US House of Representatives committee to ‘connect the dots’ at hearing on Capitol riots

The House committee investigating the 2021 attack on the US Capitol will examine links between associates of former President Donald Trump and far-right groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.

“During these hearings, we will connect the dots between these groups and those who – in government circles – have tried to overthrow the election,” said Democratic MP Zoe Lofgren.

The California lawmaker told CNN the session will focus on links between members of Trump’s inner circle and the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Members of the two militia groups, along with thousands of Trump supporters, stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to prevent confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

Jason Van Tatenhove, a former member of the Oath Keepers, is expected to testify at Tuesday’s televised hearing, which begins at 13:00 (1700 GMT) and is expected to last at least two hours.

Five members of the Proud Boys were charged with seditious conspiracy in June in connection with the attack on the Capitol. Eleven members of the Oath Keepers have also been charged with seditious conspiracy and three of them have pleaded guilty.

More than 850 people have been arrested by Trump supporters in connection with the storming of Congress, but only those 16 face seditious conspiracy charges, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The committee is trying to determine whether Trump or his associates played a role in planning or promoting the violent attack on Congress and has summoned numerous advisers and aides to the former president.

Excerpts from an eight-hour interview the committee conducted on Friday with former Trump White House adviser Pat Cipollone will be available to play Tuesday.

The attack on the Capitol left at least five dead and 140 police officers injured and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his supporters near the White House.

Trump was impeached for a second historic time by the House of Representatives after the Capitol riot – he was accused of inciting a riot – but was acquitted by the Senate.

Tuesday’s hearing is the first since the blockbuster testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson testified that she was told Trump angrily lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed the steering wheel of his limousine to join the crowd marching to Congress.

An aide to the special committee said Tuesday’s hearing would focus on a tweet Trump sent Dec. 19 telling his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 and promising it would “go wild.” “.

“They immediately started answering his call by zeroing in on that date,” the aide said. “We’re going to talk about how this was a pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events.”

The tweet was sent just over an hour after Trump met his attorney Rudy Giuliani, former General Mike Flynn and another attorney, Sidney Powell, at the White House, the aide said.

The hearing will also address attempts by some Republican congressmen to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into blocking confirmation of the election results.

A US District Court judge, meanwhile, refused to delay the trial of former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who was charged with contempt of Congress for declining a subpoena to testify before the congressional committee.

“I see no reason to extend this case any longer,” Judge Carl Nichols said, ordering the trial to begin on July 18 as scheduled.

Bannon, 68, recently reversed course and offered to testify, but Justice Department prosecutors rejected the move as “a last-ditch effort to evade accountability.”