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Jan. 6 committee chair: ‘It’s time’ to talk to Ginni Thomas

1 hr 27 min ago

Jan. 6 committee chair says “it’s time” to talk to wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

From CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles 

Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a panel discussion in Maryland in 2017.
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a panel discussion in Maryland in 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/File)

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Jan. 6 committee, told reporters the committee will be inviting the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas, to come talk to the committee “soon” in light of new emails that show she was communicating with conservative lawyer John Eastman.

“It’s time for us to invite her to come talk,” Thompson said of Thomas.

When asked when, Thompson said “soon.”

“We think it’s time that we would, at some point, invite her to come talk to the committee,” Thompson added.

Asked if Thomas will come up in the committee’s hearing, Thompson said, “at some point, but we’re still in the discovery phase.”

CNN has reached out to the committee. 

1 hr 44 min ago

Ahead of today’s hearing, the panel released video of Trump lawyer warning conservative attorney John Eastman 

From CNN’s Ryan Nobles, Kristin Wilson, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer

A video clip has been released from the deposition of former White House attorney Eric Herschmann.
A video clip has been released from the deposition of former White House attorney Eric Herschmann. (From Twitter/January 6th Committee)

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol teased their upcoming hearing on Thursday, by releasing a video clip from their deposition of former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann.

In the clip, Herschmann outlines how he warned conservative attorney John Eastman to back off plans to file appeals in Georgia based on the election results after the events of January 6, 2021.

Thursday’s hearing is expected to focus on the pressure campaign applied to former Vice President Mike Pence to stand in the way of the certification of the election. Eastman was the architect of the plan, and the committee plans to show that he pushed it to former President Donald Trump despite the insistence from his top lawyers that it was not sound legal advice.

“He started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something, potentially, for appeal,” Herschmann says in the video. “And I said to him, ‘Are you out of your effing mind? Because I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth for now on: orderly transition.’ I said ‘I don’t want to hear any other effing words coming out of your mouth no matter what, other than ‘orderly transition.’ Repeat those words to me.”

He then goes on to warn Eastman that his actions could potentially be against the law.

“Eventually he said ‘orderly transition.’ I said, ‘Good John. Now I’m gonna give you the best free legal advice you’re ever getting in your life. Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. You’re gonna need it.’ And I hung up on him.

The committee is in the middle of a series of public hearings, which started last week, to showcase the panel’s findings since forming last year. On Monday, the committee heard testimony from a former Fox News digital politics editor, a conservative lawyer, a former US attorney and a former Republican election official — who all said it was clear President Joe Biden won the election and Trump’s claims of fraud were nonsense.

The committee was originally scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday, but that has been postponed until a later date. Members cited “technical issues” as well as giving Americans “the time and space to digest” the previous hearing as the reasons for the delay.

2 hr 2 min ago

Meet the 9 lawmakers on the Jan. 6 committee

From CNN’s Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles

The House select committee is seated at the start of last week's hearing.
The House select committee is seated at the start of last week’s hearing. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Members of the House select committee have been investigating what happened before, after and during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and now they are presenting what they discovered to the public.

The committee is holding another hearing Thursday as it continues to roll out preliminary findings from its investigation in a series of presentations this month.

The committee is made up of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans. It was formed after efforts to create an independent 9/11-style commission failed.

Rep. Liz Cheney is one of two Republicans on the panel appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his selections because Pelosi would not accept two of his picks. In July 2021, Pelosi invited GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to join the committee, making him the second GOP lawmaker to sit on the panel.

Here’s who is on the panel — and key things to know about them:

Democrats:

  • Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman: Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is the chairman of the House select committee. Thompson also serves as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, the first Democrat to hold the position. As chairman of the Homeland Security panel, Thompson introduced and oversaw the House’s passage of the legislative recommendations after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Thompson is a civil rights pioneer who started his political career by registering fellow African Americans to vote in the segregated South. His first political victory was being elected the first Black mayor of his hometown of Bolton, Mississippi. He is the only Democrat serving in Mississippi’s delegation. Thompson views the work of the Jan. 6 committee in the same vein as his work in the civil rights struggle.
  • Rep. Pete Aguilar: Aguilar is a Democrat from Southern California. Before coming to Congress, he served as the mayor of Redlands, California. Aguilar is considered a rising star in the House Democratic Caucus. As vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus he is the highest-ranking Latino member in congressional leadership. In addition to his role on the Jan. 6 committee, Aguilar has several high-profile committee assignments. He also is a member of the committees on Appropriations and House Administration. Aguilar believes the committee’s most important job is creating a full, comprehensive record of what led to the violence of Jan. 6, 2021.
  • Rep. Zoe Lofgren: Lofgren is a Democrat from California who served as an impeachment manager in the first impeachment trial against Trump. Lofgren is also chair of the Committee on House Administration. She was first elected to Congress in 1994 and also served as a staffer on Capitol Hill for eight years. Lofgren has a background as an immigration lawyer and has made reforming immigration law a key part of her portfolio as a member of Congress. She also represents a big part of the Silicon Valley and as a result has had a heavy focus on tech related issues. She is a long-time ally and friend to Pelosi. The duo has served in the California Congressional delegation together for close to three decades and both represent different parts of the bay area in Northern California.
  • Rep. Elaine Luria: Luria is a Democrat from the Virginia Beach area who represents a community with a significant number of constituents connected to the military. Luria is a Navy Veteran. She served 20 years as an officer on Navy ships, retiring as a commander. She has attributed her military background as part of her motivation for serving on the Jan. 6 committee and getting to the bottom of what happened on that day. Of the nine members of the committee, Luria is facing the toughest general election in the fall midterms.
  • Rep. Stephanie Murphy: Murphy is a Democrat from Florida and is the first Vietnamese American woman elected to Congress. Before serving in Congress, Murphy was a national security specialist in the office of the US Secretary of Defense. Murphy said the challenge for committee members is to translate the mountains of information learned through the investigation into a digestible narrative for the American people. Murphy announced in December 2021 that she would not be seeking reelection.
  • Rep. Jamie Raskin: Raskin is a Democrat from Maryland who previously served as the lead impeachment manager for Democrats during Trump’s second impeachment trial. In the days before the Capitol insurrection, Raskin announced the death by suicide of his 25-year-old son, Tommy, on New Years Eve 2020. Raskin reflected on the tragic loss of his son, and his experience living through the attack on the Capitol, in his book “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy.” Raskin said that becoming the lead House impeachment manager last year served as a “lifeline” in the aftermath of his son’s death, describing to David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast how Pelosi asked him to lead the second impeachment managers.
  • Rep. Adam Schiff: Schiff is a Democrat from California and also serves as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was the lead impeachment manager representing Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment trial. “January 6 will be remembered as one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. Yet, more than a year later, the threat to our democracy is as grave as ever. January 6 was not a day in isolation, but the violent culmination of multiple efforts to overturn the last presidential election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our history,” Schiff said in a statement to CNN.

Republicans

  • Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair: Cheney, who represents Wyoming, serves as the vice chairwoman on the committee. Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach him. House Republicans have punished her for her public opposition to Trump by removing her as their party’s conference chairwoman in May of last year and she faces a Trump-endorsed challenger in the GOP primary in her reelection bid. That primary is in August. Cheney told CBS in an interview that aired over the weekend that she believes the January 6 attack was a conspiracy, saying when asked, “I do. It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized. It’s really chilling.” She has even gone as far to say that Trump’s inaction to intervene as the attack unfolded was a “dereliction of duty.”
  • Adam Kinzinger: Kinzinger of Illinois broke with his party by accepting the appointment from Pelosi. Kinzinger, once thought to have a bright future in GOP politics, has taken heavy criticism from his colleagues because of his criticism of Trump. He has placed much of the blame of inciting the violence that day on Trump and his allies. Kinzinger is one of 10 Republicans who voted twice to impeach Trump after the Capitol insurrection. He also voted for the bipartisan independent commission to investigate the riot. His willingness to take on Trump led to the former President personally promising to back a primary opponent. Instead of facing the prospect of a Trump back challenge, he chose to retire from Congress at the end of his current term.
2 hr 17 min ago

A 9-page Jan. 6 plan to occupy congressional buildings was released in a court filing. Here’s what’s in it.

From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand,

A crowd of Trump supporters gather outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A crowd of Trump supporters gather outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Cheriss May/Getty Images) 

A lawyer for one of the Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy released a 9-page document on Wednesday that outlines a plan to occupy key congressional buildings connected to the US Capitol and the Supreme Court on January 6, 2021, and to distribute a list of demands calling for a new election.

The plan envisioned using “covert sleeper(s)” to set up fake appointments in federal buildings and then having people “rush the building.” It claimed: “We have the ability to … Target Specific Senators Offices.”

The plan also included handing out flyers to demand “a new election” on January 20, 2021, and to warn prominent Republicans including then-Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Mitch McConnell that, “We the people are watching you.”

Details of the document had been previously disclosed in court. But the full document, titled “1776 Returns,” has now been filed as part of a seditious conspiracy case against members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio. Prosecutors say Tarrio got a copy of the document before January 6.

There is no specific reference to storming the US Capitol or to attacking police officers in the document.

