Former President Donald Trump attempted to contact a witness who has been cooperating with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot after the panel’s last meeting on June 28, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) revealed Tuesday.
The person, whose name the lawmaker did not reveal, has not yet appeared before the committee for a public hearing, Cheney said. The person did not respond to Trump’s request, instead calling his or her lawyer, who in turn alerted the committee. The information has also been handed over to the Department of Justice, Cheney said.
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“Let me say this one more time: We will take any efforts to influence witness testimony very seriously,” she said during Tuesday’s hearing.
It’s not clear when the forthcoming witness is set to appear in the committee’s future hearings. The panel is set to reconvene next week for a hearing that will focus on Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes during the Jan. 6 riot as his supporters breached the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
The evidence presented on Tuesday, the seventh public hearing the panel has held so far this summer, sought to link the former president’s rhetoric in the days leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, to the violence carried out by several right-wing supporters.
The committee played newly recorded video testimony from its interview with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, as well as other officials, an anonymous Twitter employee, and details about an “unhinged” West Wing meeting in the weeks before the riot.
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The hearing also featured in-person testimony from Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the extremist group the Oath Keepers, and Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to breaching the Capitol that day.
Previous hearings have focused on presenting evidence showing Trump promoted claims of widespread voter fraud despite having no evidence and even as his aides conceded he lost the election.
