They reveal details about Donald Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol

The legislative commission investigating the attack on the US Congress by Donald Trump supporters concludes its public hearings Thursday with a prime-time televised finale, where it will analyze in detail the former president’s actions.

“It’s very simple,” said Congresswoman Elaine Luria, who is a member of the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans and who voted to impeach Trump after the violent uprising of January 6, 2021.

“He did nothing to really stop the riots,” the Virginia Democrat said, despite the fact that “his advisers continually urged him to act.”

Luria told CNN that the committee will examine Trump’s actions “minute by minute”, starting with the incendiary speech he gave near the White House, where he claimed that the presidential election of November 2020 had been stolen from him, until he asked his violent supporters, who according to him were “very special”, to return to home.

Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican vice president, said the jury will present evidence that “Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help.”

“For several hours, Donald Trump refused to intervene to stop” the assault, Cheney said.

The investigation

The commission has sued numerous Trump advisors and advisors in an attempt to do so determine whether the former president or his associates planned or encouraged the assault who tried to avoid Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory certification.

The two-hour hearing on Thursday, the eighth of the commission, will begin at 20:00 local time (an extra hour in Argentina). It should be the last, even if the committee does not exclude more sessions.

Two witnesses were expected to testify live Thursday: former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews; and Matthew Pottinger, who served on the National Security Council.

Both resigned on January 6 when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

Committee members said excerpts from the video testimony of then White House adviser Pat Cipollone were also presented during the hearing.

In a previous statement sent, Cipollone affirmed this there was no evidence of significant election fraud and that Trump should have conceded the victory to Biden.

Previous commission hearings have focused on Trump’s attempt to influence election officials in battlefield states that Biden narrowly won and on the pressure on the vice president Mike Pence not to certify the election results.

Last week, the committee examined the impact of a tweet sent by Trump on December 19, 2020, urging his supporters to come to the nation’s capital on January 6 to a demonstration he promised would be “wild”.

Far-right militia members like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, as well as other Trump supporters, saw the tweet as a “call to arms,” ​​lawmakers said.

More than 850 people were arrested in the attack on Congress, which left five dead and 140 police officers injured.

Trump, 76, who has repeatedly hinted that he will run again in the 2024 elections, was indicted by the House on charges of inciting an insurrection, but was acquitted by the Senate.

final report

The committee is expected to report its findings to Congress this fall.

The commission could issue criminal recommendations to the Justice Department, leaving Attorney General Merrick Garlan to decide whether Trump or others should be prosecuted for attempting to reverse the 2020 election results.

Garlan told reporters Wednesday that the January 6 investigation is the “most important” he has ever conducted, noting that “no one is above the law” in the country.

Source: AFP

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