The document has previously been cited by the Justice Department as well as the House select committee to show how extremist organizations such as the Proud Boys were considering storming government buildings as early as December 2020. Video from the riot shows members of the Proud Boys among the first to breach Capitol grounds.

You can read more about the nine-page plan here.

2 hr 31 min ago

Where things stand in the DOJ investigation of Jan. 6

From CNN’s Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Holmes Lybrand

Attorney General Merrick Garland attends a news conference at the Department of Justice on Monday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland attends a news conference at the Department of Justice on Monday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that he plans to watch all of the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings and that prosecutors handling criminal cases stemming from the insurrection are also watching.

“I am watching, and I will be watching all the hearings, although I may not be able to watch all of it live,” Garland said. “But I will be sure that I am watching all of it. And I can assure you that the January 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings as well.”

The attorney general, who has faced mounting pressure from Democrats to pursue a criminal case against Trump and his allies related to the January 6 attack, declined to comment on new evidence provided by the committee.

He pointed to long-standing Justice Department operating procedure of not commenting on ongoing investigations, saying: “We do that both for the viability of our investigations and because it’s the right thing to do with respect to the civil liberties of people under investigation.”

Two dozen leading Democrats previously told CNN that Garland may have missed his moment to bring criminal charges against top Trump administration officials before the effort would get caught up in the 2024 presidential campaign jockeying set to begin later this year, after the midterm elections.

The Justice Department has arrested over 840 individuals, charging roughly 255 with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers that day – 90 of whom are charged with using a weapon or causing serious injury to an officer. 

Roughly 185 Capitol rioters have been sentenced so far, with over 80 receiving jail time.   

But the investigation is nowhere close to being over. The Justice Department is still looking for over 350 individuals who they say, “committed violent acts on Capitol grounds.”  

Read more about Garland and the Department of Justice investigation here.

2 hr 44 min ago

Here are key takeaways of Monday’s hearing to get up to speed

From CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb and Marshall Cohen

The committee listens to a video clip of former Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday.
The committee listens to a video clip of former Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol detailed Monday how those around then-President Donald Trump told him he lost the 2020 election — but he refused to listen, turning instead to his attorney Rudy Giuliani to embrace false claims that the election was stolen.

The panel heard testimony from a former Fox News digital politics editor, a conservative lawyer, a former US attorney and a former Republican election official — who all said it was clear President Joe Biden won the election and Trump’s claims of fraud were nonsense.

The committee says it will continue to present evidence that relates to Trump’s role in the insurrection at the next hearing on Thursday.

Here are the key takeaways from the panel’s second hearing this month to get up to speed:

  • The committee’s main argument: One of the primary areas of focus of Monday’s hearing was to underscore the idea that Trump and some of his allies continued to peddle false claims of election fraud after they were personally told those claims were not legitimate. The committee argued Trump was repeatedly told these claims were false by his own top officials, including campaign manager Bill Stepien and former Attorney General William Barr.
  • There was one less witness than planned: Stepien, who was set to testify, pulled out of the hearing when he found that his wife went into labor. Lawmakers and committee staff instead played video clips from Stepien’s private deposition which revealed new details about his conversations with Trump and how he advised the President not to prematurely declare victory on election night.
  • The role of former Attorney General William Barr: The committee did not invite Barr to testify publicly for Monday’s hearing, but the minutes of his deposition that played made it feel at times as though he was there. Barr dismantled specific Trump-backed claims about illegal “vote dumps” in Detroit, nationwide vote-rigging by Dominion with its election machines, and other conspiracy theories. He said the theories Trump supported were “idiotic” and “amateurish” and “detached from reality.” 
  • “Team Normal” vs. Rudy Giuliani: Testimony distinguished between two groups advising Trump in the days after the election — “Team Normal” and those who were with Rudy Giuliani pushing baseless claims of voter fraud. The committee traced back the divide to election night when Stepien and others were telling Trump it was too early to call the race, while Giuliani told him to declare victory. The panel even took a dig at Giuliani and his state of mind on Election Night, playing a video from Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller’s deposition where he said that Giuliani “had too much to drink.”
  • An investigation into the campaign’s finances: The committee argued Trump’s lies about the election turned into millions of dollars in fundraising for the campaign. Lawmakers said that Trump’s false claims about voter fraud dovetailed with his campaign’s fundraising effort — resulting in $250 million being donated to Trump and his allies, including solicited requests for an “official election defense fund,” that did not exist. “The ‘Big Lie’ was also a big rip-off,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said during Monday’s hearing.
  • Committee connects fraud to violence: After most of the hearing was focused on debunking Trump’s lies about the election, the committee ended the hearing by returning to the violence that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a video showing those who went to Washington, DC, that day, Trump’s supporters said they believed that the baseless claims about Dominion software and about how Trump’s votes were not counted.

