The public hearings of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, often called the January 6th Hearings, were a series of televised
congressional investigations by the
United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack
The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (the January 6th Committee) is a bipartisan select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives established to investigate the U.S. ...
about events related to the
January 6 United States Capitol attack
On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then- U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob was seeking to keep Trump in p ...
. The investigation ran from 2021 to January 2023.
In July 2021, the held a preliminary public hearing about the law enforcement experience during the
mob violence
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property target ...
on that day.
Schedule
Early in the investigation, the committee held a
preliminary hearing in 2021. It was only carried by
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
and not widely covered on broadcast television.
In June 2022, the committee held highly publicized hearings intended for live broadcast. As used by the committee, labels such as "first hearing", "second hearing",
et cetera refers to this series of televised hearings.
The committee publicly voted on December 19, 2022
to make criminal referrals for Donald Trump and John Eastman to the DOJ, and ethics referrals for four members of Congress (Representatives McCarthy, Jordan, Biggs, and Perry) to the House Ethics Committee. (The news had previously identified Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark, and Rudy Giuliani as likely to be referred.) The committee released its final report on December 22, which became a bestseller.
Background
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump's
attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election culminated in a mob of Trump's supporters
attacking the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
passed a bill to create a bipartisan
independent commission to investigate the attack, modeled after the
9/11 Commission, but it failed due to a
filibuster by Republicans in the
Senate.
The House then formed a
select committee led by seven Democrats and two Republicans. The hearings are part of the select committee's investigation.
In advance of the hearings, congressional Republicans, including House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician, serving as House Minority Leader in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as House Majority Leader under spea ...
, began to organize themselves to defend Trump. This messaging presented a challenge for them, in part because they did not know in advance what information the committee would reveal at the hearings. McCarthy spoke to donors on the morning of the second hearing, advising Republicans to ignore the proceedings, refuse public comment and avoid the topic. He suggested their party should instead discuss election issues that could garner more votes, such as focusing on rising inflation or fuel prices. Insiders have said former president Trump was not necessarily pleased with this strategy and felt there was "no one to defend" him.
Public hearings
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' presented a detailed summary of the eight hearings held in June and July 2022.
A ninth hearing was convened in October.
July 27, 2021
Synopsis of preliminary hearing
On July 27, 2021, the committee held a hearing titled "The Law Enforcement Experience on January 6th
021''".
According to
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
, "January 6 Committee Meeting with Capitol and D.C. Police: Capitol and District of Columbia police testified at the first hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Witnesses described their experiences on that day and efforts to protect the Capitol and elected officials. Throughout the hearing, graphic video footage captured during the attack was shown."
The four officers — Dunn, Fanone, Gonell, and Hodges — were given a front-row seat to all of the committee's public hearings in 2022. All four, along with others, received the Presidential Citizens Medal from Joe Biden on January 6th 2023.
June 9, 2022
Synopsis of first hearing
This was the first of the hearings for broadcast on live television and was held during
prime time. The committee showed never-before-seen footage of the capitol attack to provide an accessible and compelling narrative of events for the public.
Opening statements by the panel members
The committee panel observed that Donald Trump attempted to overturn a free and fair democratic election by promoting a seven-part conspiracy.
According to Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, "Jan. 6 was the
culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government ... The violence was no accident. It represents Trump's last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power." According to the committee, Trump "lied to the American people, ignored all evidence refuting his false fraud claims, pressured state and federal officials to throw out election results favoring his challenger, encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol and even signaled support for the execution of his own vice president."
Panel members made reference to a federal district court opinion in which the Judge
David O. Carter
David Ormon Carter (born March 28, 1944) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Education and military service
In college he lettered in cross country and track on the teams o ...
said Trump had "likely" violated two federal statutes and staged a "coup in search of a legal theory".
Rep
Liz Cheney read part of the opinion, in which the court said:
Cheney urged all Americans to read the opinion in full. Cheney said Trump's efforts were part of a "sophisticated seven-part plan", which the committee hearings would establish.
A written version of the above plan was released after the hearing.
Trump knew that he lost
Many in Trump's inner circle informed the president he had lost and there was no evidence of widespread fraud. According to several video clips of prior testimony shown by the committee:
* A senior adviser to the Trump campaign,
Jason Miller, testified that Trump was internally advised he had lost the election. According to Miller, the campaign's top data aide, Matt Oczkowski, told Trump very shortly after the election "in pretty blunt terms, that he was going to lose".
* Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon testified he had spoken to White House chief of staff
Mark Meadows
Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th c ...
in November 2020 soon after the election and told Meadows there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. According to Cannon, Meadows replied: "So there's no there there."
* Attorney general
Bill Barr said, regarding Trump's desire to put out the message that "the election was stolen": "I told the president
twas bullshit."
*
Ivanka Trump
Ivana Marie "Ivanka" Trump (; born October 30, 1981) is an American businesswoman and the first daughter of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. She was a senior advisor in his administration, and also was the ...
said she "accepted" Barr's assessment.
Rush to issue presidential pardons
Cheney observed the White House counsel
Pat Cipollone
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump.
Early life
Cipollone's father was an Italian immigrant and factory worker; his mother was a homemaker. He ...
and his team of lawyers had threatened to resign in response to an increasingly hostile climate of lawless activity within the
Oval Office. Another video clip was then shown in which
Jared Kushner
Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...
characterized Cipollone's concerns as "whining." During his testimony, Kushner claimed that his primary "interest at that time" was to complete as many presidential pardons as possible.
Cheney also said that Representative
Scott Perry and other Republican members of Congress had "sought Presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election."
Attack on the Capitol
The committee showed video, much of it never before seen by the public, of the mob charging the Capitol and battling police. The video began with scenes of roughly 200
Proud Boys leading the assault on the Capitol. As later scenes showed a violent rampage, audio was overlaid of Trump later saying, "The love in the air. I've never seen anything like it." As the attack lasted several hours, the video contained timestamps to illustrate the timeline. Documentary filmmaker
Nick Quested
Nicholas Quested (born November 26, 1969) is an award-winning British filmmaker and producer of documentary films, music videos, and TV commercials. He is the executive director and owner of Goldcrest Films.
Quested has produced over 40 documenta ...
provided testimony during the live hearing; he was embedded with the Proud Boys on January 6. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards also testified live and in-person; she was seriously injured on January 6 while defending the Capitol against initial attacks by Proud Boys and during the mob violence that followed.
Quested testified that he joined the Proud Boys at the
National Mall at 10:30 a.m., saying "I don't know if violence was a plan, but I do know that they weren't there to attend the rally because they had already left the rally by the time the president had started his speech." According to Quested, they then walked around the Capitol while taking some pictures and observed a sole police officer at the barricades by the Peace Circle.
After suggesting the Proud Boys were doing reconnaissance to spot security weaknesses, Chairman Thompson observed that the Proud Boys chose that barricade and breached it at about the same time President Trump directed the rally attendees to march to that same location. He then said:
Officer Edwards, who had sustained multiple injuries during the attack, testified that the group of Proud Boys who first approached the police barricades began by shouting rhetoric to turn the police into "villains" and then began their assault. She described in detail her experiences and injuries as police fell back. When asked what she remembers most vividly, Edwards described moving from an area with a relatively small field of view to one where she had her first view of the events unfolding before the Western Terrace.
Pence called for the National Guard
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Mark Milley
Mark Alexander Milley (born June 20, 1958) is a United States Army general who serves as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015 to August 9, 2019, and hel ...
, in videotaped testimony, said the White House encouraged him to claim that Trump had ordered the National Guard to respond on January 6, even though it was Pence who in fact gave the order.
Press Secretary
Kayleigh McEnany
Kayleigh McEnany (; born April 18, 1988) is an American conservative political commentator and author who served the administration of Donald Trump as the 33rd White House press secretary from April 2020 to January 2021.
Early in the 2016 Re ...
tweeted on January 6 that former President Trump had "directed" the National Guard to respond.
The reasons that the White House attempted to falsely credit Trump for National Guard mobilization remains unclear.
