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The Jan. 6 committee is preparing to highlight the way violent far-right extremists answered former U.S president Donald Trump’s “siren call” to come to Washington for a big rally, as some are now facing rare sedition charges over the deadly U.S. Capitol attack to overturn the presidential election.
The panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol siege is set to convene Tuesday for a public hearing probing what it calls the final phase of Trump’s multi-pronged effort to halt U.S. President Joe Biden’s victory. As dozens of lawsuits and false claims of voter fraud fizzled, Trump tweeted the rally invitation, a pivotal moment, the committee said.
“We will lay out the body of evidence that we have that talks about how the president’s tweet on the wee hours of December 19th of ‘Be there, be wild,’ was a siren call to these folks,” said panel member Stephanie Murphy on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, referring to a Dec. 19, 2020 Trump tweet.
What the committee intends to probe Tuesday is whether the extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon adherents who had rallied for Trump before, co-ordinated with White House allies for Jan. 6.
The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, extremist far-right groups whose leaders and others are now facing rare sedition charges for their roles in the attack, prepared to come to Washington, according to court filings.
On Dec. 29, the Proud Boys chairman posted a message on social media that said members planned to “turn out in record numbers on Jan. 6th,” according to a federal indictment.
The night before Jan. 6, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio met with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes at an underground parking garage, according to court filings along with images a documentary filmmaker trailing the group provided to the panel.
At least 1 more televised hearing planned
An attorney for Rhodes recently told the committee that their client wants to testify publicly; Rhodes was already interviewed by the committee privately, and it’s unlikely the panel will agree to a public hearing.
The Oath Keepers have denied there was any plan to storm the Capitol.
Donald Trump dismissed the danger of armed protesters headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a key former White House aide told investigators Tuesday.
This is the seventh hearing since early June in a series that has presented numerous blockbuster revelations from the Jan. 6 committee, comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans — Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — who are estranged from the leadership of their party, which has dismissed the committee’s work as partisan politics.
Over the past month, the panel has created a stark narrative of a defeated Trump “detached from reality,” clinging to his false claims of voter fraud and working feverishly to reverse his election defeat, both within the Justice Department and by pressuring battleground state officials. It all culminated with the deadly attack on the Capitol, the committee said.
The committee had planned a Thursday hearing but has postponed it. The panel is expected to produce a report on its findings before the end of the year.
Trump and his most ardent allies put forth allegations of electoral fraud almost immediately after polls closed in the Nov. 3, 2020, vote, but dozens of cases were brought before the U.S. courts and rejected, with Trump’s attorney general William Barr characterizing many of the allegations of fraud as being without merit. The Trump administration’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency characterized the 2020 election in a statement as “the most secure in American history.”