WASHINGTON –
A committee member said on Sunday that a committee member added more evidence was emerging in the House’s January 6 investigation, supporting recent testimony that former US president Donald Trump wanted to join an angry mob that had marched to the Capitol.
“More information will come and stay tuned,” said Representative Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
The committee has stepped up its year-long investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack and Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Deputy committee chairman, is making clear that criminal referrals to the Justice Department, including against Trump, may follow.
At least two more hearings scheduled this month aim to show how Trump illegally directed a violent mob toward the Capitol on January 6, and then failed to act quickly. to stop the attack when it starts.
The committee also reviewed new documentaries about Trump’s final months in office, including interviews with Trump and members of his family.
Kinzinger, in a television interview, declined to reveal the new information he was referring to and did not say who provided it. He said more details emerged after testimony last week from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and that nothing had changed the committee’s confidence in her credibility.
“There’s information I can’t say yet,” he said. “We would definitely say that Cassidy Hutchinson was sworn in, we find her trustworthy and anyone who wants to make a disparagement about it, those who were present, should testify under oath, too. not through anonymous sources.”
In a separate interview, another member of the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said: “We’re following up on additional leads. I think those leads will lead to more leads. new testimony.”
During Hutchinson’s appearance before the committee last week, Hutchinson painted a picture of Trump as an angry, defiant president who is trying to get armed supporters to avoid security screens at a demonstration on the morning of January 6 to protest his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Legal experts say Cassidy’s testimony has the potential to make it difficult for Trump as federal prosecutors investigate potential criminal misconduct.
“There can be more than one criminal referral,” Cheney said in an interview that aired Sunday. She said the committee will decide later in the process whether to proceed.
Cassidy also recounted a conversation with Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for operations, to whom she testified that Trump then grabbed the wheel of the president’s SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him in. he went to the Capitol after the demonstration.
However, that account was quickly disputed. Bobby Engel, the Secret Service agent was driving for Trump, and Ornato was willing to testify under oath that no agents were assaulted and that Trump never got behind the wheel, a person familiar with the matter said. This person will not discuss the matter publicly and speaks on condition of anonymity.
In recent days, the committee has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and is seeking more information from Ornato and Engel, who were previously interviewed by investigators.
Committee members expect Cipollone to continue.
“He clearly has information about concerns about criminal violations, concerns about the president coming to the Capitol that day, concerns about the chief of staff getting bloodied if they don’t do more. to prevent a violent attack on the Capitol,” Schiff said. “It’s hard to imagine someone at the center of things.”
The committee is also working to set up an interview with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was asked to speak to the committee after disclosing her contact information with Trump’s team during the time of the uprising and the date of the uprising on Capitol Hill.
Kinzinger appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Schiff on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and Cheney appeared on ABC’s “This Week.”