It was always known that Pence gave the order. Acting Defense Secretary
Christopher C. Miller
Christopher Charles Miller (born October 15, 1965) is an American retired United States Army Special Forces colonel who served as acting United States secretary of defense from November 9, 2020, to January 20, 2021. He previously served as Direc ...
had publicly stated so on the day of the attack. As a result, CNN later questioned whether Pence was "acting as commander in chief."
Miller gave similar testimony to Congress on May 12, 2021, before the House select committee was formed.
June 13, 2022
Synopsis of second hearing
The second televised hearing concentrated on both how and why Trump and surrogates spread false claims of voter fraud in various jurisdictions proliferated following the
2020 United States presidential election.
Witness testimony
Former
U.S. attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
for the Northern District of Georgia
B.J. Pak testified. Pak
resigned
Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...
from his position days before the January 6 attack; he later told the
Senate Judiciary Committee
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...
that the White House informed him Trump would fire him if he did not publicly state his office had found election fraud in Georgia.
Chris Stirewalt
Christopher W. Stirewalt is an American political analyst who presently is the politics editor for NewsNation and is a contributing editor for ''The Dispatch''. Previously he had worked for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in July 2010. H ...
, a former Fox News politics editor, testified. Fox News was the first network to
declare Biden as having won Arizona in the 2020 election; Stirewalt testified that as the vote count wrapped up, he saw Trump's statistical chances of winning shrink to essentially zero. After Stirewalt defended that journalistic choice, Fox News fired him in January 2021.
Al Schmidt, the Republican former city commissioner of Philadelphia, testified. He had drawn Trump's ire for refusing to publicly announce the city's election results were rife with fraud. He resigned in 2021, saying he had received death threats.
Ben Ginsberg, a long-term Republican election attorney involved in the controversial ''
Bush v. Gore
''Bush v. Gore'', 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, th ...
'' litigation, testified as an expert about why Trump's election lawsuits failed.
Subpoena and absence of Bill Stepien
Bill Stepien
William Stepien is an American political consultant who served as the campaign manager for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign beginning in July of that year. A member of the Republican Party, he was the White House Director of Politica ...
was subpoenaed to testify, but his wife went into labor and he canceled his appearance;
his attorney was then to have read a statement on his behalf, but did not. Stepien is a longtime Republican operative who joined Trump's 2016 campaign, later becoming the White House political director, before becoming Trump's campaign manager two months before the 2020 election. He was involved in the
Stop the Steal
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of h ...
effort, including spreading false information about voting machines despite a staff memo finding the allegations were false. Stepien had provided the committee a deposition under subpoena in December 2021. The Select Committee made ten video clips of Stepien's deposition available following the meeting.
Knowledgeable insiders dismiss voter fraud allegations
The Select Committee showed several video clips of White House and Trump campaign insiders patly dismissing claims of voter fraud.
* Trump adviser Jason Miller said
Rudy Giuliani was "definitely intoxicated" on election night when he advised Trump to lie that he had won.
* Trump campaign staffer Bill Stepien said he disagreed with Giuliani's advice on this matter: "Ballots were still being counted. It was far too early to be making any proclamation like that."
Stepien said that Trump's advisers fell into two camps on this matter, and Stepien considered himself to be on "Team Normal".
* More video of Barr's testimony was presented. At times he could not control his laughter at the absurdity of some fraud allegations, such as the "
Italygate
Italygate is a pro-Trump, QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theory that alleges the 2020 United States presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden using satellites and military technology to remotely switch votes from Donald Trump to Biden fro ...
" conspiracy theory, which claims that satellites controlled from Italy had been compromised and used to attack voting machines, and that former Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez had orchestrated an election fraud scheme, despite having died seven years earlier. Barr testified Trump never gave "an indication of interest in what the actual facts were," adding the president had "become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff." Barr also laughed at the mention of
Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (; born April 25, 1961) is an Indian-American right-wing political commentator, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist. He has written over a dozen books, several of them ''New York Times'' best-sellers.
In 2012, D' ...
's recent film ''
2000 Mules'', dismissing the fictional assertions of widespread election fraud.
False claims appeared in Trump fundraising
Committee member
Zoe Lofgren
Susan Ellen "Zoe" Lofgren ( ; born December 21, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Lofgren is in her 13th term in Congress, having been first elected in ...
and the Select Committee's senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick described how Trump used false claims of election fraud by a "left-wing mob" to solicit donations for an "Official Election Defense Fund" beginning days after the election. The solicitation raised some $250 million in total, nearly $100 million in the first week. Lofgren noted most election-related litigation had ended within weeks of the election, yet the requests for cash contributions continued. Reuters analysis of the legal language of the email solicitations days after they began showed that donors were asked to register for recurring donations and that donations under $8,000 would not go into a defense fund, but rather to Trump's
Save America PAC
Save America (founded on November 9, 2020) is a leadership political action committee founded and controlled by former US president Donald Trump. It has been Trump's primary fundraising and political spending arm since he left office.
History
...
and to the
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...
, which would have broad discretion over the funds. Lofgren asserted, "Not only was there the
big lie
A big lie (german: große Lüge) is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth, used especially as a propaganda technique. The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his book ''Mein Kampf'' (1925), to describe ...
, there was the big rip-off." Lofgren later said on CNN that the committee had evidence that members of Trump's family and inner circle had personally benefited from the post-election fundraising, specifically stating that
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle ( ; born March 9, 1969) is an American television news personality and former prosecuting attorney in San Francisco. A Republican, she became an advisor to the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Guilfoyle ...
had been paid $60,000 for delivering a 2 minute introduction at the
Stop the Steal
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of h ...
rally, though that fee was paid by
Turning Point Action.
June 16, 2022
Synopsis of third hearing
The third televised hearing examined how Trump and others pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results. Pence himself was not present at the hearing and did not offer video testimony.
Experts testimony on the Constitutional role of the Vice President in the election
J. Michael Luttig
John Michael Luttig ( ; born June 13, 1954) is an American corporate lawyer and jurist who was a U.S. federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006. Luttig resigned his judgeship in 2006 to become general coun ...
, a longtime Republican who had clerked for
Antonin Scalia and
Warren Burger
Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul Colleg ...
before becoming a
federal appeals court
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...
judge, testified in-person. Had Pence "obeyed the orders from his president," it "would have been tantamount to a revolution within a
constitutional crisis
In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...
," he said.
Before the hearing, Luttig wrote a statement for the record that Trump and his allies "instigated" a war on democracy "so that he could cling to power." He continued, "It is breathtaking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the President of the United States at that perilous moment in history" and that January 6 "was the final fateful day for the execution of a well-developed plan by the former president to overturn the 2020 presidential election at any cost." On the day before the Capitol attack, Luttig had—at the request of Pence's aides—publicly opined that the vice president had no constitutional authority to intervene in the election certification, which Pence cited in his January 6 letter stating he would not intervene.
Greg Jacob, former counsel to Pence, testified in-person. He had advised Pence he did not have the authority to overturn the election results.
In his legal opinion, he said, those who wrote the Constitution wouldn't have "put it in the hands of one person to determine who would be the president of the United States".
He also said that
John Eastman
John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer who is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the conservative think tank Claremont Institute. He is a former profe ...
had told him privately that he didn't expect a single Supreme Court Justice would support the validity of the
fake electors scheme.
A video was shown of testimony by Marc Short, former Pence chief of staff.
According to Short, Pence knew he had no legal authority to overturn the election and had said so "many times" to Trump.
Narrative of Vice President Pence and the events of January 6
Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann had told the committee that Rudy Giuliani privately admitted on the morning of January 6 that Pence didn't have authority to overturn the election, even though Giuliani gave a speech at the Ellipse that afternoon telling the opposite to the crowd. Herschmann's videotaped testimony was publicly revealed for the first time.
