<\/p>\n
Lawmakers investigating Donald Trump\u2019s involvement in last year\u2019s US Capitol insurrection offered fresh evidence on Thursday that the defeated president had planned to declare victory in the 2020 election \u2013 regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n
Trump had a \u201cpremeditated plan\u201d formulated months before the vote to claim he had won on election night, whatever the vote tally showed, panel member Zoe Lofgren told the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence shows that his false victory speech was planned well in advance, before any votes had been counted,\u201d Lofgren said, citing evidence gathered by the committee, including testimony from Trump\u2019s one-time campaign manager.<\/p>\n
Individual panelists have publicly suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland should charge Trump over the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n
Although the committee has not announced formally whether it will make criminal referrals, multiple US media reported Thursday that members planned to vote to subpoena Trump during the hearing.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives panel has already unveiled reams of evidence on the former president\u2019s involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
In what could be its last public pitch before it issues a report on its findings, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans offered fresh damning evidence on the January 6 insurrection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of January 6 was one man \u2013 Donald Trump \u2013 whom many others followed,\u201d said committee deputy chair Liz Cheney.<\/p>\n
The committee also pressed its position that Trump \u2013 who continues to be a wellspring of disinformation about the 2020 presidential election \u2013 represents what it called a \u201cclear and present\u201d threat to democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would Americans assume that our constitution and our institutions and our Republic are invulnerable to another attack?\u201d said Cheney.<\/p>\n
\u201cA key lesson of this investigation is this our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold, regardless of the political cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blockbuster witness testimony across eight hearings in the summer provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully-cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump\u2019s inertia amid the mob uprising.<\/p>\n
\u2018Right to the violence\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The panel plans to release its final report by the end of the year, but after the November 8 elections that decide which party controls Congress. A preliminary report may come out beforehand.<\/p>\n It was the first hearing without live witnesses \u2013 instead featuring new video evidence, including footage from a Danish film crew shot for a documentary about longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.<\/p>\n In one clip from the day before the 2020 election played to the packed hearing room, the notorious self-styled \u201cdirty trickster\u201d was seen telling the filmmakers he has no interest in waiting to contest the vote tally.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s get right to the violence,\u201d says the 70-year-old Republican operative, who has not been charged in connection with the riot.<\/p>\n The panel said Stone had \u201cmaintained extensive direct connections to two groups responsible for violently attacking the Capitol, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.\u201d<\/p>\n Leaders of both groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy over the insurrection.<\/p>\n The panel also unveiled evidence developed from nearly one million pages of documents surrendered by the Secret Service, as lawmakers seek to understand why certain agents\u2019 text messages from the eve of the insurrection and the day itself went missing.<\/p>\n The records confirm evidence from earlier hearings that Trump riled up his supporters despite being repeatedly warned of mounting violence on January 6, said panel member Adam Schiff.<\/p>\n \u2018This is embarrassing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed that some of his supporters had turned up armed, and demanded they be permitted into his rally anyway.<\/p>\n Secret Service emails obtained by investigators confirm Cassidy\u2019s evidence that Trump wanted to lead the mob at the Capitol \u2013 a move that would have escalated a riot into an attack by one branch of the government on another, potentially upending the republic.<\/p>\n And they prove that agents were aware in the run-up to January 6 of planning by the Proud Boys and other extremists to lead an assault on the Capitol, Schiff said.<\/p>\n Trump, who urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to \u201cfight like hell,\u201d was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.<\/p>\n The panel showed never-before-seen footage of Hutchinson testifying that Trump said he \u201cdidn\u2019t want people to know we lost\u201d after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging the election.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don\u2019t want people to know that we lost,\u201d Trump is alleged to have told chief of staff Mark Meadows.<\/p>\n