Jan. 6 panel votes to subpoena former President Trump for testimony

During this committee's first hearing in July of last year, our witnesses were four police officers who helped repel the riots of January six, we asked them what they hope to see the committee accomplished. Over the course of our investigation, Officer Gunnel wanted to know why the rioters were made to believe that the election process was rigged officer for known. Asked us to look into the actions and activities that resulted in the day's events. Officer Hodges was concerned about whether anyone in power had *** role officer done, put it simply get to the bottom of what happened. We've worked for more than *** year to get those answers. We've conducted more than 1000 interviews and depositions. We received and reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, thanks to the tireless work of our members and investigators. We've left we have left no doubt None that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January six. He tried to take away the voice of the American people in choosing their president and replace the will of the voters with his will to remain in power. He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January six. So we want to hear from him. The committee needs to do everything in our power to tell the most complete story possible and provide recommendations to help ensure nothing like January six ever happens again. We need to be fair and thorough and gain *** full context for the evidence we've obtained. But the need for this committee to hear from donald trump's goes beyond our fact finding this is *** question about accountability to the american people. He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions. He's required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He's required to answer to those millions of americans who votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power And whatever is underway to ensure this accountability under law, this committee will demand *** full accounting to every American person of the events of January six. So it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump's testimony. There's precedent in american history for Congress to compel the testimony of *** president president. There's also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to congressional investigators. We also recognize that *** subpoena to *** former president is *** serious and extraordinary action. That's why we want to take this step in full view of the american people, especially because the subject matter at issue is so important to the american people and the stakes are so high for our future and our democracy. And so I recognize the vice chair MS Cheney of Wyoming to offer *** motion mr chairman pursuant to today's notice I send to the desk *** committee resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. The clerk will report the resolution. Committee resolution one resolved that the chairman be and is hereby directed to subpoena Donald J trump for documents and testimony in connection with the january 6th attack on the United States capitol, pursuant to section five C four of House resolution 503 and clause to M. Of Rule 11 of the rules of the House of Representatives. The young woman from Wyoming is recognized on her resolution. Thank you. Mr Chairman Mr Chairman. Our committee now has sufficient information to answer many of the critical questions posed by Congress. At the outset, we have sufficient information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals and to recommend *** range of legislative proposals to guard against another january 6th, But *** key task remains. We must seek the testimony under oath of January six. Central player. More than 30 witnesses in our investigation have invoked their fifth amendment right against self incrimination And several of those did so specifically in response to questions about their dealings with Donald Trump directly. Here are *** few examples. This is Roger Stone with oath keepers at the Willard Hotel on the morning of January six and here is Mr Stone testifying before our committee. Did you speak to President Trump on his private cell phone on either January five or January once again on advice of counsel. I will assert my fifth amendment right to respectfully decline to answer your question. This is General Michael Flynn walking with oath keepers on December 12, 2020. And here is General Flynn's testimony before our committee. Did you? General Flynn talk to President trump At any point on January 6, 2021. What's this? Here is John Eastman fraudulently instructing tens of thousands of angry protesters that the vice president could change the election outcome on January six. Later on the same day, Dr Eastman acknowledged in writing that Donald trump knew what he was attempting was illegal. Here is john Eastman testifying before our committee. President Trump authorized you to discuss publicly or January 4, 2021 conversation with him. So is it your position that you can discuss in the media? Direct conversations you had with the President of the United States, but you will not discuss those same conversations with this committee. Here is Jeff Clark who conspired with Donald trump to corrupt the Department of Justice. President trump, wanted to appoint Jeff Clark as acting Attorney General and as you can see in this call log we obtained from the National Archives. He did so. And here is Mr Clark testifying before our committee. Mr Clark. When did you first talk directly with president Trump? 5th Mr Clark? You discuss with president Trump allegations of fraud in the 2020 election fifth. Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald trump steve. Bannon has been tried and convicted by *** jury of his peers for contempt of Congress. He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month. Criminal proceedings regarding Peter Navarro continue and Mark Meadows Donald trump's former Chief of Staff has refused to testify based upon executive privilege. The committee's litigation with him continues. Mr Chairman At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing. But our duty today is to our country and our Children and our constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion and every american is entitled to those answers so we can act now to protect our republic. So this afternoon, I am offering this resolution That the committee direct the chairman to issue *** subpoena for relevant documents and testimony under oath from Donald John Trump in connection with the January six attack on the United States Capitol. Thank you. Mr Chairman, I yield back, gentle lady yields back. If there's no further debate, the question is on agreeing to the resolution. Those in favor will say, aye, those exposes no in the opinion of the chair. The eyes have it mr Chairman, I request *** recorded vote. Recorded vote is requested. The clerk will call the roll Miss Cheney, I miss Cheney I MS Lofgren. Lofgren, I mr Schiff I mr Schiff I Mr Aguilar Mr Aguilar I mrs Murphy mrs Murphy I mr Raskin, I mr Raskin, I mrs Loria I mrs Loria I mr Kinzinger Kinzinger I mr Kinzinger I mr Chairman I Mr Chairman I the clerk will report the vote. Mr. Chairman on this vote. There are nine eyes and zero knows the resolution is agreed to without objection. *** motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The chair request that those in the hearing room remain seated until the capitol police have escorted members from the room. Without objection, the committee stands adjoined.

