LIVE BLOG: Jan. 6 committee holds last public meeting ahead of final report’s release
The Jan. 6 committee is expected to call on the Justice Department to prosecute Donald Trump in the panel’s final public meeting on Monday, capping off an 18-month investigation that has focused largely on the former president’s conduct surrounding the Capitol riot.
The committee has held nine blockbuster hearings over the course of the year as it made its case that Trump engaged in a multi-part plan to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The committee holds Trump personally culpable for the chaos that ensued on Jan. 6, 2021, when throngs of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to halt the certification of the election for President Joe Biden.
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Committee members will meet at 1 p.m. to decide on criminal referrals for Trump and his allies and will vote to release a roughly 1,000-page final report, the executive summary of which will be made available to the public on Monday.
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Last week, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) signaled the meeting will be shorter than previous hearings but, like the others, will present new evidence and include a multimedia presentation. He said all nine committee members will play a role.
The select committee gaveled out for the final time after unveiling the basis for its criminal referrals of Trump and his associates.
Members filed out of the hearing room to applause from the public gathered there. Their final report is forthcoming; members had hoped to complete their work before Republicans take the House in January and disband the committee.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin began the highly anticipated process of laying out criminal referrals for people involved in the Jan. 6 riots. Raskin said the committee had evidence that Trump violated a number of laws. He put forward four referrals: obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting, assisting or aiding/comforting an insurrection, which the committee voted 9-0 to approve.
Raskin also noted the committee subpoenaed some members of Congress, none of whom cooperated with the investigation; he said four members would be referred to the House Ethics Committee.
Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria focused on what Trump did not do during the riots: increase security at the Capitol, heed pleas from allies to quell the violence or even issue a calming statement via Twitter to his supporters.
“For 187 minutes, he actively disregarded his constitutional obligation to take care that the laws are faithfully executed,” Luria said. “That is because the mob wanted what President Trump wanted: to impede the peaceful transition of power,” she said.
Luria’s statements laid the groundwork for some of the illegal activity the committee may refer to the Justice Department, specifically regarding whether Trump had a legal obligation to stop riots he may have inspired.Luria lost her seat in the midterm election and will not return in the new year.
Hope Hicks testified that she and White House counsel Eric Herschmann asked Trump “several times” to tweet on Jan. 6 urging rioters to be nonviolent but that he refused, according to the Jan. 6 committee.
The committee showed text messages and video testimony during Monday’s hearing.
“What did the president say in response to what you just described?” Hicks was asked in the testimony.
She responded: “Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose. So, that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.”
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who presented the evidence, said Trump’s tweets on Jan. 6 helped “galvanize” the rioters.
.@RepStephMurphy: “Ultimately, President Trump did not succeed in bending state and federal officials to his will jat every turn state officials, the Department of Justice understood the rule of law and resisted the President’s wishes.” pic.twitter.com/LLd4TeIn88
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022
Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar was next up, and he focused on how former President Donald Trump personally — and through others — pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of the election.
Pence, as vice president, was tasked with presiding over the joint session of Congress in which the Electoral College votes were tabulated. Aguilar said Trump had demanded Pence comply in multiple intense conversations in which Trump “berated” Pence and “exerted both public and private pressure” on Pence to stop the vote count.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) argued that former President Donald Trump sought to use the Justice Department to advance his claims of a stolen election, including steps by Rep. Scott Perry to elevate loyalist Jeffrey Clark to acting attorney general.
“President Trump sought to use the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute purported election fraud, and to help him convince the public that the election was stolen,” he said.
.@RepKinzinger up now: “President Trump sought to use the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute purported election fraud, and to help him convince the public that the election was stolen.” pic.twitter.com/ivvbzBEMJK
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke specifically to the way Trump communicated with state lawmakers whom he wanted to intervene in the vote-counting on his behalf.
“President Trump and his enablers repeatedly pressured state officials to take actions to overturn the results of this election,” Schiff said.
He cited Trump’s phone calls to Georgia officials, whom he instructed to find votes for him, as well as Trump aides’ efforts to compile slates of fake electors to participate in the election certification.
Schiff said Trump’s team used the slates of competing electors as a “pretext” in a scheme to challenge the Electoral College vote count from real electors. He said election officials targeted by Trump have faced threats and harassment because of the attention Trump cast on them in the aftermath of the election.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said that some of the funds former President Donald Trump raised through his election fraud claims were used to hire lawyers and “provide and offer employment to witnesses.”
“We are concerned these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth,” she said.
.@RepZoeLofgren: “The committee has evidence that ex President Trump planned to declare victory… in the weeks ahead of the election.” pic.twitter.com/0XmnR6AGvS
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022
After opening statements, the committee chairman played a video montage of previous witness interviews, hearing moments, and body camera footage from U.S. Capitol Police.
The montage included testimony from former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, and others.
The testimony from former Trump officials focused on the numerous times the people around Trump told him he was going to lose the 2020 election. Others spoke to the intense violence they saw during the riot itself.
.@January6thCmte now showing a highlight reel of all witness testimony and information they have been able to bring to the surface. pic.twitter.com/jXWgoBEiMp
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) followed up Chairman Bennie Thompson’s opening remarks by criticizing the “shameful” conduct of former President Donald Trump as the Jan. 6 riot unfolded and decrying his refusal to concede the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, describing presidential transitions as a sacred tradition.
“At the heart of our republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power,” she said.
.@RepLizCheney: “January 6th was the first time an American president refused his constitutional authority to transfer his power from one to the next.” pic.twitter.com/W52qd5LSje
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022
She invoked her great-great-grandfather, who fought for the Union in the American Civil War.
“I have found myself thinking often since Jan. 6 of my great-great-grandfather and those who have sacrificed so much for our nation,” she said.
Ultimately, she said Trump should never be allowed to serve as president again. “He is unfit for office,” she said.
.@RepLizCheney on Trump: “No man who ever behaved that way at that moment in time should ever serve in public office again. He is unfit for office.”
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 19, 2022