Trump’s former aides knew they were being recorded while testifying
From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Gabby Orr
In the coming days, expect to see a common refrain from former Trump officials who have tried to maintain their connections to him: that their testimony was “taken out of context.”
That’s the defense several who testified are planning to use if they come under fire by the former President or his acolytes, they told CNN, given this was often a tried and true strategy when Trump’s Cabinet secretaries would testify on Capitol Hill.
But several of former President Trump’s former aides knew they were being recorded while testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, multiple people told CNN.
One official said they were not explicitly told but assumed their testimony was being recorded. Others who testified in person said it was clear there were cameras set up in the room.
The taken out-of-context defense is one that could come in handy for staying in his good graces. In the first prime-time hearing, Trump’s allies, former staffers and even his daughter noted in recorded testimony that he was shown information showing he had lost the election, despite how Trump still maintains he didn’t.
One former senior Trump White House official told CNN he was informed at the outset of his closed-door meeting with the committee that footage of his testimony could potentially air in future public hearings.
The hearing has concluded
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen and Zachary Cohen
The House Jan. 6 select committee’s first prime-time hearing has concluded.
Chairs of the House select committee Democratic Rep. Benny Thompson and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney laid out their case against former President Donald Trump and his involvement in events that led up to the Jan. 6 riot.
A Capitol Police officer and filmmaker who interacted directly with the Proud Boys testified about what they experienced during the insurrection and in the aftermath of the attack.
The committee will hold its next public hearing on Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
Here are some key takeaways from today’s hearing:
Members of Trump’s inner circle turned against him in depositions: The committee’s first hearing was bolstered with never-before-seen video clips showing members of Trump’s White House and campaign — as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner — speaking about how they didn’t believe Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.Former Attorney General William Barr said that Trump’s claims of voter fraud were “bullshit.”Ivanka Trump said that she respected Barr and “accepted what he was saying” about the election. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign data person told Trump in “pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.”
And the committee cited testimony from Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon, who testified he told Meadows by “mid-to-late November” that the campaign had come up empty trying to find widespread fraud in key states that Trump lost. Cannon said Meadows responded to his assessment by saying, “So there’s no there there.”
New visceral footage from riot shown: The committee played a compilation of some of the most disturbing footage from the Jan. 6 attack.
They included some never-before seen material, including birds-eye view footage from security cameras that showed the enormous pro-Trump mob as it started swarming the Capitol grounds.
Trump didn’t want the riot to stop: The committee revealed testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former President did not want the US Capitol attack to stop, angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters and thought his own vice president “deserved” to be hanged. It also offers a new window into Trump’s demeanor during the riot — something the committee has repeatedly suggested would be a key part of their public hearings.
Vice chair Liz Cheney described testimony from a witness who said Trump was aware of chants to “Hang Mike Pence” and seemed to approve of them.
“Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence [quote] ‘deserves’ it,” she said.
Cheney has previously characterized Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6 during those 187 minutes as a “dereliction of duty.”
Read more takeaways here.
Jan. 6 rioters testify that Trump called them to the Capitol
From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand
To close out the first prime-time hearing, the House select committee played a video testimony of six people who were at the Jan. 6 riot claiming that they came to Washington, DC, because then-President Donald Trump called them to.
“You know, Trump has only asked me for two things,” said Matthew Walter, who has pleaded not guilty to nine charges connection to the riot. “He asked me for my vote, and he asked me to come on January 6.”
Walter was identified by the committee as a member of the Proud Boys, and said that Trump’s comments were “what got me interested” in going to DC.
Eric Barber, who pleaded guilty in December to theft and illegally entering the Capitol, said that Trump “personally asked for us to come to DC that day, and I thought for everything he’s done for us, that this is the only thing he’s gonna ask of me, I’ll do it.”
“That’s one of my disappointments,” Barber said. “He said he was gonna go, go with us, that he was gonna be there.”
Capitol Police officer says of Jan. 6: “It was carnage. It was chaos.”
From CNN’s Clare Foran
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was asked by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson if she could describe a memory that stands out “most vividly” from the Jan. 6 attack.
Edwards went on to describe what she likened to “a war scene,” saying she witnessed “carnage” and chaos.”
“I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes: There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding, they were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”
She went on to say, “I’m trained to detain a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I’m not combat trained.”
Edwards said there were “hours of hand-to-hand combat.” She added that there were “hours of dealing with things that were way beyond what any law enforcement officer has ever trained for.”
Proud Boys and Oath Keepers met in parking garage the night before insurrection, panel’s findings show
Findings of the panel, presented in a video by investigative counsel of the Jan. 6 committee Marcus Childress, show that the leaders of two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — met in a Washington, DC, parking garage on Jan. 5, 2021.
The meeting between Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, was caught on video obtained by the committee.
“There’s mutual respect there. We’re fighting the same fight and that’s what’s important,” Tarrio said in the video shown during the committee.
