David French, a conservative critic of Trump, had been skeptical that the commission would provide enough evidence. “But Hutchinson’s sworn testimony closes a gap in the Trump criminal case,” he wrote on The Dispatch, a conservative website. Two law professors, Alan Z. Rozenshtein of the University of Minnesota and Jed Handelsman Shugerman of Fordham University, were also against prosecution until they saw Ms. Hutchinson, who wrote on the Lawfare blog that she changed her mind because she had “evidence of intent’.
The hearings, which will continue after Congress returns from the vacation recess on July 11, have presented only the prosecution’s side of the story. With Trump’s approval, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the leader of the House of the Republicans, chose not to appoint anyone to the select committee after Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his original selections, leaving the panel in its entirety. from Democrats and two Republicans who were highly critical of the former chairman.
Neither Ms Hutchinson nor any of the other witnesses who testified have been questioned. Their testimony has often been presented in short, edited clips rather than in their entirety, and no opposing testimonials have been offered publicly. In a courtroom, if it ever got to that point, the case against Mr. Trump would be tested because so far it hasn’t happened.
“The commission’s presentation was a purely political exercise, deceptively edited,” said Jason Miller, who served as Mr. Trump’s political adviser during and after the election.
But even beyond the boundaries of the courtroom, Mr. Miller and others in Mr. Trump’s camp have primarily attacked the commission or attempted to clip pieces of testimony rather than defend much of the former president’s actions. or an alternative explanation for his state of mind.
In his social media posts, Mr Trump denied that he had asked to allow armed supporters to his rally. “Who would ever want that?” He wrote. “Not me!” He focused more of his energies on reprimanding Ms. Hutchinson in damning personal terms (“whacko,” “totally fake”) and focused on one small aspect of her testimony, which is whether he jumped at the wheel of his presidential vehicle when his Secret Service detail refused to take him to the Capitol on January 6.