Read more about the key takeaways here.

2 hr 57 min ago

Jan. 6 committee released new video yesterday. Here’s what you need to know about it.

From CNN’s  Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Ryan Nobles,

Video released by the committee Tuesday appears to show a man taking photos of tunnels, hallways and staircases within the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021.
Video released by the committee Tuesday appears to show a man taking photos of tunnels, hallways and staircases within the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. (Capitol Police Surveillance/January 6 Committee)

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot has released footage that shows one of the people to whom GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia gave a tour on Jan. 5 was outside the building during the insurrection screaming threats about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The video, portions of which were released by the committee on Wednesday, appears to show a man taking photos of tunnels, hallways and staircases within the Capitol complex while on a tour led by Loudermilk. The committee also released footage that appears to show that same man marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The committee has not identified the man, but sources say the committee has interviewed him. The committee has also not provided evidence that the man in the video entered the Capitol on January 6.

The video released by the committee seems to challenge the findings of US Capitol Police as detailed in a letter sent to Republican lawmakers this week, which said the department conducted a review of security footage from January 5 and did not observe any activities it deemed to be suspicious or consistent with a reconnaissance tour.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said the video shows Loudermilk “with a group of approximately 12 people which later grew to 15 people” walking through the Capitol office buildings on January 5. Manger also states that the group of visitors did not “appear in any tunnels that would lead them to the US Capitol.”

“On May 19, 2022, the Select Committee invited you to meet with us about evidence of a tour you provided on January 5, 2021. Based on our review of surveillance video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours, despite the complex being closed to the public on that day,” the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Wednesday in a new letter to Loudermilk.

“Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol,” he added. “Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”

Loudermilk said in a statement to CNN after the video’s release Wednesday, that “the Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed, yet the Committee is undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed.”

You can read more about the footage here.

3 hr 11 min ago

Rep. Raskin says future hearing will describe “back channel” between extremist groups and Trump orbit

From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz

US Rep. Jamie Raskin speaks to CNN on Thursday.
US Rep. Jamie Raskin speaks to CNN on Thursday.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of the House Select Committee said the Capitol Hill investigation into Jan. 6 is getting “new evidence” daily, and some of that will be presented at Thursday’s public hearing.

He didn’t provide specifics.

“New evidence is breaking every single day now. Suddenly a lot of people want to tell the truth and try to distance themselves from this outrageous plan to subvert and overthrow the 2020 presidential election. And I do think there are more particles of evidence emerging about just that,” Raskin said on CNN Thursday morning. 

“We’re having to integrate everything into our presentation of the evidence. … You’ll be able to see both today and in the hearings to come that we have fresh evidence of what was taking place, which was a plan to overthrow and put down the 2020 election,” Raskin said.

Raskin also said a future hearing would describe a so-called “back channel” between domestic extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, with the Trump world. 

Again, he did not share specifics of what the committee has learned. 

“The hearing I’m working on is about the relationship between this whole effort and the domestic violent extremist groups and how the mob was actually mobilized and put into action,” Raskin said.

CNN has previously reported on some connections the Justice Department has established already between leaders of the group and some contacts of Trump.

3 hr 18 min ago

What you need to know about former President Trump’s election lies

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

A video of then-President Donald Trump is shown during last week's prime-time hearing.
A video of then-President Donald Trump is shown during last week’s prime-time hearing. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Throughout the 2020 campaign, former President Trump repeatedly lied about rampant voter fraud and claimed that the election would be “rigged” against him. He escalated this rhetoric after Election Day by falsely claiming victory, and continued pushing these lies after Biden became the projected President-elect.  

Trump’s campaign and his allies then filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits across the country, seeking to overturn the results, based on spurious fraud claims. Despite losing those lawsuits, Trump continued promoting these lies while pressuring federal, state, and local officials to help him stop the transition of power. These officials largely refused to help Trump with his plan.  

Trump repeated these lies during his Ellipse rally on Jan. 6, which helped spur the Capitol riot. Trump’s rhetoric inspired the vast majority of Republicans to believe that Biden did not win the 2020 election, according to CNN polling. Many of the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol also expressed this view. 

The Jan. 6 committee has released testimony from Trump advisers revealing that he was told shortly after the election that he lost – but he kept pushing ahead with disinformation and false claims about the election. Some academics and historians have dubbed this phenomenon as “the Big Lie.” 

Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-june-16/h_9eed3fcc647f9e382b3e6849fa3ba215