A House January 6 select committee is expected to release the case in its seventh hearing on Tuesday Donald Trump Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory signaled extremist groups who attacked the Capitol to target and block Congressional certification.
The group will be zeroing in on a key tweet sent by the former president in the early hours of December 19, 2020, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the upcoming investigation.
“Big protest in DC on January 6th,” Trump said in a tweet. “Hang in there, it’ll be wild!”
The inquiry, led by Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Stephanie Murphy, says Trump’s tweet prompted the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups, as well as Stop the Steel activists, to target the certificate.
Trump used the tweet to reassure those groups that they should go ahead with their plans for Jan. 6, the select committee says, and encouraged thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol and demonstrate.
The Select Committee says the tweet was a key moment in the timeline leading up to the Capitol attack, as it was from there that the Pride Boys and Pledge Keepers began preparations in earnest, and Stop the Steel began applying for permits.
The select committee is currently planning to play video clips of former White House adviser Pat Cipollone. Recent testimony to House investigators At Tuesday’s hearing.
Ruskin is expected to first touch on the immediate events before the tweet: Trump seized voting machines in a controversial White House meeting on December 18, 2020 and appointed conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate election fraud.
The meeting was attended by Trump and four informal advisers. The Guardian reportedIncluding Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and former Trump aide Emily Newman.
Once in the Oval Office, they asked Trump to implement Executive Order 13848, which gave him emergency powers in the event of foreign meddling in the election — though that didn’t happen — seized voting machines and installed Powell as special counsel.
The former president ultimately rejected both proposals. But after the Flynn-Powell-Byrne-Newman scuttlebutt plan failed, the select committee says, he turned his attention to Jan. 6 and sent his tweet as his last chance.
The response to Trump’s tweet was direct and immediate, the group said, as Stop the Steel announced plans for a protest in Washington to coincide with Biden’s certification, hours after the former president sent his missive.
The Proud Boys – have been its core members Charged with treasonous conspiracy On the capitol attack — the next day, Jan. 6 — began to crystallize what their plans would be, according to federal prosecutors prosecuting the case.
On 20 December 2020, former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Dario created an encrypted group chat called the “MOSD Leaders Group” – described by Dario as a “national rally planning” group comprised of his top lieutenants.
The Monday after Trump’s tweet on Saturday — the day after Dario launched the MOSD leaders’ group — leaders of Stop the Steel He applied for permission At the time, WildProtest.com was livestreaming the website to hold a protest in “Lot 8” near the Capitol.
In late December and prompted by Trump’s tweet, citing the Proud Boys accusation, Proud Boys leaders used MOSD chats to plan a “DC trip” and asked their members to wear incognito outfits for their activity in January. 6.
Top members of the Oath Keepers militant group led by Stewart Rhodes, who is accused of treason, prepared similar plans as they prepared to block congressional certification of Biden’s election victory, the group wants to show.
The panel will focus on how the oath-keepers stockpiled weapons and prepared to send an armed rapid-reaction force to the Capitol and how the group ended. Security profile of far-right activist Roger Stone and other Trump associates.
One of the witnesses to testify publicly at the hearing, Jason Van Dettenhove, is expected to be a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers who left the group in 2017 but is scheduled to discuss their motivations and how they acted.
A 1st Amendment Praetorian, Flynn’s paramilitary group is also expected to be briefly mentioned in the investigation. “War Rooms” at the Willard HotelBoth Stone and Flynn, as well as Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were seen before Jan. 6.
The select committee, through Ruskin’s portion of the investigation, will trace the ramifications of Trump’s tweet about preparations for Jan. 6 to the morning of the Capitol attack and to Trump’s speech at the Save America rally at the Ellipse.
Congresswoman Murphy is expected to scrutinize the Ellipse rally and Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, where he said he would march on the Capitol with his supporters, giving the pro-Trump crowd a final push to attack Biden’s credentials.