The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack.The panel voted unanimously to compel the former president to appear. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player,�� said Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.Cheney adds: “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.�� Before that, the panel showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders phoning officials for help during the assault.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can be seen talking to governors in neighboring Virginia and Maryland. Later the footage shows Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders as the group asks the acting attorney general for help.Video below: Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump“They’re breaking the law in many different ways �� quite frankly at the instigation of the president of the United States,�� Pelosi is heard saying at one point.Also, in never-before-seen Secret Service messages, the panel produced evidence of the way extremist groups provided the muscle in the fight for Trump’s presidency, planning weeks before the attack to send a violent force to Washington.“Their plan is literally to kill people,�� read a tip that was sent to Secret Service more than a week before the violence on Jan. 6.The Secret Service warned in a Dec. 26, 2020, email of a tip that members of the right-wing Proud Boys planned to march in Washington on Jan. 6 with a group large enough to outnumber the police."It felt like the calm before the storm,�� one Secret Service agent wrote in a group chat.The House panel warned that the insurrection at the Capitol was not an isolated incident but a warning of the fragility of the nation’s democracy in the post-Trump era.“None of this is normal or acceptable or lawful in a republic,�� Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said.“There is no defense that Donald Trump was duped or irrational. No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in a constitutional republic, period.”The 10th public session, just weeks before the congressional midterm elections, was delving into Trump's “state of mind," said Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson.The committee is starting to sum up its findings that Republican Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, launched an unprecedented attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Biden’s victory. The result was the mob storming of the Capitol.Statements from Thompson and Cheney were laden with language frequently seen in criminal indictments. Both lawmakers described Trump as “substantially�� involved in the events of Jan. 6. Cheney said Trump had acted in a “premeditated�� way.To illustrate what it said were “purposeful lies,�� the committee juxtaposed repeated instances in which top administration officials recounted telling Trump the actual facts with clips of him repeating the exact opposite at his pre-riot rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.The committee may well make a decision on whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.Thursday's hearing opened at a mostly empty Capitol complex, with most lawmakers at home campaigning for reelection. Several people who were among the thousands around the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now running for congressional office, some with Trump’s backing. Police officers who fought the mob filled the hearing room's front row.To describe the president’s mindset, the committee divulged new material, including interviews with Trump’s top Cabinet officials, aides and associates in which some described the president acknowledging that he had lost.In one, according to ex-White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump looked up at a television and said, “Can you believe I lost to this (expletive) guy?"The committee is also drawing on the trove of 1.5 million documents it received from the U.S. Secret Service, including an email from Dec. 11, 2020, the day the Supreme Court rejected one of the main lawsuits Trump’s team had brought against the election results.“Just fyi. POTUS is pissed,�� the Secret Service wrote, according to documents obtained by the committee.White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, recalled Trump as being “livid�� and “fired up�� about the court's ruling.Trump told Meadows "something to the effect of: ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out,��" Hutchinson told the panel in a recorded interview.Cabinet members including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia also said in interviews shown at the hearing that they believed that once the legal avenues had been exhausted, that should have been the end of Trump's efforts to remain in power.“In my view, that was the end of the matter," Barr said of the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote.But rather than the end of Trump's efforts to stay in power, the committee signaled it was only the beginning �� as the president summoned the crowd to Washington for a rally to fight the election on Jan. 6.The session was serving as a closing argument for the panel’s two Republican lawmakers, Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who have essentially been shunned by Trump and their party and will not be returning in the new Congress. Cheney lost her primary election, and Kinzinger decided not to run.Another committee member, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a retired Naval commander, is in a tough reelection bid against state Sen. Jen Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot.The panel was expected to share information from its recent interviews �� including testimony from Ginni Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was in contact with the White House during the run-up to Jan. 6.The committee, having conducted more than 1,500 interviews and obtained countless documents, has produced a sweeping probe of Trump’s activities from his defeat in the November election to the Capitol attack.“He has used this big lie to destabilize our democracy,�� said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-N.Y., who was a young House staff member during the Richard Nixon impeachment inquiry in 1974. “When did that idea occur to him and what did he know while he was doing that?”This week’s hearing is to be the final presentation from lawmakers before the midterm elections. But staff members say the investigation continues.The Jan. 6 committee has been meeting for more than a year, set up by the House after Republican senators blocked the formation of an outside panel similar to the 9/11 commission set up after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Even after the launch of its high-profile public hearings last summer, the Jan. 6 committee continued to gather evidence and interviews.Under committee rules, the Jan. 6 panel is to produce a report of its findings, likely in December. The committee will dissolve 30 days after publication of that report, and with the new Congress in January.Video below: Jan. 6 panel focuses on Trump 'staggering betrayal'House Republicans are expected to drop the Jan. 6 probe and turn to other investigations if they win control after midterm elections, primarily focusing on Biden, his family and his administration.At least five people died in the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath, including a Trump supporter shot and killed by Capitol Police.Police engaged in often bloody, hand-to-hand combat, as Trump’s supporters pushed past barricades, stormed the Capitol and roamed the halls, sending lawmakers fleeing for safety and temporarily disrupting the joint session of Congress certifying Biden’s election.More than 850 people have been charged by the Justice Department in the Capitol attack, some receiving lengthy prison sentences for their roles. Several leaders and associates of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been charged with sedition.Trump faces various state and federal investigations over his actions in the election and its aftermath.

