The House committee investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol assembles Thursday for what could be its final public hearing ahead of the midterms, promising to delve into former President Trump’s state of mind in a presentation designed to tie up a host of loose ends before the panel dissolves at the end of the year.
The hearing is underway. Watch live in the video above and follow our live coverage below.
A summary of today’s Jan. 6 committee hearing from The Hill
The hearing has concluded, lasting for 134 minutes.
Rep. Bennie Thompson’s (D-Miss.) gaveling potentially marks the end of the panel’s final public session before its work wraps up.
— Zach Schonfeld
Panel votes to subpoena Trump
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol took the unprecedented step Thursday of voting to subpoena former President Trump as it met in what could be its final public hearing.
The televised vote comes after the panel has for months wavered on whether it would subpoena the bombastic former president, who has frequently criticized the investigation as a partisan witch hunt designed to hurt him politically.
The move marks a major escalation in the effort to hold Trump to account for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — a riot the committee contends was orchestrated by the former president.
— Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) recounted last year’s testimony of four police officers who responded to Jan. 6, all of whom are seated in the hearing room.
Two Capitol Police officers, Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, as well as two Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officers, Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, testified before the panel publicly last summer.
The officers painted a violent picture of the Capitol attack during the hearing, with one saying he was stunned repeatedly with a Taser and another saying rioters attempted to gouge out his eye.
— Zach Schonfeld
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said the panel has enough evidence to consider criminal referrals for multiple people.
“Our committee now has sufficient information to answer may of the critical questions posed by Congress,” she said. “We have sufficient information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals, and to recommend a range of legislative proposals to guard against another Jan. 6.”
But, Cheney said, the committee still needs to hear from Trump. The panel is poised to vote to subpoena the former president for testimony.
— Brett Samuels
Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, making her first appearance at a committee hearing, told the committee in recorded deposition that the violence on Jan. 6 was shocking.
Chao, who resigned after the events of Jan. 6, said it was “impossible for me to continue given my personal values and my philosophy.
“I believe in a peaceful transfer of power, I believe in democracy. And so, I was a, it was a decision that I made on my own,” she said.
Chao is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Trump has repeatedly attacked both, with even some conservatives condemning Trump’s attacks on Chao, who is from Taiwan, as racist.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shared new messages from the Secret Service that show agents knew about the threats issued against Vice President Pence.
Pelosi, Schumer urged acting attorney general to encourage Trump to issue statement
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen after being evacuated on Jan. 6, urging him to encourage former President Trump to quell the violence.
“They’re breaking windows and going in, obviously ransacking our offices and all the rest of that, that’s nothing,” Pelosi told Rosen. “The concern we have is personal safety, it just transcends everything. But the fact is, on any given day they’re breaking the law in many different ways. And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States.”
Schumer then interjected as Rosen also attempted to respond.
“Why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. attorney general, in your law enforcement responsibility. A public statement they should all leave,” Schumer said.
The call was one of multiple conversations among congressional leaders on Jan. 6 shown by the panel.
After rioters breached the Capitol, Pelosi, Schumer and others were temporarily relocated to Fort McNair, located a short drive away.
— Zach Schonfeld
Anikia Collier Navaroli, a former Twitter employee, told the committee that Trump’s tweet attacking Vice President Pence as rioters descended on the Capitol “fanned the flames” of threats of violence against Pence.
“They were literally calling for his execution,” Navaroli said of the online chatter targeting Pence.
Trump’s tweet, shse said, “fanned the flames, and it was individuals who were already constructing gallows, who were already willing able and wanted to executive someone and looking for someone to be killed.”
Trump tweeted that Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” on Jan. 6 when he refused to reject the 2020 election results certifying President Biden as the winner.
— Brett Samuels
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) reiterated that former President Trump was watching television as the riot unfolded, a claim Trump has denied.
Raskin showed clips of the House committee asking multiple Trump aides, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone, about what the president was doing during the attack. Cipollone and the others confirmed he was watching television.
“As the president watched the bloody attack unfold on Fox News from his dining room, members of Congress and other government officials stepped into the gigantic leadership void created by the president’s chilling and studied passivity that day,” Raskin said.
— Zach Schonfeld
Kayleigh McEnany, former President Trump’s press secretary, told the House panel that the former president still wanted to travel to the Capitol upon returning from his speech at the Ellipse rally.
“To the best of my recollection, I recall him saying that he wanted to physically walk and be a part of the march, and then saying that he would ride the beast if he needed to,” McEnany said, a reference to the presidential limousine.
Scrutiny has grown over Trump’s desire to travel to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson previously testified that the former president clashed with Secret Service agents about traveling there following the rally. The agents present for the alleged altercation quickly denied it took place.
— Zach Schonfeld
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said the Jan. 6 select committee is reviewing testimony about “potential obstruction” and “advice given not to tell the committee” about an account former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinsn told the committee regarding then-President Trump’s altercation with the Secret Service in his motorcade.
Hutchinson in previous testimony told the panel that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his vehicle then lunged at the lead individual in his security detail after being told he would not be traveling to the Capitol to join his supporters on Jan. 6.
“After concluding its review of the voluminous additional Secret Service communications from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the committee will be recalling witnesses and conducting further investigative depositions based on that material. Following that activity, we will provide ever greater detail in our final report,” Aguilar said.
A former White House employee with national security responsibilities explained to the Committee that they were specifically informed of Trump’s “irate” behavior in the Presidential SUV when the Secret Service told him it was far too dangerous to go to the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/HxAm9Jlcu3
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022
“And I will also note this: the committee is reviewing testimony regarding potential obstruction on this issue, including testimony about advice given not to tell the committee about this specific topic. We will address this matter in our report,” he added.
