WASHINGTON – A House committee is investigating the attack on the Capitol they voted on Thursday to call for Mr. Donald Trump there is a dramatic search for direct confrontation with the former president accused of causing the deadly January 6, 2021, riots and attempting to disrupt the 2020 elections.
“The overwhelming weight of evidence so far has shown us that the main cause of January 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed,” Vice Speaker Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said. “None of this would have happened without him. He himself is very involved in all of this.
“We need to find testimony under oath of the central player on January 6,” Cheney said, adding that the committee had “enough” information to provide criminal evidence related to numerous figures in the group’s investigation. “We have an obligation to seek answers from the man who put all this together.”
FULL RECAP:Live updates from the hearing
READ MORE:The Supreme Court rejects Trump’s appeal regarding the Mar-a-Lago documents
This vote came during the ninth session, and as well as the last public hearing, in which the legislators gave closing arguments, interweaving with the testimony, showing Mr. Trump’s violence to hold on to power knowing that the election was lost.
Trump hasn’t talked about the vote, other than posting a short video of the crowd that gathered to hear him speak on January 6, 2021, when he urged them to march to the Capitol.
Few expect Trump to subpoena the committee, a move that could spark a new legal challenge involving the former president. If Republicans win control of the House in the November elections, a new GOP majority could end the committee early next year.
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“I suspect that Trump would take the fifth if his hand was forced,” said former state prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “But he may try to delay his testimony by innocent courts challenging the authority of Congress to compel his testimony.”
National security attorney Bradley P. Moss said: “There is an unfortunate situation where Mr. Trump is willing to submit a subpoena from the 1/6 Committee. This will all be over by next January.”
During Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers repeatedly highlighted evidence of Trump’s attempt to deny Joe Biden’s victory.
Days before the 2020 election, according to the committee, a document declaring Trump’s victory was set to be released regardless of the outcome.
“We held an election today – and I won,” according to a document posted on October 31, 2020. “The votes counted on the last day of Election Day show that the American people have given me the highest honor in voting for President of the United States.”
Despite several intervention efforts by top aides, including then-Attorney General William Barr, Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in office appeared to be hopeless, the committee concluded.
When the Supreme Court rejected his challenge to the election last month, the documents and witness testimony collected by the committee provided a disturbing account of Trump’s increasing disobedience.
“FYI potus is angry – breaking news – supreme court rejected his legal case,” an email from a Secret Service agent on December 11, 2020, said. “He’s happy now.”
The committee’s hearing on Thursday also featured testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson who recounted how she and chief of staff Mark Meadows crossed paths with an “angry” Trump that day as he left the Oval Office, telling Meadows: “I don’t want people to know we’re lost, Mark. This is a shame. We have to understand it. I don’t want people to know that we lost.”