As a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol, former President Donald J. Trump sat in his dining room next to the Oval Office, watching the violence on television and choosing to do nothing for hours to stop it, a series of former administration officials testified to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack in accounts prepared on Thursday.
In a final public hearing of the summer and one of the most dramatic of the investigation, the panel gave a panoramic account of how, even as the lives of law enforcement officers, members of Congress and his own vice president were threatened, Mr. Trump could only be called into action after it was clear that the riots had not disrupted the session of Congress to confirm his election defeat.
Even then, in never-before-seen footage from the White House, the committee showed that Mr. Trump privately refused to admit, “I’m not saying the election is over!” he angrily said to aides as he recorded a video message written for him the day after the attack — or to condemn the attack on the Capitol as a crime.
By calling on a cast of assembled witnesses to make it difficult for viewers to dismiss it as tools of a partisan witch hunt — top Trump associates, veterans and military leaders, loyal Republicans, and even members of his own family. Mr Trump – the commission found that the president willfully rejected their attempts to persuade him to mobilize a response to the deadliest attack on the Capitol in two centuries.
“You’re the Commander-in-Chief. You have an attack on the Capitol of the United States of America, and there is nothing?’ Gene. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s most senior military officer, told the panel. “No call? Nothing? Zero?”
It was sort of a closing argument in the case the panel built against Mr. Trump, one whose central claim is that the former president neglected his duty for not doing everything he could — or anything — for 187 minutes. to call off the attack committed in his name.
Thursday’s session, led by two military veterans with testimony from another, was also an appeal to patriotism, as the panel claimed that Mr. Trump’s inaction during the riots was a final, blatant violation of his oath of office, end of a multiple and failed attempt to undo his 2020 election loss.
In perhaps one of the most shocking revelations, the commission presented evidence that a call from a Pentagon official to coordinate a response to the Capitol attack went initially unanswered because, according to a White House attorney, “the president doesn’t want to have anything done.”
And the panel played Secret Service radio broadcasts and testimonials showing in chilling detail how close Vice President Mike Pence came to danger during the riots, including an account of members of his Secret Service detail who were so upset by the riots. what happened that they contacted relatives to say goodbye.
Both testimonies were provided by a former White House official who did not identify the committee by name — and whose voice was changed to protect his identity — who was described as having “national security responsibilities.”
The witness described a conversation between Eric Herschmann, an attorney who works in the White House, and White House attorney Pat A. Cipollone about the Pentagon call.
“Mr. Herschmann turned to Mr. Cipollone and said, ‘The president didn’t do that’ want everything done,” the witness testified. “Mr Cipollone had to answer the call himself.”
Key Revelations from the January 6 Hearings
The commission also played dramatic 10-minute radio recordings, from 2:14 p.m. to 2:24 p.m., from when the Secret Service sought a route to safety to evacuate the Vice President from the Capitol, where he was being held in his office in the United States. near the Senate Chamber as the crowd approached.
“Harden that door,” said an officer. “If we move, we have to move now,” said another. And on another point, “If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave.”
And in a terrifying moment over the radio traffic, an officer warned: “There is smoke. Unknown what kind of smoke it is.”
Mr. Cipollone described to the committee how he felt most of the rest of the White House staff needed Mr. Trump to do more to quell the violence, but was hesitant when asked for the president’s opinion on whether the riots should stop, citing administrative law.
“I believed more needed to be done,” Mr Cipollone testified.
White House officials told how the president refused to take the few steps down the hallway to the White House briefing room to blow off the crowd, instead tweeting an attack on Pence while on the run for his life .
“I think at that point, when he tweeted the message about Mike Pence, he was pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse,” said Sarah Matthews, a former White House press officer who resigned on Jan. 6. and was one of two witnesses to testify in person on Thursday.
The other was Matthew Pottinger, a veteran of the Marine Corps who was the deputy national security adviser and top White House official who stepped down on Jan. 6.