The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack.

The panel voted unanimously to compel the former president to appear. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player,�� said Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.

Cheney adds: “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.��

Before that, the panel showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders phoning officials for help during the assault.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can be seen talking to governors in neighboring Virginia and Maryland. Later the footage shows Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders as the group asks the acting attorney general for help.

Video below: Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump

“They’re breaking the law in many different ways �� quite frankly at the instigation of the president of the United States,�� Pelosi is heard saying at one point.

Also, in never-before-seen Secret Service messages, the panel produced evidence of the way extremist groups provided the muscle in the fight for Trump’s presidency, planning weeks before the attack to send a violent force to Washington.

“Their plan is literally to kill people,�� read a tip that was sent to Secret Service more than a week before the violence on Jan. 6.

The Secret Service warned in a Dec. 26, 2020, email of a tip that members of the right-wing Proud Boys planned to march in Washington on Jan. 6 with a group large enough to outnumber the police.

"It felt like the calm before the storm,�� one Secret Service agent wrote in a group chat.

The House panel warned that the insurrection at the Capitol was not an isolated incident but a warning of the fragility of the nation’s democracy in the post-Trump era.

“None of this is normal or acceptable or lawful in a republic,�� Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said.

“There is no defense that Donald Trump was duped or irrational. No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in a constitutional republic, period.��

The 10th public session, just weeks before the congressional midterm elections, was delving into Trump's “state of mind," said Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson.

The committee is starting to that Republican Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, launched an unprecedented attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Biden’s victory. The result was of the Capitol.

Statements from Thompson and Cheney were laden with language frequently seen in criminal indictments. Both lawmakers described Trump as “substantially�� involved in the events of Jan. 6. Cheney said Trump had acted in a “premeditated�� way.