According to a timeline presented by the committee, by 2:10pm the Capitol had been breached and the mob began swarming in. Trump became aware of the breach and at 2:24pm tweeted, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what was necessary." The committee revealed that the mob, some chanting "hang Mike Pence," came within 40 feet of the vice president as he was evacuated from his office to an underground loading dock. Greg Jacob testified the Secret Service instructed Pence and his aides to get in cars, which most did; Pence declined, and the head of his security detail assured the vice president he would not be evacuated from the Capitol without his permission. Pence responded that he knew and trusted his security chief, but that he was not the one driving the car. Jacob said Pence did not want the world seeing him fleeing and giving the insurgents any satisfaction from it. Pence then spent the next five hours in a secure underground location within the
Capitol Building complex. The Department of Justice spoke to a confidential witness who traveled to Washington with the Proud Boys and swore under oath that they would have killed Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi if given the chance.
The committee alleged that Eastman was aware his "
coup memo" and other legal recommendations and political activities were potentially criminal. He emailed Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani several days after the attack on the Capitol, saying, "I've decided I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works", but he did not receive a pardon.
During his taped deposition, he
pleaded the Fifth 100 times―reserving the right to avoid self-incrimination―and refused to answer any questions regarding his participation in the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Luttig warns about 2024
At the close of the hearing, Luttig said:
June 21, 2022
Synopsis of fourth hearing
The fourth televised hearing examined a scheme to refuse and return certified Biden elector slates back to seven key states, which had Republican-controlled legislatures. Leveraging the false allegations of election fraud, it was at Trump's "direct request" that the
RNC assisted by organizing the
fake slates of electors for Pence to certify.
The scheme, promoted by Trump attorney
John Eastman
John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer who is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the conservative think tank Claremont Institute. He is a former profe ...
, came to be known as the
Pence Card
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of ...
. The committee presented part of a video deposition of
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...
chair
Ronna McDaniel
Ronna McDaniel (' Romney; born March 20, 1973) is an American politician and political strategist serving as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) since 2017. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party and the R ...
, who testified Trump had called her about helping to further the scheme; Eastman also participated in the call.
Trump calls the Georgia Secretary of State
Georgia secretary of state
Brad Raffensperger
Bradford Jay Raffensperger (born May 18, 1955) is an American politician, businessman, and civil engineer, serving as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Georgia House of Re ...
, whose
phone call with Trump was cited in the former president's
second impeachment, testified that his office pursued hundreds of allegations of voter fraud but found no widespread fraud that would have changed the election result. In the end, he found only 74 votes from people who had been ineligible to vote because of felony convictions and only 4 votes in the names of deceased people. There were no votes from underage or unregistered voters. (Biden had won the
Georgia election by 11,779 votes.)
Gabriel Sterling
Robert Gabriel Sterling (born November 14, 1970) is an American politician and elections official from the state of Georgia. He is the chief operating officer (COO) in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State. He previously served on the city ...
, Raffensperger's deputy, also testified.
During the Raffensperger testimony, the committee played audio excerpts of
the phone call he had with Trump on January 2, 2021, and another call with Frances Watson, the chief investigative officer for Raffensperger's office. Trump told Watson, "when the right answer comes out you'll be praised." Trump is heard to tell Raffensperger he had won Georgia by at least 400,000 votes, though he actually lost by 11,779 votes. He told Raffensperger, "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state." Trump repeated a debunked allegation that a video showed a suitcase containing a minimum of "18,000 ballots, all for Biden" brought to a ballot counting facility late at night for counting. Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to find "the real truth" and suggested Raffensperger could be criminally liable if he did not accede to the president's wishes:
Surrogates pressured the Arizona House leadership
Arizona House Speaker
Rusty Bowers testified. Bowers said that Trump had personally pressured him to overturn the state's election results, as had Rudy Giuliani,
Ginni Thomas
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas ( Lamp; born February 23, 1957) is an American attorney and conservative activist. In 1987, she married Clarence Thomas, who became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991. Her conservativ ...
, and John Eastman. Bowers said that Eastman told him: "Just do it and let the courts sort it out." Bowers characterized Trump's scheme as "cheating", since there was "no evidence being presented of any strength" of the claims. He said that participating in Trump's lie would have been "foreign to my very being." He also testified that Arizona Congressman
Andy Biggs
Andrew Steven Biggs (born November 7, 1958) is an American attorney and politician who represents in the United States House of Representatives. The district, which was once represented by U.S. Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, is in the ...
called him on the morning of January 6, asking him to overturn the Arizona results. Shortly before the committee hearing, Trump released a statement saying that Bowers had privately agreed with him in November 2020 that the Arizona election was rigged and stolen, but Bowers specifically denied Trump's allegation during the hearing while under oath. Bowers testified Giuliani told him, "We've got lots of theories. We just don't have the evidence."
Sean Riley "alternate electors" plan for Wisconsin and Michigan
The committee revealed a text message sent by Senator
Ron Johnson
Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. S ...
's aide Sean Riley minutes before the vote certification began on January 6. In the message, Riley informed Pence's aide Chris Hodgson that the senator wanted to personally hand deliver information to the vice president about "alternate slates of electors for
MI and
WI" to which Hodgson replied, "do not give that to him."
Impact of false fraud allegations on election workers
Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss testified about their experiences. After the election, Trump and Giuliani amplified a video that was taken out of context, and used the footage to make baseless claims that Freeman and Moss had committed election fraud. The women and their family members were subjected to anti-Black racist smears and death threats and were warned by the FBI that they would not be safe in their home. During her testimony, Freeman said "There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?" Ms. Moss said that the false accusations made against her had impacted her well-being "in a major way — in every way — all because of lies."
Reactions to fourth hearing
Fox News anchor
Martha MacCallum
Martha Bowes MacCallum (born January 31, 1964) is an American news host for Fox News. She is the host of ''The Story with Martha MacCallum'', broadcast from Manhattan. MacCallum joined the network in 2004. Her interviews with President Barack Ob ...
acknowledged on June 21 after the fourth hearing: "The lack of
lection fraudevidence is the huge stunning clear moment here, where these
epublicanpeople are saying, 'Look, I supported you, please give me something to work with,' and it simply doesn't materialize." Fox News host
Brian Kilmeade
Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, '' Fox & Friends'', and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade S ...
similarly said on June 26 that Trump's allies "couldn't prove" any cheating had occurred.
By the fourth hearing, committee members saw an increase in threats against them and were likely to be assigned security details. Kinzinger's wife received a handwritten letter that threatened to execute her, her husband and their five-month-old baby.
A month later, on July 20, the Arizona Republican Party censured Rusty Bowers for reasons "including co-sponsoring Democrat-led bills" and "refusing to work with" Arizona Republicans. They did not directly mention his public testimony at the committee's fourth hearing. The state party had censured other leaders the previous year for criticizing Trump.
June 23, 2022
Synopsis of fifth hearing
The fifth televised public hearing focused on Trump's pressure campaign to influence top Justice Department officials, demanding they investigate election fraud conspiracy theories and
rubber stamp
A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to rubbe ...
his narrative that the election was stolen, despite any factual evidence to support this claim. The hearing additionally detailed Trump's request to seize voting machines in late December 2020; plans to install
Jeffrey Clark
Jeffrey Bossert Clark (born April 17, 1967) is an American lawyer who was Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division from 2018 to 2021. In September 2020, he was also appointed acting head of the Civil Divis ...
as acting attorney general were also revealed. Witnesses included
Jeffrey Rosen, former acting attorney general;
Richard Donoghue
Richard Donoghue is an American attorney and prosecutor who served as the acting United States Deputy Attorney General, United States deputy attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021. Previously, he served as the principal Associate Dep ...
, former acting deputy attorney general; and
Steven Engel
Steven Andrew Engel (born June 29, 1974) is an American lawyer. He served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Donald Trump administration. Engel, who previously worked in the George W. Bush ad ...
, former assistant attorney general for the
Office of Legal Counsel
The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General's position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. It drafts legal opinions of the Attorney ...
.
"Just say it was corrupt"
At Trump's request, acting defense secretary
Christopher Miller contacted an attaché in Rome about the
debunked QAnon theory which alleged an Italian defense contractor uploaded
malware to a satellite in order to hack the election results and remotely switch votes from Trump to Biden. The conspiracy theory was relayed by Congressman
Scott Perry to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who then asked Rosen and Donoghue to investigate on behalf of the
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
.
