WASHINGTON — The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol is planning to return to prime time on Thursday for what may very well be the finale of its summer time listening to schedule: a session centered on former President Donald J. Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction as a mob of his supporters assaulted Congress.
The listening to, scheduled for 8 p.m. on July 21, is predicted to present an in depth account of how Mr. Trump resisted a number of entreaties from staffers, attorneys and even his family to name off the assault, which raged for hours within the early afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021.
Representatives Elaine Luria, Democrat of Virginia, and Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, are anticipated to play main roles within the listening to.
One witness the panel may hear from is Sarah Matthews, a former White Home press aide who resigned within the aftermath of Jan. 6. She has informed the committee {that a} tweet Mr. Trump despatched attacking Vice President Mike Pence whereas the riot was underway was like “pouring gasoline on the fireplace.”
Mr. Trump had tried unsuccessfully to strain Mr. Pence to reject Congress’s official depend of electoral votes to substantiate Joseph R. Biden Jr. because the president-elect and was contained in the Capitol as rioters breached the constructing chanting “dangle Mike Pence.”
The committee can be prone to play clips of the testimony of different witnesses who tried to intervene with Mr. Trump throughout these greater than three hours, together with Pat A. Cipollone, the White Home counsel. The committee has additionally stated it obtained testimony from Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant normal who was Mr. Pence’s nationwide safety adviser, about Mr. Trump’s refusal to sentence the violence because the mob engulfed the Capitol.
Mr. Kellogg stated Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s eldest daughter, urged her father not less than twice to name off the violence, as did Mark Meadows, the chief of employees, and Kayleigh McEnany, the White Home press secretary.
The panel has already heard testimony from witnesses about unsuccessful makes an attempt to get Mr. Trump to name for peace.
Most memorably, the previous White Home aide Cassidy Hutchinson described to the committee how Mr. Trump sided with the mob and sympathized with their chants for the execution of Mr. Pence.
The listening to was initially deliberate to be the final in a sequence of summer time classes through which the panel would reveal its findings. However the committee has continued to gather new proof, and lawmakers have hinted that they may add extra hearings to the schedule.
Key Revelations From the Jan. 6 Hearings
Among the many new wrinkles, the committee is wanting into the disappearance of Secret Service textual content messages from across the time of the assault.
The committee issued a subpoena to the Secret Service on Friday night, in search of textual content messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, that had been reportedly erased in addition to any after-action stories.
The event got here after the inspector normal for the Division of Homeland Safety, the dad or mum company of the Secret Service, met with the panel on Friday and informed lawmakers that lots of the texts had been erased as a part of a tool alternative program even after the inspector normal had requested them as a part of his inquiry into the occasions of Jan. 6.
The Secret Service has disputed components of the inspector normal’s findings, saying that information on some telephones had been “misplaced” as a part of a deliberate three-month “system migration” in January 2021, however none pertinent to the inquiry.
The company stated that the undertaking was underway earlier than it obtained discover from the inspector normal to protect its information and that it didn’t “maliciously” delete textual content messages.
Consultant Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee, stated the panel desires to listen to extra from the Secret Service to attempt to get to know what occurred.
“The committee is totally decided to resolve this and to seek out the entire lacking texts,” Mr. Raskin informed reporters on Capitol Hill. “They’re lacking, however within the age of excessive expertise, we must always not quit.”
On Friday, the committee additionally interviewed Patrick Byrne, the previous CEO of Overstock.com, who financed a few of the authorized efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Mr. Byrne was current at what was maybe essentially the most dramatic assembly of the Trump presidency on Dec. 18, 2020, through which Michael T. Flynn, the previous nationwide safety adviser, and Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump lawyer, pressed to grab voting machines and identify Ms. Powell as a particular counsel to work to overturn the election.
Consultant Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the Jan. 6 committee chairman, stated the panel additionally has been discussing what to do about some extra high-profile potential witnesses.
Virginia Thomas, a political activist who pushed to overturn the 2020 election and the spouse of Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas, is “nonetheless on the committee’s checklist” of witnesses to name, despite the fact that she has rebuffed makes an attempt to interview her, Mr. Thompson stated.
Mr. Thompson additionally informed reporters the panel was persevering with to debate — as members have for months — whether or not it ought to attempt to summon Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence to testify, however lawmakers haven’t reached a conclusion about find out how to proceed.
The panel believes each males would in all probability combat makes an attempt to get them to testify, and a few lawmakers fear a public battle over Mr. Trump’s compliance would distract from the precise work of truth discovering.
Mr. Thompson has beforehand stated the committee had dominated out a subpoena for Mr. Pence, citing “vital info” it had obtained from two of his aides, Marc Brief and Greg Jacob.