Before the meeting: On Dec. 19, President Trump tweeted about a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, saying, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
That tweet “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said.
The Proud Boys “viewed this tweet as a call to arms,” Childress said in the presentation.
The Department of Justice described how the Proud Boys created a chat called “the Ministry of Self Defense leadership chat” where they established a command structure with the intention of coming back to Washington DC on Jan. 6, 2021.
The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boy leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “Stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.
Meanwhile, leading up to the insurrection, the Oath Keepers were also making preparations.
The committee learned that the group established “quick reaction forces” where they stored weapons in Virginia, Childress said.
“The goal of these quick reaction forces was to be on standby just in case President Trump ever invoked the Insurrection Act,” Childress said in the video.
“Individuals associated with two violent extremist groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6th attack,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, said following the video presenting the evidence.
Watch here:
Officer says she was knocked unconscious and tear-gassed during Jan. 6 riot
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described her experience confronting rioters and Proud Boy members on Jan. 6, 2021 and the injuries she suffered after an altercation while defending the US Capitol.
“They started approaching the first barricade. They ripped the first barricade down, and they approached our bike racks. At that time, we started holding on, grabbing the bike racks. There were not many of us, so I grabbed the middle between two different bike racks, and I was not under any pretense that I could hold it for very long. But I wanted to make sure that we could get more people down and get our [Civil Disturbance] units time to answer the call,” Edwards said.
She said that while trying to hold the line with fellow officers, “we started grappling over the bike racks. I felt the bike rack come on top of my head. I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, my chin hit the handle, and at that point, I had blacked out. The back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me.”
Edwards said that she was knocked unconscious, but when she regained consciousness she returned to duty, where she was sprayed in the eyes by rioters and tear-gassed.
Jan. 6 panel says Trump tweet about “wild” protest inspired extremists, echoing DOJ allegations
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
The House select committee has obtained “substantial evidence” showing that former President Donald Trump’s tweet on December 19, 2020, “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said.
The tweet said: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The Justice Department also has cited that tweet in many of the Jan. 6-related criminal cases, and has argued that it was an important moment in the run-up to Jan. 6 that many of the rioters paid attention to – and were inspired by. This includes members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
For instance, prosecutors said Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs texted the group’s president Enrique Tarrio after the tweet, saying, “Let’s get radical and recruit real men.” Prosecutors have said that the Proud Boys assembled a national leadership team one day later, as they started planning for their trip to DC for the Jan. 6 rally.
Prosecutors also said alleged Oath Keeper Roberto Minuta sent a text after Trump’s tweet, saying that he spoke with the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, and that Rhodes “feels like it’s go time” and that “the time for peaceful protest is over.”
On Thursday, the committee featured a social media post from alleged Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs in which he echoed Trump’s tweet about the plans for “wild” protests in DC.
All of these defendants have pleaded not guilty to and maintain their innocence.
The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boy leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “Stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting to this post.
Capitol Police officer who was injured in Jan. 6 attack: “They dared question my honor” and patriotism
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after she was part of an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys while defending the US Capitol during the riot, said that the day of the insurrection was the first time her patriotism had been questioned, during her opening statement.
“I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days after. I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain. I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things. I was an American standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself, how many times, many, many, times, how we had gotten here? I have been called names before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question. I, who got up every day, no matter how early the hour or how late I got in the night before, to put on my uniform and to protect America symbol of democracy. I, who spent countless hours in the baking sun and freezing snow to make sure that America’s elected officials were able to do their job. I, whose literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends working in,” Edwards said.
Edwards shared that her grandfather fought in the Korean War and “lived with the rest of his days with bullets and shrapnel in his legs, but never once complained about his sacrifice.”
“I would like to think that he would be proud of me, proud of his granddaughter that stood her ground that day and continued fighting, even though she was wounded, like he did, many years ago. I am my grandfather’s granddaughter, proud to put on a uniform and serve my country. They dared to question my honor, they dared to question my loyalty and they dared to question my duty. I am a proud American, and I will gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come,” Edwards said.
Documentarian on violence he witnessed during Jan. 6 attack: “I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it”
From CNN’s Clare Foran
Documentarian Nick Quested, who is testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, explained how and why he witnessed the attack on the Capitol.
During is opening statements, Quested said that he was surprised at “the anger” he observed and described “incredibly aggressive chanting.”
“In the winter of 2020, I was working on a documentary. As part of that documentary, I filmed several rallies in Washington, DC,” he said, adding, “I learned there would be a rally on the mall on January 6.”
He said that he and several colleagues came to document the event.
“We arrived at the mall and observed a large contingent of Proud Boys marching toward the Capitol,” he said. “I documented the crowd turn from protestors to rioters to insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and the profanity.”
“For anyone who didn’t understand how violent that event was — I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it. I heard incredibly aggressive chanting and I subsequently shared that footage with the authorities.”
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