Jan. 6 committee says probe reveals Trump led and directed effort to overturn 2020 election: live updates
- Former President Donald Trump is expected to watch, so is President Joe Biden.
- Two witnesses will testify tonight, including Caroline Edwards, an injured Capitol Police officer.
- British documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack, will testify.
- House Republicans criticize the investigation as illegitimate and partisan.
WASHINGTON – The nine House members investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack began unveiling what they’ve learned Thursday in a primetime hearing, the wind-up to a year-long effort to uncover every detail of that day, and put the blame on former President Donald Trump for inspiring the attack on the Capitol.
- ⏳ What got us here?: A mob of Trump supporters, in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election, overwhelmed police, broke into the Capitol and ransacked the building in a deadly riot Jan. 6, 2021. This committee was formed to investigate the attack and produce a report, which is expected in the fall.
The latest:
- Former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Jan. 6 committee he met with former President Donald Trump three times after the election to make it clear he didn’t agree with saying the election was stolen. He said he resigned in December 2020 rather than challenge the election results.
- Rep. Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”
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Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, told the panel she accepted the Justice Department’s finding of no fraud sufficient to overturn the 2020 – in contrast to her father.
Pence chief of staff: Veep chose Constitution over Trump
Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said he felt proud of much of what was accomplished during the Trump administration, but that his boss split with the president over fighting the election results.
Pence refused to single-handedly reject electors, as Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, repeatedly pressured him to do.
“I think he ultimately knew that his fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost oath,” Short told the House panel investigating the Capitol attack in a videotaped deposition. “That’s what he articulated publicly. And I think that that’s what he felt.”
– Bart Jansen
Adviser Jason Miller: Donald Trump didn’t believe evidence he had lost
A Donald Trump political adviser whose videotaped testimony popped up at the Jan. 6 hearing said the committee did not broadcast his remarks in full.
In the hearing video, Miller testified that an aide told Trump he simply did not have the votes to win the 2020 election.
On Twitter, Miller said the video was cut off before his next remarks, which were about how Trump did not believe the analysis.
He provided a transcript:
“Q: Okay. And what was the President’s reaction then when Matt said to him, ‘hey, we’ve looked at the numbers, you’re going to lose’? A: I think it’s safe to say he disagreed with Matt’s analysis.”
– David Jackson
Head Oath Keeper:Vegas parking valet, Yale law graduate, unhinged Oath Keepers leader: Who is Stewart Rhodes?
For some DC watch party attendees, the hearing is personal
Two attendees, Whitney Williams and Raleigh Lancaster, both DC natives, say the hearing is more personal to them since they were close by when protestors breached the Capitol.
“This isn’t really a place where this happens,” says Lancaster. “I’ve just never seen anything like this before.”
Williams is retired, and is barely involved in politics. But because the attack was at her doorstep, “it’s so important,” for her. She says she never listens to congressional hearings but tonight’s hearing is different.
“It’d be a sad day for America,” says Lancaster, if nothing comes out of the hearing.
– Kenneth Tran
Cheney to Republicans: ‘Your dishonor will remain’
In the final remarks of her opening statement, Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney condemned the members of her party who have chosen to look the other way on the events of Jan. 6 and the efforts that led to it.
“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible,” she said. “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
– Ella Lee
Committee shows video detailing timeline of Capitol attack
After opening remarks, the hearing turned to a video of the Jan. 6 attack, detailing minute-by-minute how the attack unfolded led by Trump’s speech outside the White House beforehand.
“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing,” Trump is shown saying. ” I hope. Because if Mike does the right thing, we win the election.”
The video detailed involvement of the far-right organization Proud Boys. It also showed communication from Capitol Police officers as rioters began to breach the building, breaking windows and storming the steps as members of Congress met to certify the 2020 electoral count.
– Joey Garrison
Widows of officers who died as result of Jan. 6 emotional watching video
Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn stretched his arm out around widows Serena Liebengood and Sandra Garza as the video played of the violence unfolding on Jan. 6.
Liebengood and Garza pulled out tissues and wiped away tears watching the video — their husbands Howie Liebengood and Brian Sicknick died in the aftermath of Jan 6., one by suicide and one after suffering two strokes.
– Dylan Wells
Sean Hannity, Kayleigh McEnany wanted Trump to end ‘crazy’ stuff
The committee has released notable text messages from major supporters who urged then-President Donald Trump to stop claiming the 2020 election had been stolen – advice Trump has ignored to this day.
A day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, talk show host Sean Hannity texted White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany about what Trump needed: “No more crazy people” and “no more stolen election talk … Many people will quit.”
