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A committee investigating the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack has voted to subpoena Donald Trump to give evidence.
The panel voted unanimously to force the former president to appear in court.
“We have to seek testimony under oath of the central figures on Jan. 6,” said Republican Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.
Mr Trump will almost certainly oppose the subpoena and refuse to testify.
At the committee’s 10th public meeting weeks before congressional midterm elections, the panel concluded Mr Trump’s “astonishing betrayal” of his oath of office.
Democratic Chairman Benny Thompson said so as he described Trump’s unprecedented attempt to prevent Congress from proving a victory for Democrat Joe Biden.
With vivid new details and evidence, including from the former president’s cabinet secretary and the U.S. Secret Service, the panel shows that Mr Trump was repeatedly told by those around him that the election was over, but he still orchestrated a plan to stop Biden The far-reaching efforts of Mr. Several former aides testified that Trump said privately that he knew he was losing to Biden.
In other striking new videos, the group showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders calling officials for help during the siege of the Capitol.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer can be seen talking with the governors of neighboring Virginia and Maryland. It later showed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and others in the party seeking help from Mr. Trump’s acting attorney general.
“They broke the law in many different ways — and frankly, at the instigation of the President of the United States,” Ms. Pelosi was heard to say at one point. “Do you believe this?” she exclaimed.
The footage comes from a documentary that Pelosi’s daughter is making, the source said.
Earlier, in never-before-seen Secret Service information, the group presented evidence that extremist groups had provided strength in the fight for Trump’s presidency, planning to send a violent team to Washington in the weeks before the attack. force.
The Secret Service warned in an email dated Dec. 26, 2020, that the right-wing Proud Boys planned to outnumber the police in their planned Jan. 6 march in Washington.
“It feels like the calm before the storm,” one Secret Service agent wrote in the group chat.
The House panel has warned that the Capitol uprising was not an isolated incident but a warning of the fragility of the nation’s democracy in a post-Trump era.
“None of this is normal, unacceptable or legal in the Republic,” Ms Cheney declared.
“No one can defend Donald Trump as being deceived or unreasonable. No president can defy the rule of law and act in this way during a constitutional republic.”
Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney’s statements are filled with language that often appears in criminal indictments. Both lawmakers described Mr. Trump as “substantially” involved in the events of January 6. Ms Cheney said Mr Trump’s actions were “premeditated”.
To illustrate that what it said was a “purposeful lie,” the committee contrasted the example repeated by senior administration officials with Mr. Trump repeating the exact opposite segment at a pre-riot rally in Ellipse on Jan. 6.
The committee is likely to make a decision on whether to refer the criminal case to the Justice Department.
Thursday’s hearings began in a nearly empty Capitol with most lawmakers running for re-election at home. Several of the thousands who gathered around the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now running for Congress, some of whom have Trump’s backing. Police battling the mob filled the front row of the hearing room.
In a taped interview, former White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin said Mr Trump looked up at the TV and said, “Can you believe I lost to this (expletive) guy?”
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