January 6 committee's investigation stirs up fresh revelations ahead of last planned hearing
(CNN)The House January 6 committee corroborated key details involving former President Donald Trump's heated commutation with the Secret Service when Trump was told he could not go to the Capitol -- the latest in a string of shocking revelations that have come from the summer hearings with their expected high-contour conclusion next week.
CNN first reported Thursday evening that a Washington, DC, police officer in the motorcade with the Underground Service corroborated details to the commission that were related to the explosive Firm select committee public testimony earlier this month. At the same time, the Hugger-mugger Service came under new scrutiny this calendar week over the deletion of agency text messages from Jan 5 and 6, 2021. On Friday, the Jan six committee issued a amendment to the Hole-and-corner Service, asking for the text letters.
The corroboration comes as the committee plans to zero in on Trump's deport on Jan 6, 2021 at its hearing adjacent week, which volition focus on Trump'south response -- or lack thereof -- every bit rioters breached the Capitol walls and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers.
Select commission members accept accused Trump of a "dereliction of duty" for failing to act as the Capitol was under attack -- and his vice president, Mike Pence -- was in danger. Adjacent calendar week'due south hearing is the last planned of the committee's eight public hearings as the panel has sought in each session to tie Trump to the deadly attack that unfolded on January 6.
"There will be a lot of data, a lot more clarity about the details of the things that happened that day, what the people who were working in the White House, working effectually the President and fifty-fifty people who were advising him to practise things, actions that he was not taking based off of their reasoned advice," Virginia Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, who will help lead the next hearing, told CNN this week. "I look at it every bit a dereliction of duty. He didn't act. He did not take action to end the violence."
New details well-nigh Trump'southward efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden have continued to emerge. On Sat, The New York Times reported that a little-known conservative lawyer, William Olson, spoke to Trump in December 2020 about efforts to enlist the Justice Department to sign on to a lawsuit at the Usa Supreme Court to overturn the presidential election results, according to a memo Olson drafted documenting the phone call. Olson urged Trump to replace his then-interim attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, if Rosen would non endorse the Supreme Courtroom lawsuit, co-ordinate to the memo. Olson as well encouraged Trump to supplant lawyers in the White House counsel's role and to have steps related to the election that would finer take amounted to "martial law."
The Justice Section's probe has as well been expanding, as it's issued numerous subpoenas in recent weeks and is seeking information in all seven battleground states where Trump'southward campaign convened false electors as role of an effort to subvert the Balloter Higher. Beyond charging rioters, the section has asked questions about the arrangement of rallies that preceded the set on, searched a Trump ballot chaser'due south cell phone and the abode of a former Justice Department official, as well every bit continued its grand jury activity around extremist groups. It has been moving closer to political circles around Trump.
While the DOJ investigation has appeared to lag in some means behind the House commission'due south work, and while the two probes have largely operated separate and apart from one another, they have also been starting to intersect.
A prime-fourth dimension hearing next week
The commission announced Friday that it would concord the hearing on Th, July 21 at viii p.grand. ET -- the panel'due south second prime-time session to try to maximize viewership and attending. The panel has not said who will testify at next week's hearing, though CNN has previously reported that erstwhile Trump White Business firm deputy press secretarial assistant Sarah Matthews is expected to exist a witness.
The committee is also likely to lean heavily on video clips from the deposition of Pat Cipollone, Trump's former White House counsel. Cipollone sat for a transcribed interview just last calendar week, and the committee used clips from the interview fourteen times during Tuesday's hearing, including playing video of Cipollone discussing Trump'south response on January 6 to tee up next week'southward hearing.
While next week is the last planned of this summertime series of January six public hearings, the select committee has said all forth it'south not done with its investigation. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, 1 of the console's 2 Republicans, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview this week that the committee is still considering asking Trump to bear witness and might request a written response from Pence or outcome a amendment for him to bear witness.