McEnany texted back: “Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook.”
Trump did not heed that advice.
– David Jackson
Milley recalls Meadows saying ‘need to kill’ narrative that Trump wasn’t in charge
Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that they “need to kill the narrative” that Trump was not in charge.
Milley said during a video deposition that Vice President Mike Pence “issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders” to “get the military down here.”
“We need to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,” Milley recalled Meadows telling him in a deposition excerpt. “We need to establish the narrative that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable.”
– Rebecca Morin
Trump met with Flynn, Powell, Giuliani before tweeting “Be there, will be wild!”
Former President Donald Trump met with former aide Gen. Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell, and advisor Rudy Giuliani, among others, to discuss “having the military seize voting machines and potentially rerun elections,” according to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
The meeting that ran late into the evening took place on Dec. 18, according to Cheney. The president met with the group alone before “White House lawyers and other staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene.”
The next day, Trump tweeted that there would be a big protest in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6th. “Be there, will be wild!” he told his followers.
– Erin Mansfield
Ivanka Trump accepted DOJ’s finding of no election fraud
Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, said she accepted the Justice Department’s finding of no fraud sufficient to overturn the 2020 – in contrast to her father.
Ivanka Trump said she trusted the finding because she respected then-Attorney General William Barr, who said he resigned in part rather than fight to overturn the election. Her conclusion contrasted to her father’s continued efforts to overturn election results.
“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka Trump said. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
– Bart Jansen
Cheney: Trump had 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election
Rep. Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”
Cheney said Trump wanted to prevent the transfer of presidential power. She added that evidence of each element of the plan will be laid out during the hearing.
“All Americans should keep and bear in mind that on the morning of Jan. 6, President Donald Trump’s intention was to remain President of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election,” she said.
– Rebecca Morin
Bennie Thompson: Donald Trump was “the center of this conspiracy”
In case there was any doubt, committee chairman Bennie Thompson made clear the night’s main theme: President Donald Trump engineered a plot to steal the 2020 election from President-elect Joe Biden.
“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” Thompson said, describing Jan. 6 as “the culmination of an attempted coup.”
Thompson pledged to show evidence to back up his claim.
– David Jackson
What to know:Here’s what you need to know about the Jan. 6 committee and its June hearings
Cheney: testimony will show Trump ignored aides’ pleas to call off attack
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said testimony from a more than a half-dozen Trump aides that Thursday’s hearing will highlight will show that Trump ignored pleas from his staff to call off the riot because he supported it.
“In the hearings to come, President Trump believed his supporters at the Capitol, and I quote, “were doing what they should be doing,’ Cheney said. “This is what he told his staff as they pleaded with him to call off the mob.”
Cheney said that evidence will also show Trump was angry at advisor who told him that he needed to be do something more even though he was aware of threats to hang Vice President Mike Pence
“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot,” Cheney said, pointing to intelligence about the attack beforehand.
– Joey Garrison
Barr opposed Trump’s claims 2020 election was ‘stolen’
Former Attorney General William Barr told the House panel investigating the Capitol attack he resigned in December 2020 from the Trump administration rather than challenge the election results.
Barr, who has said publicly the Justice Department found no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, said he met with then-President Donald Trump on Nov. 23, Dec. 1 and Dec. 14 to make it clear he didn’t agree with putting out the election was stolen.
“I told the president it was bull—-,” Barr said in a videotaped deposition played at the hearing. “I didn’t want to be a part of it and that’s one of the reasons that went into me leaving when I did.”
– Bart Jansen
Police officers and widows of officers who died are in attendance
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone are in the hearing room, seated behind where witnesses will testify.
Erin Smith, Serena Liebengood, and Sandra Garza – all widows of officers who died in the aftermath of Jan. 6 – are seated with them.
Dunn is wearing a shirt that shows definitions of “insurrection,” including “January 6, 2021”
– Dylan Wells
Thompson: American democracy ‘remains in danger’
The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, will open Thursday’s hearing saying efforts to undermine the Constitution and thwart the will of the American people aren’t over, according to excerpts of his remarks.
Thompson, D-Miss., will say “our democracy remains in danger” and must be protected through the investigation of the Capitol attack. He said a series of hearings this month won’t just look backward at what happened Jan. 6, 2021, but also forward to protect the rule of law.
“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug,” Thompson will say. “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve and determination.”
–Bart Jansen
Who’s on the panel:Meet the members of the January 6 House select committee ahead of first public hearing Thursday
Jan. 6 committee’s long-awaited hearings promise revelations. Will a divided US want to hear them?