They flatly rejected the request as "patently absurd." The conspiracy theory was also pushed by former CIA employee Bradley Johnson,
who was among those who gave video testimony.
Rosen and Donoghue continued to strongly resist Trump's efforts to have the Justice Department announce election fraud had been found, just days after outgoing attorney general
Bill Barr had
resigned
Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...
and announced that there was no significant evidence found which could have influenced the election. Donoghue testified that during a phone call with then president Trump on December 27, he was told to "Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."
On December 31, Trump rushed back to Washington, D.C. from his Florida
Mar-a-Lago estate in order to hold an emergency meeting at the White House, in which Justice Department officials were called upon to attend. At one point, Trump told them that voting machines had been hacked and the election stolen. Trump then asked "why don't you guys seize these machines?"
Richard Donoghue
Richard Donoghue is an American attorney and prosecutor who served as the acting United States Deputy Attorney General, United States deputy attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021. Previously, he served as the principal Associate Dep ...
explained that experts at
DHS
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
had already investigated and that there was "nothing wrong with the voting machines ... and no factual basis to seize machines." Trump then yelled: "Get
Ken Cuccinelli
Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli II ( ; born July 30, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, h ...
on the phone" and proceeded to insist that it was his job, as the Homeland Security deputy secretary, to seize voting machines. He told Cuccinelli "you're not doing your job." During the public hearing, Jeffrey Rosen testified that the Department of Justice has no legal authority to seize voting machines and that he never informed Trump that the Department of Homeland Security could seize voting machines either.
Aborted attempt to install Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General
Clark was shown to have provided a
"proof of concept" letter, that was composed by
John Eastman
John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer who is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the conservative think tank Claremont Institute. He is a former profe ...
and Justice Department lawyer Ken Klukowsi, intending that the letter be delivered to Georgia officials. The letter falsely asserted that the Justice Department found election irregularities in that state and others, in an effort to persuade the state legislature to rescind Biden's certified victory in Georgia. In response to this proposed letter, a "contentious" meeting was held between Clark, Attorney General Rosen, and Deputy Attorney General Donoghue, in which Donoghue told Clark: "What you are doing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election." When Rosen refused to send the letter, Clark then sought to take over the Department of Justice so that he could send the letter himself.
According to ''The New York Times'' it was Rep.
Scott Perry who had first introduced Trump and Clark, because of Clark's "openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud" and willingness to do the president's bidding. The committee presented text messages from December 26, 2020, between Rep. Perry and
Mark Meadows
Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th c ...
, that revealed the congressman's role in the attempted scheme that unfolded days later to oust
Rosen
Rosen is a surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, the name deriving from the German word for roses. Notable people with this surname include:
People A–H
* Adam Rosen (born 1984), American-born British luger Olympian
* Al Rosen (1924–2015), Amer ...
and install
Clark
Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...
as the top
DOJ official.
White House call logs from the afternoon of January 3 showed that officials within the Oval Office were already referring to Clark as the "Acting Attorney General" although not having been officially appointed to the position. Later that day, in a meeting at the White House with top Department of Justice officials, Trump openly considered a move to replace Rosen with Clark, saying "What do I have to lose?" to which Deputy Attorney General Donoghue replied "Mr. President, we'd resign immediately. I'm not working one minute for this guy, who I just declared was completely incompetent ... I'm telling you what's going to happen. You're gonna lose your entire department leadership. Every single one of us will walk out. Your entire department of leadership will walk out within hours."
Ultimately, the effort to appoint Clark, send
the letter to Georgia officials, and attempt to decertify election results was averted when a majority of the DOJ Assistant Attorneys General threatened to resign ''
en masse
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Engli ...
'' if the scheme went forward.
During Clark's video taped deposition with the committee, he refused to answer most questions, and
pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times during his 100-minutes-long interview with investigators.
Request for preemptive pardons
Extracts of a January 11 email sent by Alabama Rep.
Mo Brooks
Morris Jackson "Mo" Brooks Jr. (born April 29, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2023. His district was based in Huntsville and stretches across the northern fifth of the sta ...
were shared. The congressman, who had championed efforts in the House to overturn the election in Trump's favor, contacted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows with pardon requests for himself,
Matt Gaetz
Matthew Louis Gaetz II ( ; born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A Republican, he has been described as an ally of former president Donald Trump, as well as a proponen ...
,
Louie Gohmert
Louis Buller Gohmert Jr. (; born August 18, 1953) is an American attorney, politician, and former jurist serving as the U.S. representative from Texas's 1st congressional district since 2005. Gohmert is a Republican and was part of the Tea P ...
and "every Congressman and Senator" who recently voted to reject official electoral college submissions for Arizona and Pennsylvania.
White House aides mentioned that
Andy Biggs
Andrew Steven Biggs (born November 7, 1958) is an American attorney and politician who represents in the United States House of Representatives. The district, which was once represented by U.S. Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, is in the ...
of Arizona,
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania had all requested preemptive pardons.
Cassidy Hutchinson
Cassidy Jacqueline Hutchinson is an American former White House aide and assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration.
Hutchinson testified on June 28, 2022, at the public hearings of the United States House S ...
, an aide to
Meadows
A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artificia ...
, previously told the committee that Rep.
Jim Jordan
James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician currently serving in his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007.
A member of the Republican Party, he is a two-ti ...
also talked generally about pardons for members of Congress.
June 28, 2022
Synopsis of sixth hearing
The sixth televised hearing was dedicated entirely to the testimony of
Cassidy Hutchinson
Cassidy Jacqueline Hutchinson is an American former White House aide and assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration.
Hutchinson testified on June 28, 2022, at the public hearings of the United States House S ...
, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff
Mark Meadows
Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th c ...
.
Meadows had provided a large amount of documentation to the committee but then stopped cooperating,
sued the committee, and was held in criminal contempt of Congress in December 2021.
Due to heightened security concerns surrounding Hutchinson's testimony, the committee announced this hearing only one day in advance.
Ms. Hutchinson obtained her own security prior to her public appearance, and the committee enhanced its security for the sixth hearing at which she testified.
Prelude to January 6
Hutchinson said that Rudy Giuliani told her on January 2 that Trump and his allies planned to go to the Capitol on January 6. When she reported this to her boss, Meadows, he "didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of ... 'things might get real, real bad'." The committee also showed prior videotaped testimony in which Hutchinson said the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were mentioned in the context of planning the January 6 rally, especially in Giuliani's presence.
She said that White House counsel
Pat Cipollone
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump.
Early life
Cipollone's father was an Italian immigrant and factory worker; his mother was a homemaker. He ...
tried to prevent anyone from the White House from marching to the Capitol and told her personally: "Please make sure we don't go up to the Capitol, Cass. ... We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable."
Hutchinson said she persuaded Meadows not to go to Giuliani and Eastman's "war room" at the
Willard Hotel
The Willard InterContinental Washington, commonly known as the Willard Hotel, is a historic luxury Beaux-Arts hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. It is currently a member oHistoric Hotels of America the offi ...
on the evening of January 5, where former
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
Lt. Gen.
Michael Flynn was also present. Meadows, she said, told her he would instead phone into the meeting.
Flynn was subpoenaed by the committee. During his interview, Rep. Cheney asked: "General Flynn, do you believe in the
peaceful transition of power
A peaceful transition or transfer of power is a concept important to democratic governments in which the leadership of a government peacefully hands over control of government to a newly-elected leadership. This may be after elections or during t ...
in the United States of America?" He
pled the Fifth. This video clip was shown at the hearing.
Hutchinson testified that on the day before the Capitol attack, Trump directed Meadows to contact Flynn and
Roger Stone
Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist.
Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Rea ...
, who both had extensive ties to extremist groups like the
Proud Boys and
Oath Keepers
Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of Presidential power as prescribed by the US Constitution. ...