Investigations surrounding Trump swirl
The January 6 committee is only one of Trump'due south potential investigative concerns, even as he considers moving forward with a 2024 presidential entrada declaration.
In Georgia, Fulton County'southward district chaser has issued subpoenas for the testimony of Trump's allies before a special chiliad jury investigating Trump'southward efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the country. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is seeking to quash the subpoena for his testimony, which is related to at least 2 calls that Graham fabricated to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff afterward the election.
In New York, Trump and his children Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump are set to be deposed later on losing court battles to avoid testifying in the state chaser full general's ceremonious investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were scheduled to begin next week only were temporarily delayed due to the death of Trump's showtime married woman, Ivana Trump.
And in Washington, DC, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon'southward efforts to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial were rejected this week past a federal estimate, and the trial is slated to begin next week.
Erased Secret Service texts raise new questions
There are also new questions that have emerged surrounding the Secret Service and Jan 6, related to the bureau deleting text messages on January 5 and 6, 2021 shortly later on they had been requested by oversight officials.
The Homeland Security inspector general sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security committees alerting them that the messages had been erased "every bit part of a device-replacement program" later on the watchdog had requested electronic communications from the Secret Service.
The House Homeland Security Committee is chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who also chairs the Firm select committee investigating January 6.
DHS Inspector Full general Joseph Cuffari met with the House select committee behind closed doors on Friday, briefing the panel'south members about the erased text messages.
Thompson told CNN later on the meeting that Cuffari said that Secret Service has not been fully cooperative. He added that the committee would work "to try to define if those texts can be resurrected."
According to a source familiar with the briefing, the inspector full general told the console the Cloak-and-dagger Service did not conduct its own after-activity review of January 6 and chose to rely on the inspector general investigation.
"We've had limited engagement with Secret Service. We'll follow up with some additional appointment now that we've met with the IG," Thompson said.
The Secret Service responded in a argument Thursday saying the "insinuation that the Undercover Service maliciously deleted text messages post-obit a request is fake."
"In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the OIG in every respect -- whether it exist interviews, documents, emails, or texts," the agency said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the Select Committee, said there seemed to be "contradictory statements' between the inspector general and the Secret Service over whether the text letters were actually gone.
Explosive testimony corroborated
The Underground Service's response on January 6 was already under scrutiny in light of the public testimony earlier this month from Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to White House chief of staff Marker Meadows who recounted extraordinary details nearly Trump's angry exchange with the Hush-hush Service on January six.
In her public testimony, Hutchinson said that then-White Firm deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato -- who had previously worked for the Secret Service and so returned to the agency in 2021 -- told her on January half-dozen that Trump was then enraged at his Hush-hush Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol afterward his speech on the Ellipse that "he reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering bike."
Hutchinson said that Ornato told her Trump "and then used his free hand to lunge towards" his Hugger-mugger Service lead agent, Robert Engel.
Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her the story in front of Engel and that Engel did not dispute the business relationship.
Trump and his allies accept tried to cast doubt on Hutchinson'due south business relationship -- which included several additional damning details nigh Trump'southward conduct. After Hutchinson testified, a Secret Service official who would not go along the record said that Engel would deny parts of the story and that the agents involved would evidence publicly to that upshot, though they haven't gone back to the committee to evidence.
Neither Engel nor Ornato have commented publicly.
But additional corroboration of Hutchinson'due south account has emerged since her testimony. CNN reported earlier this calendar month that two Secret Service sources take said they heard about Trump angrily demanding to go to the Capitol and berating his detail when he didn't get his manner.
The sources told CNN that stories had circulated virtually the incident following January half dozen, which included details like to what Hutchinson described.
In add-on, CNN reported on Thursday that a Metropolitan Law Section officer corroborated details of Hutchinson's account and recounted what was seen to committee investigators.
This story has been updated with boosted developments Sat.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/16/politics/january-6-committee-latest/index.html
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