More than 140,000 papers have been gathered, and at least 1,000 people have been interrogated by the House select committee looking into the events of January 6, 2021.
Tens of millions of people in America and across the world have seen the six televised public hearings it has held so far (with a seventh slated for July 12).
The facts concerning January 6 and its wider ramifications have also been the subject of a tenacious investigation by a remarkable army of journalists, filmmakers, academics, legal experts, and other researchers. The Capitol attack was, in a true sense, the crime site with the most records of it.
The coup attempt by Donald Trump and his allies, as well as their growing drive to overthrow American democracy, are already the subject of a large deal of information.
However, there are still a lot of unsolved questions, unresolved issues, puzzling facts, and other mysteries that haven’t yet been forced into the open.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff for President Trump, testified in front of the committee on Tuesday, stating unequivocally that Trump and his closest advisors expected and anticipated the violence on January 6.
Trump was informed by the Secret Service that his supporters had handguns, assault rifles, and other deadly weapons. Trump commanded that they be let to assemble in their hundreds on the Ellipse regardless.
The likelihood that Trump wanted to visit the Capitol himself seems to be very strong. Donald Trump would have declared himself “president” for an indefinite period in the future due to a “national emergency” — one that he and his allies actually created — following the pattern of coups that have taken place in other nations after his supporters attacked the Capitol and interfered with the certification of the 2020 Election.
Therefore, the current debate is not over whether Donald Trump and his allies committed serious offences against American democracy and the rule of law, but rather over whether they will ever face legal action from the Department of Justice.
Hugo Lowell and I recently chatted about that potential outcome as well as several other issues about January 6. He is a congressional reporter for the Guardian and one of the most astute watchers of the inquiry by the House Select Committee.
In this talk, Lowell muses on the experience of hearing Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony live and whether it signalled a turning point in the hearings on January 6 and the nation’s potential reckoning with Donald Trump and his legacy.
Lowell asserts that the committee’s findings show beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump was (and still is) the driving force behind a violent attempt to overthrow the American democracy and that he is accountable for his own deeds and conduct.
The FBI frequently targets figures in organized crime for tax evasion, and he also implies that the Department of Justice may ultimately bring charges against Donald Trump for financial crimes.
The possibility that Trump actually came close to imposing martial law is also discussed by Lowell, who also claims that there are still many unanswered questions regarding the involvement of retired general Michael Flynn and various right-wing paramilitary organizations in the events of January 6 and beyond.
After this discussion, Lowell muses on the issues that the House Select Committee has not yet addressed, particularly those about the connections between militia organizations, Donald Trump, and the members of Trump’s inner circle who gathered in the “war room” at the Willard hotel on the eve of the Jan. 6 uprising.
How are you handling everything as a reporter covering the hearings on January 6 and related topics? How did you feel following the hearing last week and Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony?
Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony was extremely amazing from a legal standpoint and for what it revealed regarding possible criminal exposure on Trump’s part. But I also believed that her emotional testimony was outstanding.
Cassidy’s description of how she felt what Donald Trump was doing was un-American and unpatriotic and how it upset her struck a very emotional chord with me.
A great country like the United States is reduced to discussing a president who is throwing dishes, sending armed individuals to the Capitol, and attempting to fight a Secret Service member because the agent wouldn’t drive him there saddens me, I thought to myself.
It was all truly rather depressing. I simply sat there for a while to consider what Cassidy was saying. It was both fantastic and incredibly disappointing. It seemed as though America had gone backwards.
How does it feel to witness America being pushed to such a low point by January 6 and the Age of Trump in general? And specifically what is being disclosed during the House hearings on January 6?
I somewhat disagree with your premise. A recent Jubilee ceremony at the British embassy was attended by me. I questioned a senior employee there, “How do you interpret all of this? All of this seems absurd.”
She said, “America has accomplished so many incredible things in such a little amount of time if I were to view it from God’s vantage point. However, there will undoubtedly be some hiccups along the road.”
Jan. 6 and Trump were a blip in the history of the country. I imagine the United Kingdom 200 or 300 years after its inception. Civil wars occurred.
People were being beheaded. This person felt that what had transpired in regards to the attack on the Capitol, Trump, and the split of America was momentary.
It wasn’t permanent. It’s just that compared to other nations, America has a considerably shorter history. She had a great deal of faith in America.
Many news outlets have used the worn-out phrase “history was created” to refer to Hutchinson’s statement.
Whose history is actually being written? In the long run, what does that mean in terms of Trump and his allies being held accountable for what happened on January 6?
That hearing had the effect of shocking the American people, reawakening them to the seriousness and tragedy of January 6.
In my judgment, the past 10 or so months had caused a kind of communal tiredness about the Capitol attack. News and little investigation discoveries have been trickling in one after another. The House committee has given us a few, but not many, statements.
Donald Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 election and how they all culminated in the Capitol attack were well-known to those who are paying attention to what happened on January 6.
In general, most people are aware that Trump was somewhat to blame for the attack on the Capitol.
The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have previously uncovered the majority of what the committee’s report from January 6 contained regarding Trump’s attempts to persuade the Department of Justice to annul the election.
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The testimony of Hutchinson was so compelling, remarkable, and revolting, and what Trump did was so unbecoming of a president, that it was like an electric shock to the general public mind.
Yes, the tabloid aspects existed, with reports that Trump choked a Secret Service agent and threw his meal at the wall in a fit of rage.
However, the testimony was still incredibly compelling because you could envision Trump doing these crimes in your head.
It is undeniably horrible what Trump did on January 6. For many, Hutchinson’s explanation of what Trump did was a turning point.
Her testimony helped the committee refocus attention on Trump’s actions on January 6 in front of the public.
There was a noticeable difference between the mood before the hearing and the mood before any of the other hearings.
This was obviously a significant issue. Even though we didn’t know what Cassidy would say, according to my reporting, we were aware it would be negative.
The House Intelligence Committee typically uses the secure briefing room where members of Congress entered.
Before the hearing began, they spent a long time in that room. About it, everyone is keeping very quiet.
There appeared to be more Capitol police there, in my opinion. Everyone was alert to a greater extent. The risks seemed to have risen dramatically overnight.
