Thompson indicates connection between extremist groups and those around Trump

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, said there was a connection between far-right extremists groups and those around former President Trump leading up to and during the insurrection.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper after the committee’s first hearing on Thursday, the journalist asked Thompson if future hearings will have witnesses who can attest to conversations between extremist groups and those close to Trump.

“Yes,” Thompson responded. “Obviously you have to go through the hearings, but we have a number of witnesses who’ve come forward. People who have not talked before will document a lot of what was going on in the Trump orbit while all of this was occurring.”

During the hearing Thursday, the committee highlighted extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who were present during the Jan. 6 attack and were encouraged to come to Washington, D.C., by Trump.

Thompson has said the panel is going to make the case that Trump was directly responsible for the deadly attack that killed multiple people and injured many others. 

“Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful president,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 panel, said in her opening statement during the public hearing. 

Tapper asked Johnson if the committee was building a criminal case against Trump for authorities to charge the former president with seditious conspiracy, as the panel has no power to legally charge a person. 

“Well, we are building a case based on the facts and circumstances that our investigation determined. We’ve filed with the court in California certain aspects of what our findings have been, and the judge ruled that there were certain things that the president” could potentially be guilty of, Thompson said. “But, as you said, that’s not our job. We are there to look solely at the facts and circumstances and provide recommendations to Congress.”