WASHINGTON — Republicans in the House of Representatives are launching a major re-examination of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, in an effort to shift blame away from Donald Trump, who has been indicted for his actions, or his supporters in the mob siege who attempted to overturn the 2020 election. .
As Trump campaigns to return to the White House, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight held the first of what are expected to be regular public hearings, reviewing the official record, which had been broadcast in detail in 2022 the House Select Committee on January 6. .
Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., called Jan. 6 a “dark day” in U.S. history as he opened Tuesday’s hearing to delve into the investigation into pipe bombs dropped that day outside Republican and Democratic headquarters. party were left behind.
But he said “we still have a lot of unanswered questions.”
The panel’s work comes as Trump and President Joe Biden are heading for a rematch this fall, and Republicans, some once skeptical of Trump’s return to the White House, have quickly lined up to support the former president. The GOP’s high-profile impeachment inquiry into Biden has stalled without a clear path forward.
Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans plan to issue a final report on Jan. 6 “to correct the incomplete narrative” put forward by the Select Committee’s previous work on the Jan. 6 attack .
With newly released testimony and an 80-plus-page report of initial findings, the House subcommittee has outlined a roadmap for its investigation — including revisiting key testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave an impressive provided an account of Trump’s actions that day.
The panel’s report draws on many of the conspiracy theories that circulated around Jan. 6 — from the formation of the Select Committee by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to newer questions about the unidentified people who planted the executioner’s scaffold outside the U.S. Capitol put down.
“Democrats wasted no time in pointing the finger at President Trump for the events of January 6, 2021,” the report’s initial findings said.
During the first hearing, Republicans questioned U.S. Capitol Police about why a bomb-sniffing K9 unit initially failed to spot the pipe bombs found outside the party’s headquarters and why police didn’t respond more quickly to seal off the area .
Sean Gallagher, assistant chief of the Capitol Police, told the panel that it was “chaotic” that day as the mob breached the Capitol.
“I want to be frank and honest: the U.S. Capitol Police did not shy away from the failures of that day,” Gallagher said of the well-documented leadership problems laid out in their own report.
He described fighting on the west and east fronts of the Capitol as police tried to hold back the crowd — “our officers suffered injuries” — and calls came in, including a pickup truck full of Molotov cocktails, machetes, rifles, pistols and ammunition parked nearby.
Five people died in the riot and its immediate aftermath, including a police officer, and other officers later died by suicide. More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riots, and hundreds have been convicted.
“For context, I would like to specify a perimeter that is not perfect so that officers can respond to help their brothers and sisters who called for help at the U.S. Capitol,” Gallagher testified.
Representative Norma Torres of California, the panel’s top Democrat and a former 911 dispatcher, questioned the entire premise of the hearing, especially with federal investigations underway: “What exactly is it that we’re doing here?”
“Maybe it’s to spread crazy right-wing conspiracy theories about the January 6 pipe bombs spreading in the dark corners of the internet?” she asked.
“Or perhaps we are here so that this subcommittee can once again attempt to muddy our history, villainize law enforcement and undo the efforts of the bipartisan January 6 commission,” she said, “all to distract from the simple fact that the former president and the Republican nominee for president orchestrated a corrupt scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election.”
Trump was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud Americans and obstruction of an official proceeding on January 6. The Supreme Court is considering his claim of immunity.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are criticizing the Select Committee, claiming it has not turned over all aspects of its work.
On Tuesday, a previously undisclosed transcript of the Select Committee’s interview with an unnamed Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 provided new information about Trump’s actions that day. It was obtained by The Associated Press.
That transcript from the presidential limousine driver contradicted some of Hutchinson’s testimony but corroborated other aspects of her story, including Trump’s attempt to join the mob scene in the Capitol.
Trump had told his supporters at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse near the White House to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, saying he would be there with them as Congress votes on the election of 2020 was certifying and Biden’s victory.
But his security detail refused to take him there and instead took Trump back to the White House.
Hutchinson, who was an assistant to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, had testified in June 2022 that another official told her that Trump was fighting for control of the presidential SUV and demanded he be taken to the Capitol . when the uprising started.
Hutchinson testified that she was told that Bobby Engel, the head of security who was in the car with him, had grabbed Trump’s arm to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, and Trump then used his free hand to attack Engel. She worked in the White House and said that when she was informed of the altercation immediately afterward, Engel was in the room and did not dispute the story at the time.
In the newly obtained transcript, the driver confirms: “The president insisted on going to the Capitol.”
The driver explained that Trump and Engel got into the car after the meeting, and Trump began asking Engel if he wanted to go to the Capitol. When Engel suggested this was not possible, Trump continued to insist.
“Certainly, his voice sounded raised,” the driver testified, “but it didn’t seem to me like he was angry, certainly not – he certainly didn’t seem as irritated or excited as he was on the way to the Ellipse.”
The driver said: ‘What stood out the most was that he kept asking why we couldn’t go?’
But the driver said he did not see the altercation Hutchinson described.
“He never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him lunge at all to try to get into the front seat,” the driver testified.
“You know, what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than – more than his physical presence, which would have been pretty obvious if he tried to put himself between the two front seats,” the driver said.
The driver said he told other colleagues at the White House what happened while he waited outside with the vehicles.