, leaders of which would later be indicted for
seditious conspiracy
Seditious conspiracy is a crime in various jurisdictions of conspiring against the authority or legitimacy of the state. As a form of sedition, it has been described as a serious but lesser counterpart to treason, targeting activities that undermi ...
for their alleged roles in the attack.
Hutchinson account of January 6
![Cassidy Hutchinson Jan 6 Hearing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Cassidy_Hutchinson_Jan_6_Hearing.jpg)
Trump had insisted on specific language for his speech at the January 6 rally. Hutchinson recalled legal advice given by
Eric Herschmann, who said it would be "foolish" to include some of the phrases, such as "We're going to March to the Capitol" and "Fight for Trump ... Fight for the movement." Herschmann also warned against making negative references to Mike Pence.
Some people brought weapons, including
AR-15s, to Trump's speech, according to police radio transmissions. Trump knew the crowd was armed yet wanted security checks loosened; he specifically wanted the
magnetometers removed.
Hutchinson, who was present at the rally, testified that she heard Trump say "something to the effect of 'I don't F-ing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me.'" Meadows and deputy chief of staff for operations
Tony Ornato were also aware of the weapons, according to Hutchinson.
As the mob became more vocal, calling for Pence to be hanged, Hutchinson overheard a conversation between Cipollone and Meadows, in which Cipollone argued that they needed to act urgently to prevent violence. Meadows, however, reminded Cipollone of Trump's current feelings that Pence "deserves it" and that Trump "doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."
She testified that Trump wanted to appear in-person at the Capitol following his speech to supporters. Secret Service agent Robert Engel said it would not be safe to go to the Capitol and insisted on taking him to the White House instead. Hutchinson was told later that day by Tony Ornato that Trump became very angry and insisted he wanted to go to the Capitol.
Ornato said Trump grabbed for the steering wheel of the presidential
SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
with one hand and lunged at Engel with his other hand, according to Hutchinson.
She testified that Engel was sitting in a chair, looking "somewhat discombobulated and a little lost" while Ornato related the account of these events, and that Engel never contradicted the story.
CNN reported three days after Hutchinson's testimony that it had spoken with two Secret Service agents who had heard accounts of the incident from multiple other agents since February 2021, including Trump's driver. Although details differed, agents confirmed there was an angry confrontation, with one agent relating that Trump "tried to lunge over the seat — for what reason, nobody had any idea," but no one asserted Trump assaulted Engel. ''Politico'' reported the same day that Engel told the committee during an early 2022 deposition that he had kept his full account of the incident from his Secret Service colleagues for at least fourteen months.
While the committee questioned Hutchinson, they showed brief clips of the videotaped testimony of others. National Security Council records, which identified Trump by
his codename "Mogul," also backed Hutchinson's claim that security was loosened, and that orders were made to NSC and Secret Service for "clearing a route".
Immediate January 6 aftermath
Hutchinson testified that during the riot she wrote down from Meadows' dictation a proposed statement the president might release, instructing the insurgents to leave the Capitol. She said White House attorney Eric Herschmann "chimed in" with his input. The note was displayed during the hearing, and Hutchinson confirming it was in her handwriting. After the hearing, Herschmann said through a spokesperson that he had written the note.
Hutchinson testified that both Meadows and Giuliani sought presidential pardons.
Rep. Cheney addresses possible tampering
In closing remarks, Cheney expressed concern that some witnesses may have been given messages intended to influence their testimony. She said a witness, whom she did not name, told the committee they had received multiple such messages prior to giving testimony to the committee: "What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I'm on the team, I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect, you know, I'll continue to stay in good graces in Trump world."
She quoted another unnamed witness being told that "he is thinking about you", that "he knows you're loyal" and "will do the right thing."
[ Two days after the hearing, ''Politico'' reported that Hutchinson was the recipient of the quoted communications, prior to her March 7 deposition, and that the "he is thinking about you" message came from an intermediary for Mark Meadows. Cheney stated that the committee was taking allegations of witness tampering seriously and that they would consider the "next steps" necessary to address the issue.
On December 20, 2022, it was reported that Trump administration ethics attorney Stefan Passantino had advised Hutchinson, who was then his client, to testify that she didn't remember details. Trump’s Save America PAC was paying for Passantino's services, which Hutchinson was not aware of. Hutchinson disagreed with Passantino's advice and switched lawyers before she testified.
]
Reactions to sixth hearing
Hutchinson’s testimony was subject to significant national attention. According to ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', " tgarnered a reaction that no other had received to date. As she exited the hearing room when the committee broke for a short recess, a crowd in the back applauded her." Fox News host Bret Baier
William Bret Baier ( ; born August 4, 1970) is the host of ''Special Report with Bret Baier'' on the Fox News Channel and the chief political correspondent for Fox. He previously worked as the network's Chief White House Correspondent and Pent ...
said her "testimony was very compelling from beginning to end"; conservative commentator George Conway said "This is the most astonishing testimony I have ever seen or heard or read. You could litigate or investigate for a thousand years and never see anything as mind-blowing as this." The Lawfare blog
''Lawfare'' is an American blog dedicated to national security issues, published by the Lawfare Institute in cooperation with the Brookings Institution. It has received attention for articles on Donald Trump's presidency.
Background
The blog w ...
editorialized, "Cassidy Hutchinson's Testimony Changed Our Minds about Indicting Donald Trump". The testimony was widely characterized by legal analysts and the press as highly significant, particularly in the context of possible indictments of Trump and his associates in the Justice Department's criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Former Trump attorney general Bill Barr remarked, "the department is clearly looking into all this, and this hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on."
After Hutchinson's testimony, CNN reported that an unnamed "Secret Service official familiar with the matter" said Ornato denied telling Hutchinson about a physical altercation. CNN also reported that the DHS
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
Office of Legislative Affairs would make involved agents available to the committee for sworn testimony, at which time they would be prepared to say the incident did not occur. According to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, "Some of the officers said that they would be coming and talking under oath ... utthey have not come in" and instead, Ornato, Engel, and the unnamed driver of the president's armored vehicle have all retained legal counsel. (Months later, the committee interviewed the driver.)
Ornato led Trump's Secret Service detail until the president named him White House deputy chief of staff for operations in December 2019; Ornato took an unprecedented leave of absence from his civil service Secret Service position to accept the political appointment. ''Politico'' reported two days after Hutchinson's testimony that members of the committee were skeptical of Ornato's credibility due to assertions made in his January and March depositions. ''Washington Post'' reporter Carol Leonnig
Carol Duhurst Leonnig is an American investigative journalism, investigative journalist. She has been a staff writer at ''The Washington Post'' since 2000, and was part of a team of national security reporters that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, 2014 ...
, author of the 2021 book ''Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service,'' characterized Engel and Ornato as "very, very close to President Trump." During an MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
interview she stated: "some people accused them of at times being enablers and 'yes men' of the president — particularly Tony Ornato — and very much people who wanted to ... see him pleased." Leonnig said there was a large contingent of Trump's Secret Service detail that wanted Biden to fail and some "took to their personal media accounts to cheer on the insurrection and the individuals riding up to the Capitol as patriots." Two months after Hutchinson's testimony, Ornato, who was then serving as assistant director of the Secret Service, announced his retirement. Ornato then testified to the committee that he didn't remember telling Hutchinson about any physical altercation between Trump and the limo driver. The committee wrote in its final report that it was "difficult to fully reconcile the accounts" from various witnesses regarding a physical altercation, though witnesses agreed that Trump had been angry.
Trump responded by attacking Hutchinson repeatedly on the Truth Social
Truth Social (stylized as TRUTH Social) is a social media platform created by Trump Media & Technology Group, an American media and technology company founded in October 2021 by former U.S. president Donald Trump. It has been called a competitor ...
platform which he owns. He disputed the veracity of many of her statements and called her a "liar" and "total phony."[ With regard to Trump's denials about Hutchinson's testimony, Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted on June 28: "Cassidy Hutchinson is under oath on Capitol Hill. The President is on Truth Social ... ertestimony in and of itself is really, really powerful."
On the same day as Hutchinson's testimony, anonymous conspiracy theorist " Q" posted to ]8kun
8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ha ...
