-President Joe Biden.
Paul KaneOne by one, Republicans eviscerated the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, each one bemoaning the fact that the chief congressional security officials had not been subpoenaed to examine that day’s security lapses. Not interviewing these key officials was proof, they suggested, that the committee was just out to score political points against Republicans. Finally, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shut down that line of debate on Wednesday with some information these Republicans did not seem to know. “We have in fact interviewed precisely the people they set up as a test for the validity of our investigation,” Raskin said. Those top security officials “didn’t need a subpoena” to testify about that horrible day’s events, Raskin said. “They came voluntarily.” The moment served as a reminder for Republicans that they have no insight into this powerful committee’s inner workings.
Fatma KhaledFormer FBI agent Peter Strzok on Saturday suggested that Donald Trump Jr. received help when he texted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows strategies to overturn the 2020 election results. Strzok said during his interview on The Katie Phang Show on MSNBC that the January 6, 2021 investigation should look into the person who may have helped Trump Jr. come up with those texts along to Meadows. The former FBI agent said that he thinks investigators, whether in Congress or the Department of Justice, should question the former president's son about who he was talking to, adding that Trump Jr. didn't come up with these "ideas" on his own. "The question is where did they come from? Is this part of a coordinated activity? It certainly appears to be what played out when January 6th came around," Strzok said. When asked whether it is necessary to interview Trump Jr. and if there is enough evidence to reach an indictment, Strzok said that there are some things that can't be rushed and that it's important for prosecutors and investigators to build evidence.
CNN reports Trump’s eldest son texted chief of staff two days after 2020 election to say ‘we have multiple paths … we control them all’Martin PengellyTwo days after the 2020 election, Donald Trump Jr texted the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, with strategies for overturning the result, CNN reported. “This is what we need to do please read it and please get it to everyone that needs to see it because I’m not sure we’re doing it,” Trump Jr reportedly wrote, adding: “It’s very simple … We have multiple paths[.] We control them all.” One leading legal authority called the text “a smoking rifle”. CNN said the text was sent on 5 November 2020, two days before Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election and the next president.
By Paula Reid, CNNWashington (CNN) Ali Alexander, a key figure in the "Stop the Steal" movement following the 2020 presidential election, says he has received a grand jury subpoena and has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He is the first high-profile figure to confirm cooperation in the government's expanding criminal probe. The New York Times first reported on his cooperation. In a statement issued through one of his lawyers, Alexander said that "the subpoena says that I'm not a target but wants information about the 'Women for America First' 'Save America March' event that preceded the riot." "I don't believe I have information that will be useful to them but I'm cooperating as best I can further reiterating that I'm not a target because I did nothing wrong," he said. Alexander continued: "I denounce anyone who planned to subvert my permitted event and the other permitted events of that day on Capitol grounds to stage any counterproductive activities."
By Ryan Nobles, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer, CNNWashington (CNN) Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still being tallied, Donald Trump's eldest son texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that "we have operational control" to ensure his father would get a second term, with Republican majorities in the US Senate and swing state legislatures, CNN has learned. In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021. "It's very simple," Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same missive: "We have multiple paths We control them all."
Tom LoBiancoWASHINGTON — Despite near daily bombshells relating to the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, pressure is mounting on lawmakers to finish their probe before the 2022 midterm elections, when Republicans are expected to retake control of the House of Representatives and quash the inquiry. “Attorney General [Merrick] Garland, do your job so that we can do ours,” Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said Monday at a meeting of the House's Jan. 6 select committee shortly before voting to hold former Trump White House aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro in contempt for refusing to testify.
Caitlin Dickson and Tom LoBiancoThe House of Representatives voted Wednesday evening to hold two former Trump administration officials in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The aides, former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, and former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino Jr., will now be referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges. If indicted, they could face up to twelve months in jail and a maximum fine of $100,000. Navarro and Scavino did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening on the House vote.