“That was when I decided that I was going to resign, that that would be my last day in the White House,” said Mr. Pottinger, referring to Mr. Trump’s Twitter condemnation of the vice president. “I just didn’t want to be associated with the events that took place at the Capitol.”
Ms. Matthews also told the committee that Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, confided to her that Mr. Trump had refused to mention the word “peace” in any of his tweets, and only reluctantly gave in to his daughter Ivanka Trump’s suggestion. that he is asking people to ‘remain peacefully’.
Ms. McEnany “looked directly at me and shared with me in a hushed tone that the president didn’t want to include any mention of peace in that tweet,” Ms. Matthews testified.
While Mr. Pence was on the phone to send the National Guard to the Capitol after he was evacuated to protect himself and his family, Mr. Trump has not made any calls to a government official to try and stop the violence, witnesses said . The phone call Mr. Trump made was to Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal attorney who aided in his efforts to reverse the election results, which included calling Republican senators on Jan. 6 to get them to take the Congressional electoral count. to disturb.
A day after the attack, two Mr. Trump communications officers deplored Mr. Trump’s response to law enforcement’s violence and toll, after 150 officers were injured and one, Brian D. Sicknick of the Capitol Police, died.
“If he acknowledged the dead cop, he would implicitly blame the mafia. And he won’t, because they’re his people,” said one of them, Tim Murtaugh, former Trump campaign communications director. And he would almost admit that what he lit during the rally was getting out of hand. In no way does he acknowledge anything that could ultimately be called his fault. Not really.”
The hearing hardly marked the end of the committee’s work. The panel now plans to enter a second phase of investigation, prepare a preliminary report and hold additional hearings in September.
“The investigation is still ongoing, if not accelerating,” said Virginia Democrat Representative Elaine Luria, a member of the committee. “We’re getting so much new information.”
Lawmakers said they would use August, when Congress takes a long hiatus, to prepare a preliminary report of their findings, expected to be released in September. But a final report — complete with exhibits and transcripts — could wait until December, just before the committee is disbanded at the start of a new congress on January 3, 2023.
Before Thursday’s session, the panel turned to two military veterans — Ms. Luria, a Navy veteran, and Representative Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard — to lead the questioning.
“President Trump has not failed to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the crowd to go home,” Mr Kinzinger said. “He chose not to perform.”
At each of its hearings in June and July, the panel presented evidence that lawmakers believe could be used to bolster a criminal case against Mr Trump. The commission has provided evidence of a conspiracy to defraud the American people and Mr Trump’s own donors; plans to file false voter rolls that could lead to allegations of filing false documents with the government; and evidence of a plot to disrupt the electoral count on Capitol Hill, suggesting he could face charges for obstructing official Congressional proceedings.
Trump’s dereliction of duty may not be the basis for a criminal charge, Ms. Luria said, but it raised ethical, moral and legal questions. At least one judge has cited Mr Trump’s inaction as a reason for further civil lawsuits against Mr Trump.
The commission has spent nearly two months laying out its story about a president who, after failing in a series of attempts to undo his defeat, ordered a crowd of his supporters to march toward the Capitol after he delivered a speech. held in which he called out Mr. Pence for not interfering in the official count of Congressional ballots to elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to be confirmed as president.
On Thursday, it revealed testimonies that underlined how even Republican members of Congress begged Mr Trump to call off the crowd and turn to his children when the president refused to do so.
Mr. Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner testified that California minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy called him in the midst of the violence asking for help.
“I heard my phone ring, turned off the shower, saw it was leader McCarthy, who I had a good relationship with,” said Mr Kushner. “He told me things were getting really ugly in the Capitol and said, ‘Please, you know, anything you could do to help, I’d appreciate it.’ ”
“I can’t remember a specific question, just anything you could do,” Mr Kushner added. “Again, I got the feeling they were scared.”
Mr. McCarthy was just one of many Republicans calling on Mr. Trump to end the violence that day, some sending text messages to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.
Most of those same Republicans would return to the House room after police cleared the mob from the Capitol and, even after the violence, would vote for Mr Trump’s attempt to undo his defeat, and his lies about support a stolen election.