, claiming Hutchinson was involved in a plot to disparage Trump. QAnon
QAnon ( , ) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". ...
influencer Jordan Sather called Hutchinson a "plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...
", writing on his Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
channel: "Is Cassidy being used as a Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
to destroy the credibility of these hearings with her obviously fake testimony?"
In response to the sixth hearing, conservative author David French wrote an article for ''The Dispatch
''The Dispatch'' is an American conservative subscription-based and advertisement-free online magazine founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock. Several of ''The Dispatchs staff (including Hayes) are alumni of the defunct ...
'' titled "The Case for Prosecuting Donald Trump Just Got Much Stronger." According to ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', "In French's view, Trump demonstrably summoned the mob, knew it was armed and dangerous, told it to 'fight like hell' and tried to march with it." French wrote that "Hutchinson's sworn testimony closes a gap in the criminal case ... Trump is closer to a credible prosecution than ever before."
On the day after Hutchinson's testimony, the ''Washington Examiner
The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is o ...
'', a conservative publication widely read by Trump supporters, published an editorial entitled "Trump proven unfit for power again." The paper's board wrote, in part, "Cassidy Hutchinson's Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump's political career ... Trump is a disgrace. Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024. No one should think otherwise, much less support him, ever again."
July 12, 2022
Synopsis of seventh hearing
The seventh televised hearing presented links between then-President Donald Trump and the extreme domestic militias that helped coordinate the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee and panel of witnesses discussed "the rise of the right-wing domestic violent extremist groups that attacked the Capitol and how Mr. Trump amassed and inspired the mob." In addition, the panel described "known links and conversations between political actors close to Mr. Trump and extremists." Committee member Jamie Raskin stated, "Donald Trump solicited the mob; he summoned the mob to Washington ... All of this was targeted on the joint session of Congress." It focused on testimony from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump.
Early life
Cipollone's father was an Italian immigrant and factory worker; his mother was a homemaker. He ...
, plotting by far-right extremist groups and discussions about using the military to seize voting machines." Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as media director of Oath Keepers, testified as well. The focus of the hearing was connections, including Roger Stone
Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist.
Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Rea ...
and Michael Flynn, between the Trump administration and militia groups such as the Oath Keepers
Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of Presidential power as prescribed by the US Constitution. ...
and Proud Boys.
In new disclosed videotaped testimony, Pat Cipollone described, among other things, an "unhinged" White House meeting which took place on December 18, 2020, between himself, Trump, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and Patrick M. Byrne, who he named as members of an outside group pushing election conspiracy theories, and that they exhibited a "general disregard for backing what you actually say with facts." Cipollone testified that during the meeting, a draft executive order which would've directed the U.S. military to seize voting machines was discussed. A former Twitter employee who testified on anonymity also testified that Twitter, which Trump used to help organize the rally, “relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem” and that he was concerned about Trump's December 19, 2020, tweet which encouraged people to come to the "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th." This tweet would lead to further solicitation of the January 6 rally on extremist Internet sources and right wing media. One notable example came from Kelly Meggs, the head of the Florida Oath Keepers, who posted a message on Facebook pledging that his group would "work together" with the Three-Percenters and Proud Boys, two other right-wing extremist groups, just hours after the tweet was posted. Trump was also revealed to have posted the tweet not long after a meeting with Powell, Flynn and Rudy Giuliani had concluded.
In videotaped testimony, former White House officials testified about an extremist rally which was held outside the White House at Freedom Plaza
Freedom Plaza, originally known as Western Plaza, is an open plaza in Northwest Washington, D.C., United States, located near 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, adjacent to Pershing Park. The plaza features an inlay that partially depict ...
the night before the U.S. Capitol attack, which Sarah Matthews described as bringing Trump a good mood. In their videotaped testimonies, former Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia
Eugene Scalia (born August 14, 1963) is an American attorney who is a partner at Gibson Dunn. He served as the United States secretary of labor during the final 16 months of the Donald Trump administration. Scalia previously served one year as ...
and Ivanka Trump stated that they called on Trump to concede the election after the Electoral College votes were cast in respective states on December 14, 2020, but were ignored. Documented draft speeches were also revealed showing that Trump had in fact edited his January 6, 2021, Ellipse speech as well, to include negative words towards Vice President Mike Pence. Important information about Roger Stone's direct links to Proud Boys, which included encrypted chats with the Proud Boys Florida leader and video evidence showing him appear with members and reciting the Proud Boys' "Fraternity Creed", would be revealed as well. Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer who assists the Oath Keepers and a volunteer attorney for the Trump campaign, named Stone, Info War's Alex Jones
Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...
, and pro-Trump organizer Ali Alexander
Ali Alexander (born Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar in ) is an American far-right activist, social media personality, and conspiracy theorist. Alexander is an organizer of Stop the Steal, a campaign to promote the conspiracy theory that widespread vo ...
as the people who organized the January 2021 Stop the Steal rallies. Footage of Stone, Jones, Alexander and Michael Flynn speaking at the January 5, 2021, Freedom Plaza rally were shown as well.
Jason Van Tatenhove, who was first hired by the Oath Keepers in 2014, gave live testimony about the group's radicalization and how Stewart Rhodes, the group's founder, used conspiracy theories to increase membership and funding, stating that Oath Keepers drifted "further and further right — into the alt-right world, into White nationalists and even straight-up racists and it came to a point where I could no longer continue to work for them". He said he finally decided to leave the group was when he heard members talking about how the Holocaust was not real.
A text message which rally organizer Kylie Kremer sent to election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell
Michael James Lindell (born June 28, 1961), also known as the My Pillow Guy, is an American businessman, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and CEO of My Pillow, Inc., a pillow, bedding, and slipper manufacturing ...
on January 4, 2021, and which was made public during the hearing, revealed that Trump would "call for he marchunexpectedly" but they didn't want word to get out in advance in order to avoid a countermarch. During his live testimony, Ohio resident Stephen Ayres, who participated in the riot despite not being affiliated with any extremist organization, noted how Trump "got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down" and that "We basically were just following what he said." Ayres also stated that he did not plan to go to the U.S. Capitol until Trump encouraged the Ellipse crowd to do so.
In her closing statement, Liz Cheney stated that Donald Trump attempted to contact an unidentified witness who has yet to appear in the hearings, hinting at the possibility of witness tampering: "That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call, and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us. And this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
."
July 21, 2022
Synopsis of eighth hearing
The eighth televised hearing was held July 21, 2022, at 8 PM Eastern time, after being postponed from the original date of July 14, 2022. It was two hours and 48 minutes and was broadcast on prime time television. It outlined efforts to pressure Vice President Pence to reject Electoral College votes from a handful of states that gave Joe Biden his election victory. This hearing shared information revealed by Pat Cipollone during testimony. More video testimony was also featured from Trump's former Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia
Eugene Scalia (born August 14, 1963) is an American attorney who is a partner at Gibson Dunn. He served as the United States secretary of labor during the final 16 months of the Donald Trump administration. Scalia previously served one year as ...
, who was revealed to have written a memo which requested a Cabinet meeting following the January 6, 2021, attack. While he regarded Trump's actions to be "harmful," Scalia told the committee that he opted not to resign because he "thought that trying to work within the administration to steady the ship was likely to have greater value than resigning." It also featured video testimony from Sgt. Mark Robinson, a former MPD police officer who was assigned to the presidential motorcade's lead TS vehicle on January 6, 2021. Robinson stated that he was told firsthand that Trump got into a "heated discussion" about wanting to go to the U.S. Capitol.
Sarah Matthews, deputy press secretary in the Trump White House, and Matthew Pottinger
Matthew Forbes Pottinger (born 1973) is an American former journalist and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as the United States deputy national security advisor from September 22, 2019, until January 7, 2021. Previously the Asia director on ...