Former President Donald Trump's daughter, who served as senior White House adviser, met with the House committee for a scheduled meeting first reported by NBC News.By Ryan J. Reilly, Garrett Haake and Haley TalbotWASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior White House adviser of former President Donald Trump, spent roughly eight hours Tuesday testifying before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump did not meet in-person with the panel but instead testified remotely. “She’s answering questions,” Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in response to a question from NBC News. “Not in broad, chatty terms, but she’s answering questions.”
by Rebecca Beitsch and Harper NeidigA series of revelations about the involvement of allies of former President Trump in the days leading up to Jan. 6 is providing mounting evidence to the committee charged with investigating the attack as it gears up for prime-time hearings. In the span of just a week, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) revealed the former president pressured him to intervene to unwind the election even after Jan. 6. Texts from Ginni Thomas to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows have also surfaced, showing the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged him to find a way to keep the president in office. And a federal judge found it “more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6.”
Hugo LowellThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is moving to capitalize on new momentum as it embarks on its final push to complete the roughly one hundred remaining depositions and conclude the evidence-gathering phase of the inquiry. The panel has scored two major wins in recent days: more than six hours of testimony from Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and a conclusion by a federal judge that the former president committed felonies to overturn the 2020 election. Members on the select committee believe Kushner’s cooperation might prompt other Trump officials to assist the investigation as the panel inches closer to Trump’s inner circle and the former president himself, according to sources familiar with the matter. The panel has also been buoyed by the federal court ruling that said Trump “more likely than not” violated the law over 6 January, reaffirming the purpose of the investigation and making it harder for Trump’s allies to defy the inquiry, the sources said.
Katie BalevicThe gaps in former President Donald Trump's phone logs on January 6 "suspiciously" coincide with the "heart of events," Rep. Jamie Raskin said on Sunday. White House call logs during the Capitol riot show a gap of seven hours and 37 minutes, leading the House January 6 committee to investigate a "possible cover-up." "It's a very unusual thing for us to find that suddenly everything goes dark for a seven-hour period in terms of tracking the movements and the conversations of the president," said the Maryland Democrat, who is also a member of the January 6 committee. "It does seem like the gaps are suspiciously tailored to the heart of the events." Speaking with Margaret Brennan in an interview on "Face the Nation" on CBS News, Raskin said the committee has been able to "piece together" phone calls that the former president was on.
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump last year of inciting the Capitol insurrection. But neither Trump nor any of his top advisers have faced charges over the attack in a court of law, and it's uncertain if they ever will. But increasingly, lawmakers on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault are pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump and his associates. They've been laying out possible crimes in at least one court filing and openly discussing others, all related to that day's violent attack by Trump supporters looking to disrupt Congress' formal certification of his reelection defeat.
By Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel, Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Paula Reid, CNNJust days before the US Capitol riot, White House officials started providing fewer details about then-President Donald Trump’s calls and visits, the person in charge of compiling those activities for the official record told the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, according to two sources with knowledge of the probe. The committee interviewed Trump’s presidential diarist roughly two weeks ago. That interview has not been previously reported, nor has the testimony describing a noticeable drop-off in information provided by Oval Office staff leading up to January 6. Other witnesses also have told the panel there was significantly less information being shared with those involved in White House record-keeping during the same time period, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.
The gap in the White House phone records follows immediately after Donald Trump failed to persuade Mike Pence to throw out the elections results.Ed PilkingtonA mysterious gap of 7 hours 37 minutes in phone records for 6 January 2021 coincides with the insurrection in Washington DC. At 2.26pm on 6 January last year, Donald Trump picked up a White House phone and placed a call to Mike Lee, the Republican senator from Utah. The communication came at a very significant moment. Thirty-seven minutes earlier, a riot had been declared by Washington DC police. Minutes after that the then vice-president, Mike Pence, was rushed out of the Senate chamber, where he had been presiding over Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, and put into hiding. Fifteen minutes before Trump made the call his supporters, exhorted by the sitting president to “fight like hell” against what he falsely claimed was a rigged election, broke through a window in the south front of the Capitol and entered the heart of American democracy.
By Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel, Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Paula Reid, CNNWashington CNN — Just days before the US Capitol riot, White House officials started providing fewer details about then-President Donald Trump’s calls and visits, the person in charge of compiling those activities for the official record told the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, according to two sources with knowledge of the probe. The committee interviewed Trump’s presidential diarist roughly two weeks ago. That interview has not been previously reported, nor has the testimony describing a noticeable drop-off in information provided by Oval Office staff leading up to January 6.
Does Jared's appearance put more pressure on Ivanka to testify?By Bob BrighamFormer senior White House aide Jared Kushner testified on Thursday before the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Politico reported Kushner "did not play a visible role in the former president's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, though he was a top adviser during much of Trump's presidency. According to a recent book by ABC's Jonathan Karl, Kushner was involved in multiple conversations about how to delicately explain to Trump that he had lost the election and interacted with other senior administration officials who were exasperated by Trump's refusal to concede. Kushner had reportedly steered clear of Trump in the chaotic final weeks of his presidency and was out of town until the afternoon on Jan. 6."
Claudia Grisales, Deirdre WalshFormer President Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner provided "helpful" information to the Democratic-led House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a member of the panel said. Kushner, married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, who was also a senior adviser, is the most high profile member of Trump's inner circle known to have appeared before the committee. He voluntarily appeared for a remote interview that started at 10 a.m. and lasted at least into the early afternoon hours, several sources familiar with the committee's work said. Kushner's meeting came two months after the panel asked Ivanka Trump to voluntarily appear before the committee. Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Ivanka Trump and the committee are engaged in conversations, but no final plan has been reached on her appearance.
Committee members hope to begin public hearings in May.By Benjamin Siegel and Katherine FauldersThe House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is facing a time crunch as investigators scramble to piece together former President Donald Trump's words and actions on Jan. 6, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., acknowledged Tuesday. "We're playing 'beat the clock' here against Trump's inner coterie, which thinks they can impede our investigation," Raskin told reporters. The committee, which hopes to begin public hearings in May, is trying to wrap up dozens of witness interviews in the coming weeks. Multiple senior Trump administration officials, including senior adviser Jared Kushner and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, are expected to appear virtually before the committee this week. Another senior aide to Vice President Mike Pence, Chris Hodgson, was spotted at the panel's offices for an in-person deposition Wednesday.
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-largeCNN — On Monday night, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol unanimously recommended a pair of criminal contempt referrals for two top aides to then-President Donald Trump who have repeatedly slow-walked requests for their testimony about their actions happened that fateful day. It’s the latest in a whirlwind of activity from the committee. The committee scored a court victory Monday that will allow them access to more than 100 emails sent between January 4-7 by right-wing lawyer John Eastman.
By Lexi LonasThe Department of Justice is expanding its probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to include the events leading up to the preceding rally, and the wider conspiracies that fueled the violence, people familiar with the issue told The Washington Post. Before supporters of former President Trump attacked the Capitol, many participated in a rally that had multiple speakers, including Trump himself. Sources told The Post the DOJ is now looking to the planning of the rally and the conspiracy theories that surrounded the event. The rally was based around the false claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election and that election fraud was the reason President Biden won.
Revealed: Trump used White House phone for call on January 6 that was not on official log
Trump’s call to Republican senator should have been reflected in presidential call log on day of Capitol attack but wasn’t
Hugo Lowell in Washington DCDonald Trump used an official White House phone to place at least one call during the Capitol attack on January 6 last year that should have been reflected in the internal presidential call log from that day but was not, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The former president called the phone of a Republican senator, Mike Lee, with a number recorded as 202-395-0000, a placeholder number that shows up when a call is incoming from a number of White House department phones, the sources said. The number corresponds to an official White House phone and the call was placed by Donald Trump himself, which means the call should have been recorded in the internal presidential call log that was turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
Trump discussed ‘burner phones’ several times, John Bolton says
Revelation from former national security adviser raises pressure on Trump as lawmakers investigate gaps in January 6 call logs
Ed Pilkington in New YorkJohn Bolton, the former national security adviser, has revealed that he heard Donald Trump use the term “burner phones” several times and that they discussed how the disposable devices were deployed by people as a way of avoiding scrutiny of their calls. Bolton’s intervention compounds Trump’s difficulties amid a billowing controversy relating to seven hours and 37 minutes that are missing in official call logs. The gap occurs in records made for 6 January last year – the day of the violent insurrection at the US Capitol.
