Links between Trump associates, militants in focus at Jan 6 hearings this week

By Richard Cowan and Katanga Johnson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Congressional investigators into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol count on this week to attract connections between militant teams that took half and authorities officers, presumably together with then-President Donald Trump, a member of the committee conducting the investigation mentioned on Sunday.

“We’re going to be connecting the dots throughout these hearings between these teams and people who had been attempting in authorities circles to overturn the election,” Democratic Consultant Zoe Lofgren mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Requested if Trump was conscious members of those teams attended a rally he led exterior the White Home when he urged them to march on the Capitol, Lofgren mentioned: “You must attain your personal conclusions however based mostly on the occasions main as much as the day, I feel that might be a logical conclusion.”

Trump, a Republican, has falsely claimed Democrat Joe Biden defeated him within the 2020 presidential election by way of huge fraud – assertions rejected in U.S. courts, by Trump’s personal Justice Division and even Republican-led audits.

After Trump spoke exterior the White Home on Jan. 6, his supporters marched to the Capitol in a failed bid to forestall Congress from certifying Biden’s victory in a session the place then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding.

Two teams, the self-described Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, can be underneath the highlight within the two hearings this week, anticipated on Tuesday and Thursday.

NBC Information reported that Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers, would testify on Tuesday. A committee spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Federal prosecutors have alleged that Jeremy Brown, a member of the Oath Keepers, introduced explosives to the Washington space on Jan. 6. Brown, in a press release, known as the fees a “disgusting lie.”

Throughout a September 2020 debate between Trump and Biden earlier than the November election, Trump was requested whether or not he would condemn white supremacist and militia teams for violent actions throughout his presidency.

Trump responded, “Proud Boys, stand again and stand by.” He added, “Someone’s bought to do one thing about antifa and the left. … this can be a left-wing drawback.”

On Friday, former White Home counsel Pat Cipollone testified to committee investigators behind closed doorways.

Videotaped excerpts of that testimony can be introduced at Tuesday’s listening to, mentioned Lofgren, who’s one among 9 members on a bipartisan Home of Representatives Choose Committee that started its present sequence of public hearings final month.

“He was in a position to present data on principally the entire crucial points we’re , together with the president’s what-I-would-call dereliction of obligation on the day of Jan. 6,” Lofgren mentioned.

The committee has but to say whether or not this Thursday’s listening to, anticipated in night prime time when U.S. tv audiences are at their peak, would be the last one earlier than a panel report is issued, presumably in September.

Consultant Adam Kinzinger, one among two Republicans on the panel, is anticipated to steer witness questioning that evening, together with Democratic Consultant Elaine Luria.

“We’ll actually give attention to what was the president doing from in essence the second the riot began till he lastly, hours later, put out a tweet that mentioned, ‘We should not do something like this,'” Kinzinger instructed ABC’s “This Week.”

He added, “Be mindful in the course of that was the tweet that mentioned in essence that is what occurs whenever you steal an election; that Vice President Pence deserved this.”

In earlier committee testimony, witnesses mentioned Trump signaled assist for rioters calling for Pence to be hanged.

Lofgren additionally mentioned the committee had obtained a letter from Trump adviser Steve Bannon saying he could be keen to testify. Bannon was charged final yr with two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a committee subpoena.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Katanga Johnson; Extra reporting by Tyler Clifford and Patricia Zengerle; Enhancing by Mary Milliken, Howard Goller and Edwina Gibbs)