January 6 Committee hearing to investigate the role of extremist groups in the Capitol riots

Cipollone’s closed-door testimony last week “confirmed what we learned from earlier hearings,” Representative Jamie Ruskin, D-MD, told NBC News,

Ruskin told NBC that Cipollone did not contradict Hutchinson’s blatant testimony last month, who aired incendiary details about how the Capitol riot played out inside Trump’s White House.

“I certainly didn’t hear him, unlike Cassidy Hutchinson,” said Ruskin, who is co-leading Tuesday’s hearing with Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. “He had the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say, so I didn’t see any contradiction there.”

Ruskin also said that, while the committee is expected to conclude its public hearing series this month, the investigation is ongoing.

“One thing I learned during the selection committee is that we never say ‘eventually the research and investigation is over.’ Because we’re learning amazing new things everyday.”

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The select committee will describe how Trump “became more desperate” in the weeks before January 6 and “calling the crowd to Washington,” an aide on the panel told reporters in a conference call previewing the hearing on Monday.

“We will give the American public a full understanding of the final phase of radical measures to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by President Trump and his supporters and reverse the 2020 election,” the aide said.

The hearing will also offer more details about a pivotal moment, which was told by Vice Chairman Liz Cheney, R-Vyo. touched on briefly last month: a tweet from Trump on December 19, 2020, inviting his supporters to come to DC on January 6, promising it would “be wild!”

That tweet came just an hour after a meeting in which Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and other Trump aides considered taking drastic action to reverse Trump’s losses, such as confiscation of voting machines or a race probe. Appointment of a special counsel for The colleague said.

Trump’s tweet marked DC to his fans as “a pivotal moment that inspired a series of events,” the aide said, “including a pre-planning” by the Proud Boys, the group said to have invaded the Capitol. has led.

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Cipollone’s after-hours interview with investigators Friday will help shape today’s hearing, several committee members confirmed.

“I think you’ll be hearing from Mr. Cipollone, but also from other people who were in the White House,” said Representative Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning.

“We’re going to use Mr. Cipollone’s testimony to confirm other things we learned along the way,” Rep. Jamie Ruskin, D-MD, said in another television appearance on Sunday.

“He was White House counsel at the time. He was aware of every major move, I think, that Donald Trump was trying to overthrow the 2020 election and essentially seize the presidency, and so I Valued the testimony,” Ruskin said of Cipollone.

Several witnesses who spoke at the prior public hearing testified about Cipollone’s efforts to push back plans by Trump and his allies to reverse the election.

For example, in a scathing testimony last month, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Cipollone warns employees not to let go Trump will visit the US Capitol on January 6, where lawmakers met to confirm Biden’s election victory.

“We’re going to be indicted for every crime imaginable” if Trump followed through with those plans, Hutchinson recalled Cipollone, because “it would look like we were obstructing justice.”

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The committee declined to reveal the names of witnesses to appear in Tuesday’s hearing, citing security concerns.

“We are not planning to announce the names of any witnesses before tomorrow,” an aide on the committee told reporters previewing the hearing in a conference call on Monday afternoon.

The decision is due to “similar concerns for the safety of some of our witnesses and the potential for harassment,” the aide said.

But NBC News and other outlets nonetheless have reported two witnesses expected to appear at the hearing: former Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tetenhove, and January 6 defendant Stephen Ayreswho pleaded guilty to charges of entering the Capitol last month.

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