Brad ReedRep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), a member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots, on Monday delivered what she described as a "blunt" message for Attorney General Merrick Garland. While voting in favor of holding Trump allies Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt of Congress, she urged Garland to act to follow through on the committee's recommendation of criminal charges. "The Department of Justice must act swiftly," she said. "I will echo what my colleagues have already said, but more bluntly: Attorney General Garland, do your job so that we can do ours." The DOJ did move to indict Trump ally Steve Bannon for being in criminal contempt of Congress, although it has not yet done so for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, despite the fact that the House of Representatives voted in favor of a criminal contempt citation against him months ago.
Trump's gap makes Nixon's infamous 18 minutes "look like nothing in comparison," says law professor Laurence TribeBy Igor DeryshWhite House phone logs turned over to House investigators show a mysterious gap in then-President's Donald Trump's calls of nearly eight hours on Jan. 6, 2021, including during the invasion of the Capitol, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News. Call logs turned over by the National Archives to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot show no calls placed to or by Trump for seven hours and 37 minutes, between 11:17 am and 6:54 pm, according to the joint report from Robert Costa and Bob Woodward. The gap in the records, which were turned over by the archives earlier this year after Trump failed to block the release, means that investigators have no record of Trump's phone conversations during the Capitol attack itself. Trump supporters overwhelmed police at the Capitol at around 1:30 p.m. that day, and then stormed through the halls of Congress, hunting lawmakers and committing acts of vandalism, until police cleared the Capitol around 6 p.m.
Travis GettysThe last phone call Donald Trump made before the Jan. 6 insurrection began was with an "unidentified person," according to White House call logs. That call came at 11:17 a.m., before Trump addressed his supporters at a "Stop the Steal" rally at the White House Ellipse, and was the last official record of a phone conversation the then-president made until seven hours and 37 minutes later -- a gap that has fallen under investigation by the House select committee, reported the Washington Post. “The President talked on a phone call to an unidentified person," reads the 11:17 a.m. entry. Records turned over by the National Archives show no calls until 6:54 p.m., when he instructed the operator to call aide Dan Scavino, and committee members are investigating as whether Trump used burner phones or backchannels to communicate as his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Travis GettysThe House select committee expects to soon fill in one final piece of the puzzle about the planning for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Congressional investigators will hear testimony next week they expect will reveal the connections between the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militia groups, and after that April 5 deposition lawmakers will have obtained all the major evidence from all the crucial moments, reported The Guardian. "From its nondescript offices boarded up with beige boards and wood-paneled conference rooms with blinds always drawn, the select committee has spent the last eight months working in color-coded teams in an attempt to untangle Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election results," wrote the newspaper's Hugo Lowell.
By Dave Goldiner New York Daily NewsFormer President Trump is suspected of using disposable so-called “burner” phones as the Jan. 6 attack unfolded after official White House logs reportedly show a shocking more than a seven-hour gap in his official communications that day. No calls were placed or received by Trump on his official phones from 11:17 am to just before 7 pm, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing documents turned over to the congressional committee investigating the attack. Trump is known to have called several allies during that time as a violent mob of his extremist supporters stormed the Capitol, raising suspicions that the logs were altered or he deliberately used other phones to cover his tracks.
Tom PorterThe House January 6 Committee is investigating whether former President Donald Trump used burner phones to communicate as the attack on the Capitol unfolded on January 6, 2021, The Washington Post reported. According to the report there is a gap of more than seven hours in the official White House call logs from January 6. The gap is puzzling, as it corresponds to the time when several top Republicans are extensively reported to have talked to the president by phone as pro-Trump rioters were attacking Congress. The article was reported by the Post's veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward and White House correspondent Robert Costa.
MSNInternal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump's phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by CBS News' chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa and The Washington Post's associate editor Bob Woodward. The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes — from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. — on Jan. 6, 2021 means there is no record of the calls made by Trump as his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety.
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