The Capitol Hill Insurrection Before Midterm Elections: What Have We Learned about the 2016 U.S. Capitol Hill Reionization?

The House select committee’s final hearing on the Capitol Hill insurrection before the midterm elections Thursday used new testimony and evidence to demonstrate how former President Donald Trump knew he had lost the election but still went forward with efforts to overturn the results, leading to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The new records obtained from the Secret Service and deposition footage from former cabinet secretaries and White House officials were used to support the argument that Trump still poses a danger to democracy.

During the hearing the lawmaker said that the footage shows how Trump administration officials and congressional leaders worked together to suppress the riot that he had instigated. The new material will be presented on January 6 to the public by showing these behind the scenes clips.

Liz Cheney is the top Republican on the panel and said that they are obligated to ask the man who set this all up. “And every American is entitled to the answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.”

Bennie Thompson, the Chairman of the select committee, believes that Trump is the main person in the story of what happened on January 6th. We want to hear from him.

The Mueller Subpoena, Detection of the Insurrection, and the Investigation of the Capitol Correlations Using Cooper’s Footage

The subpoena marks an escalation of taking on the president directly. Congress has subpoenas for sitting and former presidents, but they are rare. And if Trump does buck the subpoena, it would allow the committee to proclaim that it made a formal attempt to get Trump to talk to panelists, only to see him to refuse.

That’s because if Republicans take back control of the House, which they’re favored to do, the January 6 committee as it’s currently constructed will cease to exist – giving the panel less than three months to issue a final report of its findings.

CNN has obtained additional footage from Fort McNair that wasn’t shown by the committee. CNN will be airing exclusive footage of Anderson Cooper’s show on Thursday night. The video shows congressional leaders frantically trying to get help as they tried to figure out what was happening at the Capitol, and frantically asking for help as they tried to quell the insurrection.

The footage shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top officials working the phones and coordinating with Trump Cabinet members and other officials to secure the resources needed to quell the insurrection and secure the Capitol.

Two phone calls between Pelosi and Pence were shown in the footage, as well as an impromptu leadership role for the Vice President on January 6.

The new footage showed Schumer talking to the Attorney General. During their heated phone call, Schumer was implored to tell Trump to call off the mob. During the call, Pelosi told Rosen that the pro-Trump rioters were “breaking the law… at the instigation of the President of the United States.”

CNN reported in August that Chao, who is also the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, had met with the committee. But after condemning the attack in her resignation letter in early 2021, Chao has largely stayed out of the national spotlight, with her recent comments to the committee providing fresh insight into her thinking on the deadly attack.

It was not possible for me to continue because of my personal values and philosophy. I came as an immigrant to this country. I believe in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in the rule of law. She said that it was a decision she made alone.

Hutchinson’s testimony had been some of the most damning against Trump during the summer hearings, as she provided detailed accounts about Trump’s actions on the day of January 6.

“I remember looking at Mark, and I said ‘Mark, he can’t possibly think we’re going to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy.’ And he looked at me and just started shaking his head. And he’s like, ‘No, Cass, you know, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost. Hutchinson told the committee that they were going to keep trying.

Hutchinson also said that she witnessed a conversation between Meadows and Trump where he was furious the Supreme Court had rejected a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election result.

“The President said … something to the effect of, ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is not good. Don’t figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost,’” Hutchinson said.

On January 6, one Secret Service agent texted at 12:36 p.m., according to the committee, “With so many weapons found so far; you wonder how many are unknown. It could be sporty after dark.

Days before January Trump’s communication adviser, Jason Miller, boasted to Meadows that he “got the base FIRED UP,” and shared a link to a pro-Trump webpage containing hundreds of threatening comments about killing lawmakers if they went ahead with certifying Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory, according to a new text message the panel showed Thursday.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said in Thursday’s hearing that that the Secret Service received alerts of online threats made against Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the Capitol insurrection, including that Pence would be “‘a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.’”

A House Select Committee Investigation of the January 6 Capitol Attack: Obtaining the Phone and Text Records of the Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward

The new evidence showed that Trump had formulated a plan well before the votes were cast, so he could proclaim victory no matter what the election results were.

The committee said it obtained the memo from the National Archives and presented it to Short on Thursday.

“It is essential that the Vice President not be perceived by the public as having decided questions concerning disputed electoral votes prior to the full development of all relevant facts,” the memo reads.

The committee also revealed new emails conservative legal activist Tom Fitton sent to two Trump advisers a few days before the election. The email had a draft statement for Trump to make after the election.

Despite saying for months that they wanted to hear from Thomas, members of the panel downplayed the significance of her testimony following her interview, and it was clear ahead of Thursday that she was not expected to be a central part of the hearing that was instead solely focused on Trump.

The panel did use testimony from several other high profile witnesses who had been interviewed, but her absence was notable.

It also asked Trump to turn over all records of phone calls, text messages or communications with any members of Congress from December 18, 2020, to January 6, 2021; all of his communications on January 6 specifically, and any communications or efforts to contact other witnesses in the committee’s investigation.

The committee said that the former President remains under subpoena for testimony starting on November 14 and that he must start producing records no later than next week.

The committee was in discussions with the president’s team about taking part in the inquiry under oath, according to Cheney. It is not clear if those discussions will lead to a deposition.

The broad document request asked for all documents and communications from September 1, 2020, to the present, regarding members of the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or other extremists. The panel’s document request spans 19 different categories.

The Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for the House select committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol attack to obtain the phone and text records of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.

Ward tried to organize a phone call between the president and the chairman of the board of supervisors of the county in which she lived, she was among the group that sent false electoral votes, and she encouraged local officials to contact Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell.

“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events,” the appeals court added. “That some of the people with whom Ward communicated may be members of a political party does not establish that the subpoena is likely to reveal ‘sensitive information about [the party’s] members and supporters.”

The justices declined Ward’s request to freeze the subpoena and lifted a temporary order earlier put in place Justice Elena Kagan, who supervises the appeals court that ruled in the case.

There are many disagreements about January 6 to come before the court. Last January, the high court cleared the way for the release of presidential records from the Trump White House to the committee. Thomas noted a vote in favor of Trump.

In response, lawyers for the select committee articulated they sought the phone records because Ward was at the center of several efforts after the election to undermine the popular vote and “aided a coup attempt.”

The records do not include content or location information. A district court judge ruled in favor of Ward.

Appealing Ward’s Emergency Subpoena for the Capitol March on Jan. 6: Implications for Congress and First Amendment Rights under the First Amendment

“The subpoena is substantially related to the important government interest in investigating the causes of the January 6 attack and protecting future elections from similar threats,” the appeals court said.

In the emergency application filed with Kagan, Ward’s attorneys argued the case is “unprecedented” with “profound precedential implications for future congressional investigations and political associational rights under the First Amendment.”

The records will show how Dr. Ward tried to interfere with the transition of power as well as the attack on the Capitol.

The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot is dropping several of its pursuits for Jan. 6-related phone records, according to court filings last week, as the panel winds down before it expires at the end of this year.

“On December 12, 2022, Plaintiffs were informed by counsel for the Select Committee that the Select Committee will be withdrawing the subject subpoena issued by the Committee,” one court filing, from lawyers representing members of the Oath Keepers extremist group, wrote in one recent request to drop a lawsuit.

The committee was able to get lots of information in their investigation despite the fact that the witnesses and some others were able to prevent them from obtaining their phone records. Some of that information was on display in a series of public hearings over the summer.