‘He is required to answer’: January 6 committee subpoenas Donald Trump after final bombshell public hearing

The House January 6 select committee on Thursday voted to issue a subpoena demanding testimony from the man whose actions have been at the centre of the nine-member panel’s investigation over the last year: former president Donald Trump.

Committee members unanimously approved a motion to subpoena the twice-impeached ex-president at the end of the panel’s ninth investigative hearing, likely the final such public session before the November midterm election.

The select committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, called Mr Trump “the one person at the centre of the story of what happened on January 6” and said the panel needs to hear from him in a way that goes “beyond” the fact-finding it has engaged in over the past year.

“This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions. He is required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is required to answer to those millions of Americans who votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power and whatever is underway to ensure this accountability under law,” he said. “This committee will demand a full accounting to every American person of the event of January 6. So it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony”.

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair and one of two Republicans on the select committee, presented a succession of videos showing Mr Trump’s associates invoking their right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions about conversations when the ex-president.

She also said the panel may make criminal referrals, but she stressed that a singular task remained — getting answers from Mr Trump.

“At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing,” she said, adding that the panel’s”duty today” was “to our country, and our children and our constitution”.

“We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers,” she said.

She said other witnesses have “gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with” the ex-president, and noted that one, Mr Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon, has been convicted of criminal contempt of congress as a result of refusing to testify.

Mr Trump is likely to fight having to appear before the committee, where he would be made to testify under oath and face the risk of perjury charges were he to lie. But if he testifies, he will be the first former president to give evidence before a congressional committee since March 1983, when former president Gerald Ford appeared at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the bicentennial of the US constitution.

 

The vote to compel testimony from the ex-president came after a two-and-a-half hour session, during which committee members presented evidence showing Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and remain in office against the wishes of American voters were executed as a “coordinated multi-part plan to ensure that he stayed in power” despite being well aware that he’d lost the election.

The Thursday afternoon hearing featured no live witnesses, but the panel’s presentation included new documentary and testimonial evidence, as well as a recap of the myriad bombshells delivered by the witnesses who testified during the eight other sessions held in June and July.

Video evidence showed Trump allies celebrating violence and Congressional leaders’ push to restore order

Early in the hearing, the committee played video of long-time Trump confidante Roger Stone calling for violence and saying that Mr Trump should simply declare victory before the 2020 presidential election was called.

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” he said in video the committee presented. “We won. F*** you.”

The video also showed Mr Stone telling supporters, “f**k the voting,” before adding “let’s get straight to the violence.”

More previously unseen video showed members of the House and Senate leadership scrambling to obtain aid from Defence Department officials as their workplace was being ransacked by a riotous mob of Mr Trump’s supporters.

In one clip, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was shown conducting a phone call with Virginia’s then-governor Ralph Northam to secure the assistance of hundreds of police and National Guard troops to back up the Capitol Police and Washington, DC police officers who’d been fighting a medieval-style hand-to-hand battle against the hordes of armed Trumpists.

Another showed Senator Chuck Schumer, then the upper chamber’s minority leader, in conversation with then-Attorney General William Barr.

Mr Schumer angrily demanded that Mr Barr tell Mr Trump to order his supporters to disperse.

“Yeah, why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr Attorney General in your law enforcement responsibility,” he said, his voice dripping with scorn.

Secret Service emails show warning of violence and plans to bring weapons

Other new evidence made clear just how much warning federal officials had of the tinderbox that Mr Trump would light on the day Congress was to make his loss official.

Representative Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee in addition to his role on the select committee, presented emails obtained from the US Secret Service showing the agency charged with protecting Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, as well as then-President-elect Joe Biden and then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris knew Mr Trump’s supporters were planning for violence on the day Congress was set to certify Mr Trump’s defeat.

Mr Schiff said the Secret Service had notice of the strong possibility of violence at least 10 days before the Capitol riot, from a 26 December 2020 tip received from the FBI informing the agency that members of the Proud Boys, a violent pro-Trump gang, “plan[ned] to march armed into DC”. One of the FBI sources said the group thought they would be on large enough numbers that they would “outnumber the police” who would be powerless to stop them.

Representative Pete Aguilar of California also presented internal Secret Service emails which showed awareness that rallygoers present for Mr Trump’s speech at the Ellipse were armed with rifles and pistols and intended to march on the Capitol.

“What is clear from this record is that the White House had more than enough warning to warrant stopping any plan for an ellipse rally, and certainly for stopping any march to the Capitol,” he said. “It was known to secret service that members of the crowd were armed, President Trump had been told, and there was no doubt that President Trump knew what he was going to do: sending an angry mob, a number of whom were clad in tactical gear and military garb, armed with various weapons to the Capitol.”

Mr Aguilar said there was “no scenario” under which Mr Trump’s actions that day would have been “benign,” nor was there any scenario under which any American president would’ve been justified in engaging in similar conduct.

Trump actions showed he knew he’d lost the election

The committee also presented further evidence that Mr Trump was aware that his loss to Mr Biden had been legitimate and was unlikely to be overturned.

Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the committee’s other Republican who is retiring at the end of the year, revealed that Mr Trump attempted to withdraw all US troops from Somalia by 31 December 2020 and troops from Afghanistan by 15 January 2021, a clear indication that Mr Trump knew he would be leaving office five days later.

In a committee interview, retired general Keith Kellogg — who served as national security adviser to the vice president — said the results would be “catastrophic.”

“Keep in mind the order was for an immediate withdrawal,” Mr Kinzinger said. “It would have been catastrophic, and yet President Trump signed the order.”

For her part, Democratic Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia, spoke about how Mr Trump continued to spread misinformation and said the committee’s report will document “Purposeful lies made in public directly at odds with what Donald Trump knew from unassailable sources, the Justice Department’s own investigations and his own campaign.”

“Donald Trump maliciously repeated this nonsense to a wide audience over and over again.” she said. “His intent was to deceive.”

Ms Luria, who is running for reelection in Virginia’s competitive 2nd district, also highlighted how he tried to coerce state officials into altering the election results.

“These actions taken directly by the president himself made it clear what his intentions were to prevent the orderly transfer of power,” she said, specifically pointing to his attempt to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The final hearing comes less than a month out from the November midterm elections. Representative Jamie Raskin, said that he was unconcerned about how the committee’s findings would play with voters.

“We have a mandate to make a report to Congress and for all of the American people about what happened on January 6, and what were the causes behind it and then what are our recommendations going forward,” he said.