, who served on the National Security Council, testified in person. Both had resigned shortly after the attack on the Capitol. Evidence and details were presented of Trump's refusal to call off the attack, in spite of numerous pleas from officials, for hours. Never-before-seen footage of Trump's January 7, 2021, speech criticizing the January 6 attack was also released which revealed Trump's hesitance to make the speech as it was written. Former White House advisor, as well as Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner
Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...
stated in videotaped testimony that House of Representatives leader Kevin McCarthy pleaded for White House intervention during a January 6 phone call and that he thought McCarthy was "scared." A newly disclosed January 6 text message between Donald Trump Jr. and Mark Meadows revealed that Trump Jr. wanted his father to "condemn this shit" and "go to the mattresses," a film reference which Trump Jr. claimed during video testimony he thought meant "go all in." Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney stated, "Every American must consider this ... Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?". Committee Chair Thompson said, "If there is no accountability for Jan. 6, for every part of this scheme, I fear that we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy ... There must be stiff consequences for those responsible."
At the end of the hearing, Cheney said, "In the course of these hearings, we have received new evidence, and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward ... Doors have opened. New subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break ... We have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather ... So our committee will spend August pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts before convening further hearings this September."
October 13, 2022
Synopsis of ninth hearing
The ninth televised hearing was held October 13, 2022, at 1 PM Eastern time. It was originally scheduled for September 28 but postponed due to the devastation of Hurricane Ian. The hearing focused on evidence and testimony regarding Trump's involvement in events surrounding the attack of the Capitol, as well as information on the controversial website " thedonald.win", newly released videos of Nancy Pelosi, her Congress members, and lawmakers at their secure location during the attack, newly released videos on the rioters' reactions to Trump's "go home" message, and newly released texts from Secret Service agents demonstrating the awareness and warning signals about potential threats to both Pence and Congress in advance of January 6. The committee was also expecting to vote on its next investigation steps, and unanimously voted to subpoena Trump to make him testify.
Among those shown in video testimony footage were former Trump Administration officials Mick Mulvaney
John Michael Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 until March 2020, and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 until March ...
and Elaine Chao
Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 18th United States secretary of transportation in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, ...
. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler
Jaime Lynn Herrera Beutler ( ; born November 3, 1978) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2023. The district is in southwestern Washington, lying across the Columbia River from Oregon's Portland met ...
, R-Washington, also gave video testimony about what she claimed Kevin McCarthy told her about his phone conversation with Trump, which Mulvaney corroborated. Video testimony was also shown of former Twitter employee Anika Navaroli, who was revealed to have previously testified anonymously. Although the committee had already interviewed Ginni Thomas
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas ( Lamp; born February 23, 1957) is an American attorney and conservative activist. In 1987, she married Clarence Thomas, who became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991. Her conservativ ...
, it didn't feature any of her testimony in this public hearing. Video of Roger Stone was also presented, as well as evidence that some Trump associates planned to claim victory in the 2020 election regardless of the official results. Stone was also shown endorsing "the right to violence."
Prior to the ninth hearing
The ninth hearing—which the committee had planned to hold since July—included further details regarding "the potential unauthorized deletion" of text messages, particularly those from January 5 and 6, 2021, by the United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...
, which has been headed by Director James M. Murray, a Trump appointee. Inspector General Joseph Cuffari
Joseph Vincent Cuffari (born 1959) is an American government administrator who has been the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2019. He previously held positions in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations a ...
, a Trump appointee, alerted Congress on July 13, 2022, that Secret Service communication records had been deleted, following a months-long delay in reporting the matter. According to ''The Washington Post'', the whistleblowers who revealed this delay said they "shared a concern that Cuffari's office not alerting congressional investigators to the missing records reduced the chances of recovering critical pieces of evidence related to the Jan. 6 attack."
On August 1, 2022, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson reiterated calls for Cuffari to step down due to a "lack of transparency" that could be "jeopardizing the integrity" of crucial investigations regarding the missing Secret Service text messages. That same day, an official inside the DHS inspector general's office told ''Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' that Cuffari and his staff are "uniquely unqualified to lead an Inspector General's office, and ... The crucial oversight mission of the DHS OIG has been compromised." Congress also obtained a July 2021 e-mail, from deputy inspector general Thomas Kait, who told senior DHS officials there was no longer a need for any Secret Service phone records or text messages. Efforts to collect communications related to Jan. 6 were therefore shutdown by Kait just six weeks after the internal DHS investigation began. ''The Guardian'' wrote that "Taken together, the new revelations appear to show that the chief watchdog for the Secret Service and the DHS took deliberate steps to stop the retrieval of texts it knew were missing, and then sought to hide the fact that it had decided not to pursue that evidence."
Text messages from January 6, 2021, were deleted from the phones of Trump-appointed officials at the Pentagon after the watchdog group American Oversight filed FOIA requests to obtain the messages. This was not addressed in the July hearings because it was first reported on August 2.
On August 29, 2022, Representative Kinzinger had stated in a Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
interview that the next public hearings would focus on donations Trump solicited for the "Stop The Steal" movement but did not use for that purpose, as well as on the possible Secret Service coverup.
Aftermath of the ninth hearing
On November 2, 2022, ''Politico'' reported that they had obtained some of John Eastman's e-mail correspondences. The series of messages were from December 31, 2020, and had been turned over to congressional investigators, but had not yet been made public. In one exchange, Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote "We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt", and posited that Justice Thomas would be their "only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress". Attorney John Eastman replied "I think I agree with this", saying that they needed to "kick the Georgia legislature into gear" in order to favor Trump and overturn election results. The plan was to file a lawsuit and have a pending case with the Supreme Court, thus delaying the Senate's count of Biden's electors. Chesebro wrote that Justice Thomas would be the key figure necessary, if the plan were to succeed, because he would be the justice assigned to dealing with any emergency legal matters sent to the southeastern region's Eleventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts:
* Middle District of Alabama
* Northern District of Alabama
* ...
court.
Trump subpoena
The January 6 Committee's subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
for testimony and related documents was formally issued to Trump on October 21, 2022. Under the subpoena, the committee demanded that Trump hand over documents related to communications with Roger Stone, John Eastman, and others by November 4, and requested testimony by November 14. The committee also specified that they wanted "information sufficient to identify every telephone or other communications device" used by Trump between the dates of November 3, 2020, and January 20, 2021.
On November 11, 2022, Trump sued the House select committee and challenged the subpoena, seeking to block testimony and submission of documents. Chairman Bennie Thompson has called the legal effort a "delay tactic".
The committee's official legal capacity to conduct their investigation expired on December 31, 2022. Just days before the end of December, the committee formally withdrew Trump's subpoena. Chairman Thompson said "... the select committee has concluded its hearings, released its final report and ... In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the select committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena".
December 19, 2022
Synopsis of tenth hearing
Full-length video of the tenth and final public hearing of the Select Committee. (Source: January 6th Committee's channel o
YouTube
.
The tenth and final televised public hearing was held on December 19, 2022, at 1 PM Eastern time. A compilation of video clips, including footage of the riot and witness depositions, was shown.
Each committee member then made a live "opening statement":
* Chairman Thompson confirmed that the final report will be released later in the week, and that the report will have "a bulk" of the select committee's findings.
* Vice Chair Cheney elaborated on the history and importance of the peaceful transfer of power.
* Rep. Lofgren summarized the details regarding the "Big Lie" tactics.
* Rep. Schiff outlined the details of Trump's interference at the state level, Trump's fake electors plan, and the targeting of election workers.
* Rep Kinzinger detailed regarding the DOJ pressure campaign by Trump and his allies, including to the January 3rd attempt of appointing Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General of the DOJ.
* Rep. Aguilar reviewed Trump's pressure campaign on state officials, Congress, and even Vice-President Pence to take "unlawful action" in overturning the election results.
* Rep. Murphy discussed how Trump summoned the crowd to Washington D.C on January 6 and how his tweets "galvanized" violent extremists.
* Rep. Luria recapped Trump's 187 minutes of inaction and dereliction of duty.