To illustrate what it said were “purposeful lies,�� the committee juxtaposed repeated instances in which top administration officials recounted telling Trump the actual facts with clips of him repeating the exact opposite at his pre-riot rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

The committee may well make a decision on whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

Thursday's hearing opened at a mostly empty Capitol complex, with most lawmakers at home campaigning for reelection. Several people who were among the thousands around the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now running for congressional office, some with Trump’s backing. Police officers who fought the mob filled the hearing room's front row.

To describe the president’s mindset, the committee divulged new material, including interviews with Trump’s top Cabinet officials, aides and associates in which some described the president acknowledging that he had lost.

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 13: Rep. Liz Cheney (C) (R-WY), Vice Chairwoman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during a hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on October 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, in possibly its final hearing, has been gathering evidence for almost a year related to the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for President Joe Biden. Also pictured are (L-R) Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol and Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Drew Angerer

Rep. Liz Cheney (C) delivers remarks during a hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on October 13, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

In one, according to ex-White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump looked up at a television and said, “Can you believe I lost to this (expletive) guy?"

The committee is also drawing on the trove of 1.5 million documents it received from the U.S. Secret Service, including an email from Dec. 11, 2020, the day the Supreme Court rejected one of the main lawsuits Trump’s team had brought against the election results.

“Just fyi. POTUS is pissed,�� the Secret Service wrote, according to documents obtained by the committee.

White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, recalled Trump as being “livid�� and “fired up�� about the court's ruling.

Trump told Meadows "something to the effect of: ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out,��" Hutchinson told the panel in a recorded interview.

UNITED STATES - JUNE 28: Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building, on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Tom Williams

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building, on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

Cabinet members including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia also said in interviews shown at the hearing that they believed that once the legal avenues had been exhausted, that should have been the end of Trump's efforts to remain in power.

“In my view, that was the end of the matter," Barr said of the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote.

But rather than the end of Trump's efforts to stay in power, the committee signaled it was only the beginning �� as the president summoned the crowd to Washington for a rally to fight the election on Jan. 6.

The session was serving as a closing argument for the panel’s two Republican lawmakers, Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who have essentially been shunned by Trump and their party and will not be returning in the new Congress. Cheney lost her primary election, and Kinzinger decided not to run.

Another committee member, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a retired Naval commander, is in a tough reelection bid against state Sen. Jen Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot.

The panel was expected to share information from its recent interviews �� including testimony from , the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was in contact with the White House during the run-up to Jan. 6.

The committee, having conducted more than 1,500 interviews and obtained countless documents, has produced a sweeping probe of Trump’s activities from his defeat in the November election to the Capitol attack.

“He has used this big lie to destabilize our democracy,�� said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-N.Y., who was a young House staff member during the Richard Nixon impeachment inquiry in 1974. “When did that idea occur to him and what did he know while he was doing that?��

This week’s hearing is to be the final presentation from lawmakers before the midterm elections. But staff members say the investigation continues.

The Jan. 6 committee has been meeting for more than a year, set up by the House after Republican senators blocked the formation of an outside panel similar to the 9/11 commission set up after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Even after the launch of its high-profile public hearings last summer, the Jan. 6 committee continued to gather evidence and interviews.

Under committee rules, the Jan. 6 panel is to produce a report of its findings, likely in December. The committee will dissolve 30 days after publication of that report, and with the new Congress in January.

Video below: Jan. 6 panel focuses on Trump 'staggering betrayal'

House Republicans are expected to drop the Jan. 6 probe and turn to other investigations if they win control after midterm elections, primarily focusing on Biden, his family and his administration.

At least five people died in the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath, including a Trump supporter shot and killed by Capitol Police.

Police engaged in often bloody, hand-to-hand combat, as Trump’s supporters pushed past barricades, stormed the Capitol and roamed the halls, sending lawmakers fleeing for safety and temporarily disrupting the joint session of Congress certifying Biden’s election.

More than 850 people have been charged by the Justice Department in the Capitol attack, some receiving lengthy prison sentences for their roles. Several leaders and associates of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been .

Trump faces over his actions in the election and its aftermath.

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Jan. 6 panel votes to subpoena former President Trump for testimony

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