Capitol Assault: Trump's Far-Right Ties at Heart of Investigation
Rioters wearing the colors of the far-right militia 'Oath Keepers' during the January 6 uprising.
The Capitol Assault Committee will attempt to demonstrate on Tuesday how far-right militias played a leading role in the events of January 6 after responding to a call from their hero Donald Trump.
Since the beginning of June, this House committee — made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans repudiated by their party — has been exposing a narrative that puts the former US president and his followers at the heart of x27;a coup attempt.
Supporting videos and testimonials, it meticulously details the billionaire's pressures to stay in power, from the 2020 presidential election to the assault on Capitol Hill by his supporters, on January 6, 2021.
In its seventh hearing on Tuesday, the commission intends to examine how, in the weeks leading up to [January 6], Donald Trump grew increasingly desperate and summoned the crowd to Washington, according to a parliamentary source.
At the heart of the investigators' briefing is a tweet from Trump from December 19, in which he called on crowds to gather in the US capital on the day Joe Biden was certified as victorious.
< p class="e-p">Mass demonstration in Washington on January 6. Be there, it will be crazy, writes the then tenant of the White House.
President Donald Trump, in Washington, January 6, 2021.
Investigators intend to show how this tweet was perceived by several far-right militias, namely the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as an invitation to take part in the procession — and triggered their first preparations.
We will show how this was a crucial moment that caused a succession of events, assured the parliamentary source.
Thousands of Trumpists responded to the president's call. Gathered in the freezing cold, a tide of red caps had listened to Donald Trump speak, before attacking the seat of the American Congress in an unnamed chaos.
Donald Trump supporters storm the Capitol.
Within this crowd were active members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Arriving in small groups and with paramilitary equipment suggesting some form of planning, they quickly interested federal prosecutors.
Several of them have been charged with sedition, a very rare charge that involves conspiring against the government or one of its laws.
Their direct connection to the White House has never been publicly established.
Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, is expected to testify publicly before the parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
For nearly a year, these elected officials have heard more than 1,000 witnesses, including two children of the former president, and peeled 140,000 documents to shed light on the specific acts and gestures of Donald Trump before, during and after this event which shook American democracy.
The Republican billionaire, who openly flirts with the idea of running for president in 2024, vehemently denounces the work of the commission, castigating in turn a parody of justice or a witch hunt.
His party, over which he still wields great influence, has already promised to bury the conclusions of this commission if it were to take control of the House of Representatives in the midterm legislative elections in November.