– Chelsey Cox
Who will be Jan. 6 hearing’s most avid viewer? Donald Trump, with a team ready to hit back.
Jim Jordan spurns Jan. 6 committee as Saturday subpoena deadline looms
In an 11-page letter sent to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned the panel’s legitimacy and again asked its members to share the information amassed on him before he agrees to testify.
“While some courts have recognized the Select Committee’s investigation as having a legitimate legislative purpose, it does not necessarily follow that the Select Committee’s subpoena to me is in furtherance of a legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan writes in the letter, sent the day of the committee’s first public hearing.
Jordan is one of five GOP members subpoenaed by the select committee, alongside Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; Andy Biggs of Arizona; Mo Brooks of Alabama; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Jordan has until Saturday to comply with the subpoena.
– Ella Lee
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House GOP Leader McCarthy declines to address 2020 election legitimacy
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday declined to say clearly whether President Joe Biden rightfully won the 2020 election.
“We’ve asked this question a long time,” McCarthy said to reporters during a press conference. “Joe Biden is the president. I think you can look that there’s a lot of problems still with the election process.”
McCarthy, who said Thursday he has answered the questions many times before, has shifted his views since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt. He suggested days after the attack that Trump resign, but has refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the committee investigating that day.
– Erin Mansfield
Biden calls Jan. 6 attack a ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’ ahead of primetime hearing
President Joe Biden called the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution” Thursday, hours before a House committee investigating the insurrection holds its first public hearing.
“A lot of Americans are going to see for the first time some of the details that occurred,” Biden said, giving unprompted remarks on the hearing at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Los Angeles at the Summit of Americas.
“I think these guys broke the law and tried to turn around the results an of election. There’s a lot of questions – who’s responsible, who’s involved? I’m not going to make a judgment on that.”
– Joey Garrison
More:Menendez: Mexico’s president tried to ‘blackmail’ Biden to invite ‘dictators’ to Americas summit
former attorney general Bill Barr met with the panel about Trump’s claims of election fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s claims are seen by some as a catalyst for the attack on the Capitol.
Barr’s meeting focused on material in his book, “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General.” Though he left the Trump administration weeks before the insurrection, Barr was still the nation’s top law enforcement officer during and after the presidential election.
After a Justice Department investigation into the fraud claims, Barr told the Associated Press in December 2020 that the agency hadn’t “seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
– Chelsey Cox
First 2 witnesses are injured Capitol Police officer, documentarian
Two witnesses are expected at the first hearing. One is Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when the mob pushed her to the ground after breaking through a fence of bicycle racks outside the Capitol.
She was the first of 140 officers injured that day, according to the committee. Other officers have recalled hearing her pleas for help.
The other witness is an acclaimed British documentarian, Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack. The day before the riot, Quested also filmed the leaders of two far-right groups – Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who are each charged with seditious conspiracy – meeting in a parking garage near the Capitol, according to the New York Times.
More:Who invaded the US Capitol on Jan. 6? Criminal cases shed light on offenses
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to seat GOP Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio on the panel. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., then pulled his nominees rather than have her vet them. Pelosi then appointed nine members – including GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – rather than the 13 authorized.
Federal courts have upheld the panel’s authority repeatedly. But Republicans argue the one-sided appointments mean there will be no meaningful cross-examination of witnesses or alternate views presented during hearings.
What we don’t know about Jan. 6:What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized
executive privilege to give the committee access to Trump administration documents as part of the investigation.
“These are important hearings,” Klain told MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” on Wednesday. “He believes in executive privilege generally, but there is no executive privilege to overthrow the government of the United States. There is no executive privilege to protect plans on an insurrection.”
What kind of evidence does the committee have?
The panel collected more than 100,000 documents and more than 1,000 witnesses cooperated in the inquiry. Pictures and thousands of hours of video from security cameras and body-worn cameras on police officers illustrate how the violent mob smashed its way into the Capitol.
“People have gotten information in snippets over the course of a year plus, but the fact is that we’re going to tell the story in a coherent thread through the hearings,” said a committee member, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. “It was a tragic event for our country that there were villains that day, of course. But there were people who were heroic, who through their actions really prevented a much worse outcome.”
More:After Jan. 6, lawmakers want to clarify that vice presidents have ceremonial role in counting votes
More:What we don’t know about Jan. 6: What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized
More:Prosecutors charge former Proud Boys leader, 4 others with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack
More:Who has been subpoenaed so far by the Jan. 6 committee?