* Rep. Raskin elaborated on the subcommittee's work and their consideration, reasoning, and evidence for criminal referrals. They recommended that Trump be charged with four crimes: 18 U.S.C § 1512(c), 18 U.S.C § 371, 18 U.S.C § 1001, and 18 U.S.C § 2383. (These are: Obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and "incite," "assist" or "aid or comfort" an insurrection.) Raskin also stated that the subcommittee's work had been limited by the lack of cooperation, and hopes the DOJ can use the subcommittee's work for their own investigation.
The committee also referred John Eastman.
Newer, previously un-televised video testimony from Hope Hicks
Hope Charlotte Hicks (born October 21, 1988) is an American public relations executive and political advisor who served in President Donald Trump’s administration from 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to 2021. She served as White House Director of Strate ...
and Kellyanne Conway
Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway (née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is an American political consultant and pollster, who served as Senior Counselor to the President in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020. She was previous ...
was shown as well. In her testimony, Hicks, who was Trump's White House communications director, claimed that Trump at one point told her "something along the lines of 'nobody will care about my legacy if I lose ... the only thing that matters is winning.'" Conway, in her testimony, claimed that she briefly spoke with Trump the day after the Capitol attack and that he said his supporters were upset.
The committee also recommended that the House Ethics Committee follow up on Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA), Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), Scott Perry (PA), and Andy Biggs (AZ) refusing to answer subpoenas.
Immediately after the hearing, the committee released a 154-page executive summary of its findings. It said it was ready to release its final report. The vote of the committee was unanimous.
Media coverage
According to ''The Washington Post'', "The eight hearings held by the House committee investigating the ... attack on the U.S. Capitol have been riveting to watch — and even more remarkably, they have captured the daily news cycle again and again, not only finding substantial TV and streaming audiences as they aired but also consistently landing at the top of broadcast and cable news reports and of newspaper front pages." The ''Post'' referenced several factors for the popularity of the hearings, stating that "Each hearing has produced at least one legitimate nugget of actual news, and sometimes more than one." They cited the importance of the brisk pace of the hearings which "move expeditiously from brief opening statements to video or live testimony" and without extemporaneous speeches or tedious delays. Liz Cheney was called "a compelling central character" with "steely resolve and understated intensity" who "is hard to look away from." The ''Post'' also gave some importance to timing, saying that "other major news stories of recent months ... have not occurred on the same dates as the hearings themselves."
According to CNN, "the committee has certainly succeeded in keeping the attention of America's political junkies. Trump devotees are the exception to that rule, but even they have dropped the 'nobody's watching the hearings' talking point that was trotted out in June. In a streaming and on-demand world, the total reach of the hearings to date is unknowable, but many tens of millions of Americans have soaked up the committee's findings, which is no small thing in a fractured media space."
June 9, 2022
The first public hearing of 2022 was carried live by all the major networks except Fox News. Mediated live coverage was provided by major broadcast television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as cable channels such as C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
, CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, Fox Business Network
Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenu ...
, MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
, and Newsmax
Newsmax (Newsmax Media, Inc. or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American right-wing to far-right cable news and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy on September 16, 1998. Newsmax Media divisions include its cable ...
, as well as news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
, Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...
, and ABC TV (Australian TV channel), and free streaming channels such as NBC News NOW
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
, and LiveNOW from Fox via YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and other live streaming outlets. Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
estimates that at least 20 million households watched the first hearing on traditional television, comparable to the average rating for ''NBC Sunday Night Football
''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...
'', which ranks as television's number one program.
Fox News alternate coverage during hearing
Instead of airing the hearing live, Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
broadcast ''Tucker Carlson Tonight
''Tucker Carlson Tonight'' is an American talk show and current affairs program hosted by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on the television network Fox News. The show premiered in November 2016 and includes political commentary, monolog ...
'' and ''Hannity
''Hannity'' is an American conservative television political talk program on Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity. Episodes air live at 9:00 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, while episodes that air on Fridays are pre-recorded, with a repeat ...
'' without commercial breaks for the entire two-hour hearing. During Carlson's show, he repeated false claims about FBI involvement, stating that federal agents had instigated the violence during the January 6 riots.
On Sean Hannity's show, he referred to the January 6 House Select Committee hearing as a "boring ... Hollywood production" and blamed the Capitol Police for their inability to defend the U.S. Capitol Building
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...
and prevent mob violence.
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' observed that by "not carrying the hearings live in prime time" Fox News was able to avoid a potentially "awkward on-screen moment." During the weeks following the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News since 2016.
Carlson began ...
and Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of '' The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commen ...
promoted Trump's election fraud narrative. Previously disclosed text messages between Hannity and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany
Kayleigh McEnany (; born April 18, 1988) is an American conservative political commentator and author who served the administration of Donald Trump as the 33rd White House press secretary from April 2020 to January 2021.
Early in the 2016 Re ...
were presented during the hearing, which revealed a coordinated internal strategy and agreed-upon public messaging campaign with the Fox News host.
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's David Folkenflik
David Folkenflik (born September 15, 1969) is an American reporter based in New York City and serving as media correspondent for National Public Radio. He was also one of the hosts of NPR & WBUR's ''On Point''. His work primarily appears on the N ...
said coverage of the hearing would have required Fox News to "broadcast flat contradictions of what many leading Fox News personalities have told their audiences in the past year and a half." Chris Hayes
Christopher Loffredo Hayes (; born February 28, 1979) is an American political commentator, television news anchor, activist, and author. Hayes hosts '' All In with Chris Hayes'', a weekday news and opinion television show on MSNBC. Hayes also ...
, of MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
, condemned Fox News saying they "went to great lengths" by not airing the hearing and that the network simultaneously countered the findings of the House Select Committee investigation by doing "everything in their power to make sure their viewers were shielded from the brutal truth about the violent coup that Donald Trump fomented." For example, Hayes said their skipping of commercial breaks would cost the network unknown thousands of dollars but tended to keep viewers from switching to the other networks, where they would have found live hearing coverage.
July 21, 2022
The eighth public hearing of 2022—and the second to be aired live on primetime—had nearly 17.7 million viewers. After his video testimony aired, Donald Trump Jr.
Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American political activist, businessman, author, and former television presenter. He is the eldest child of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, and his firs ...
, who testified that he was among those tried to encourage his father to denounce the attack on the U.S. Capitol, was greatly mocked on social media for misinterpreting what ''The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caa ...
''s line "go to the mattresses" meant; Newsweek journalist Tom Norton even noted that "Such descriptions arguably paint Trump in the same brush strokes as a crime boss."
Televised production and viewership
The United States House Select Committee contracted James Goldston
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, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
, former president of ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, as an advisor to help produce the public hearings and present the findings with a polished televised format. According to the Nielsen ratings, "In total, each of the eight hearings averaged 13.1 million viewers ... The two prime time hearings averaged 18.9 million viewers per hearing, and the other six hearings, which were daytime broadcasts, averaged 11.2 million viewers per hearing."
See also
* ''1776 Returns
''1776 Returns'' is the title of a document that outlined strategic plans for the takeover of US government buildings on January 6, 2021. It was circulated among the Proud Boys organization. The nine-page document was sent to Enrique Tarrio, Ch ...
'' – Plan for takeover of government buildings on January 6, 2021
*
* Eastman memos
* Ginni Thomas' efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election
* James Goldston's work as an adviser to the Jan. 6 Committee
* Jeffrey Clark letter
* Pence Card
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of ...
* Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election
* Republican reactions to Donald Trump's claims of 2020 election fraud
* Sedition Caucus
In American politics, "Sedition Caucus", "Treason Caucus", or "Seditious Caucus" is a pejorative term for the Republican members of the 117th United States Congress who voted against the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presid ...
Notes
References
External links
Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
— Official site
*
Committee hearings and related videos, via C-SPAN
Fake alternate slates of Trump electors for seven states
— obtained by FOIA request
*
*
* ('' MSNBC News''; July 29, 2022)
"Donald Trump Is Not Above The Law"
(''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''; August 26, 2022)
SUMMARY (PDF; 154pp; 12/19/2022)
FINAL REPORT (PDF; 845pp; 12/22/2022)
The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection: The House report describes both a catastrophe and a way forward
― ''The New Yorker.'' December 22, 2022
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