— Mychael Schnell
Former White House employee said Trump’s rage in limo was ‘cooler talk’
One former White House employee told the committee in a closed-door interview that talk of Trump’s outburst in the presidential SUV after a Jan. 6 rally was water cooler talk among other staffers.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) cited the interview with the anonymous official, who was described as an “employee with national security responsibilities” to validate previous testimony that Trump lashed out at Secret Service agents after being told he would not be taken to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“In the days following that, I do remember, you know, again hearing again how angry the president was when, you know, they were in the limo,” the official told the committee, calling it “water cooler talk.”
The official said they’d heard from Tony Ornato and Robert Engel, the agent Trump allegedly got physical with, “that the president was irate, you know, on the drive up.”
Trump’s rage in the presidential SUV was previously detailed by Cassidy Hutchinson in public testimony over the summer.
Aguilar: ‘White House had more than enough warning’ to stop march to Capitol
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said former President Trump had “more than enough warning” about potential violence on Jan. 6 to merit the cancellation of the Ellipse rally.
Aguilar showed an intelligence memo indicating the Secret Service and others were aware of violent threats in the lead up to the riot, including one comment that read “keep your guns hidden.”
“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,” said Aguilar. “And as evidence from our prior hearing suggested, the president was aware of this information.”
The committee previously heard testimony from West Wing aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who indicated Trump was personally aware about rallygoers possessing weapons and that the former president did not care if they were let through the metal detectors.
— Zach Schonfeld
The committee has returned from a short recess.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) kicked off the second half of the hearing.
— Zach Schonfeld
Secret Service messages leading up to Jan. 6 showed agents were aware of chatter targeting then-Vice President Pence, including one message that referred to him as a “dead man walking” if he did not reject the 2020 election results.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) highlighted the agency’s communications about Pence as part of a broader statement showing Secret Service agents were aware of the threat of violence leading up the attack on the Capitol.
The Secret Service had advance information—more than 10 days beforehand—regarding the Proud Boys planning for January 6th. We know now that the Proud Boys and others did lead the assault on our Capitol building. pic.twitter.com/1118rayg5g— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022
He cited one message from an agent discussing an alert about “online threats… regarding the vice president being a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.
Another agent wrote that they saw “several alerts saying they will storm the Capitol if [Pence] doesn’t do the right thing.”
— Brett Samuels
The committee is in recess — live coverage will continue momentarily.
Video of Roger Stone saying “Let’s get right to the violence” is displayed during a House select committee hearing.
Miller texted Meadows: ‘I got the base FIRED UP’
Jason Miller, a senior Trump 2020 campaign staffer, texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a link to an internet forum on Jan. 6 filled with violent comments.
“I got the base FIRED UP,” Miller texted Meadows.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) went on to show a few examples of comments on the pro-Trump forum.
“Gallows don’t require electricity,” one user posted.
“Patriots will be there, armed to the teeth,” another comment read. “And if the filthy commie maggots try to push their fraud through, there will be hell to pay.”
Miller told the committee, however, that he was unaware of the violent rhetoric on the forum.
“If I had seen something of that nature, I would have said, you know, flag this for Secret Service,” Miller told the panel in an interview aired at the hearing.
— Zach Schonfeld
Full story:
Cassidy Hutchinson: Trump told Meadows ‘this is embarrassing,’ I don’t want people to know that we lost
Secret service messages show they knew crowd outside rally were armed.
An audio recording of former President Donald Trump talking to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is played at the hearing.
Kylie Kremer, who helped organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse, told MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell two days earlier that a second stage was being set up near the Supreme Court.
“This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the ellipse. POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol,” Kremer, the co-founder of Women for America First, texted Lindell, a vocal endorser of election fraud conspiracy theories.
“It cannot get out about the second stage because people will try and set up another and Sabotage it,” Kremer continued. “It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’”
The House panel subpoenaed Kremer in Sept. 2021.
The Ellipse rally was held about 1.5 miles from the riot, but the purported second stage at the Supreme Court would be located just one block east of the Capitol.
Former President Trump during his speech on the Ellipse encouraged rallygoers to “walk down” to the Capitol, which thousands ultimately did.
— Zach Schonfeld
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the committee obtained “nearly one million emails, recordings and other electronic records from the Secret Service.”
The California Democrat said the investigative panel in August started reviewing “hundreds of thousands of pages and multiple hours of that material.” He said the materials provided “substantial new evidence about what happened on Jan. 6 and the days leading up to do.”
“That review continues,” he added.
The committee issued the Secret Service a subpoena in July after the panel and agency became involved in controversy. News broke that some text messages sent by Secret Service on agents Jan. 6 had been deleted.
— Mychael Schnell
A Parler post by Roger Stone is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Jan. 6 panel to vote to subpoena Trump: reports
The panel will vote Thursday to subpoena former President Trump, NBC News reported, citing sources familiar with the plans.
Panel members have previously said they were still weighing whether to seek an interview form the former president.
Committee chair Bennie Thompson teased a vote at the start of the hearing, though he didn’t say what would be voted on.
A number of other outlets have confirmed the NBC News report.
Former President Trump connected John Eastman, a leading proponent of a plan to present alternative electors in favor of Trump, with Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“I vaguely remember him mentioning he was a professor, and he turned the call to John Eastman who then proceeded to talk about importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors,” McDaniel said.
Eastman was a major focus of a previous public hearing. He was one of the most prominent advocates for assembling a slate of alternative electors in states Trump lost, something that is under investigation in Georgia. He also argued the vice president could unilaterally reject the election results.
— Brett Samuels