Tomorrow, the House Select Committee on January 6th will resume public hearings after a break of a few months. While we can expect more revelations from the committee, the late summer was full of new revelations into Trump’s criminal activity and the ongoing threat to democracy posed by MAGA Republicans. The committee has already shown that Trump and MAGA Republicans planned a violent conspiracy to overturn the will of the voters and remain in power, but their plot to take away our fundamental rights and freedoms continues.
What Happened Since The Last January 6 Hearing?
1. JULY: A Criminal Inquiry Into Missing Secret Service Texts. In July 2022, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security directed the Secret Service to halt its internal search for purged texts sent by agents around the time of January 6 so as not to interfere with “an ongoing criminal investigation.” The criminal investigation of the deleted texts suggest growing seriousness of the inquiry into the Secret Service’s actions and recordkeeping from around the time of the attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, Anthony Ornato, a key Secret Service official embroiled in the January 6 inquiry abruptly retired in late August just two days before his planned interview with the January 6 committee. Ornato was a longtime Secret Service agent before President Donald Trump took the unprecedented action of appointing him to a White House position as deputy chief of staff for operations. He played a key role on January 6 when he reportedly sought to relocate Vice President Mike Pence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which could have delayed the certification of the 2020 presidential election. According to testimony from Cassidy Hutchison, Ornato was also in the car with Donald Trump when he demanded to be driven to the Capitol on January 6.
2. AUGUST: Congressman Scott Perry’s Cell Phone Was Seized By The FBI. In August, the FBI seized the cell phone of Representative and House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Perry was already under a subpoena by the January 6 committee that he has refused to comply with. It has not yet been made clear why the FBI seized Perry’s phone, but was among at least 11 members of Congress who were involved in discussions with White House officials about overturning the election. Perry also endorsed the idea of encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, and was the key coordinator of a failed plan to try to replace the acting attorney general, who was resisting attempts to overturn the election, with a more compliant official. Other increased federal law enforcement activity related to efforts to tamper with or overturn the election this summer included FBI warrants executed for the cell phone of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and his associate, a so-called “election integrity” expert, Douglas Frank.
3. AUGUST: FBI Executes A Search Warrant At Mar-A-Lago Seeking Classified Documents Retained By Trump, His Supporters React By Calling For Violence. On August 9, the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort as part of an investigation into Trump’s handling of presidential documents, including highly classified documents, that were found on site. Within hours of the search, Trump began lashing out at the FBI and a chorus of Republican lawmakers, talk-show hosts, and conspiracy theorists began issuing explicit or thinly veiled calls for violence. Days later, a Trump fanatic was killed by law enforcement after attempting to attack the FBI headquarters in Cincinnati, but Trump’s attacks on the FBI persist.
4. AUGUST: Material On At Least One Foreign Nation’s Nuclear Capabilities Was Reportedly Among The Documents Seized At Mar-A-Lago. The Washington Post reported that a document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents when they searched Mar-A-Lago. Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Records that deal with this type of program require need-to-know clearances above top secret, and are kept under lock and key in a secure compartmented information facility. But such documents were evidently stored at Mar-a-Lago, under questionable security, for more than 18 months after Trump left office. In late September, the government won a major legal victory when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Justice Department’s request to retain control of the seized classified materials and continue its criminal investigation into the handling of those documents. The national security risk review of the documents by the intelligence community has also resumed.
5. SEPTEMBER: Emails Show Ginni Thomas Pressured Wisconsin Lawmakers To Overturn The Election; And She Agrees To Interview With The January 6 Committee. Newly released emails show that Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed lawmakers to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin, as well as in Arizona as had been previously reported. Thomas emailed two Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, Sen. Kathy Bernier, then the chair of the elections committee, and state Rep. Gary Tauchen and urged them to set aside Biden’s popular-vote victory and “choose” their own presidential electors. After months of negotiation, the January 6 committee finally reached an agreement with Thomas to be interviewed, and she met with the panel on Sept. 29 to discuss her attempts to engage with high-ranking Republican state officials about overturning the 2020 election. .
6. SEPTEMBER: The Department Of Justice Investigation Of The Plot To Overturn The Election Now Touches Everything. Throughout the summer new details emerged that suggest that Justice Department criminal prosecutors are now examining every aspect of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the fake electors scheme, the promotion of baseless claims of election fraud, and how money moved to support all of these efforts. Dozens of subpoenas issued to Trump associates in recent weeks are seeking vast amounts of information, and communications with more than 100 people. The subpoenas cover at least 18 separate categories of information, including any communications the recipients had with scores of people in six states where Trump supporters sought to elevate a slate of fake electors. Although potential indictments may not come in the immediate future, the subpoenas demonstrate that the DOJ is casting an ever-widening net, even as it gathers information about those in the former president’s inner circle.
7. SEPTEMBER: Donald Trump Promises Pardons And Apologies For January 6 Rioters If He’s Reelected. In an early September radio appearance, Donald Trump said he would issue “full pardons with an apology to many” to rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 if he is reelected to the presidency in 2024. Trump continued his overt support for those who attacked the Capitol and tried to block certification of the 2020 election a few weeks later when he called into a rally held in support of January 6 protestors at the DC jail. Trump described the imprisonment of dangerous January 6 suspects as “a terrible thing that has happened to a lot of people that are being treated very, very unfairly” and described the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt as she tried to gain access to the House floor as a “disgrace.”
8. SEPTEMBER: New York Attorney General Letitia James Sues Donald Trump And Family Members For Fraudulent Financial Practices. In yet another investigation of Donald Trump’s fraud and malfeasance, on September 21, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit against Donald Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization accusing them of large-scale fraudulent financial practices. The civil suit alleges billions of dollars in falsified net worth as part of an effort by Trump to minimize tax bills while maximizing favorable terms from banks and insurance companies. The suit is seeking $250 million in allegedly illegal profits and bans on members of the Trump family from participating in real estate transactions or serving as directors of New York corporations. James has also filed a criminal referral to federal prosecutors in Manhattan and a separate tax fraud referral to the IRS for the same underlying allegations.
9. OCTOBER: The Jan. 6 Committee Held Depositions and Received New Evidence From Former Trump Officials. Since the eighth televised hearing in July, the Jan. 6 committee has issued numerous subpoenas requesting evidence and live testimony from former Trump officials. In late September, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows released a new batch of text messages for the panel to scrutinize, revealing direct communications with a pro-Trump operative behind the campaign’s plans to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. The panel also successfully subpoenaed text messages from Arizona false elector and state GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward, who later sat for a deposition and pleaded the fifth, refusing to answer certain questions about her involvement in the unconstitutional scheme. The committee has also subpoenaed Pennsylvania State Senator and Jan. 6 organizer Doug Mastriano, who briefly met with the Jan. 6 committee and is now desperately seeking to block investigators from further investigating his role in bussing rioters to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Similarly, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is attempting to block a subpoena to testify about Trump’s attempts to coerce him to illegally “decertify” the 2020 election over the summer.
10. OCTOBER: The Georgia 2020 Election Inquiry Could Lead To Prison Time. In a September interview with the Washington Post, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said that her team investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchison is now cooperating with the Fulton County grand jury investigation. Prosecutors also announced that the grand jury would be seeking testimony from former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former White House counsel Eric Herschmann. It may be months until indictments are announced, but at least 17 people, including Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, have been notified they are targets of the criminal investigation, meaning they could eventually face charges. And more targets will be added to the list soon according to Willis, who plans to wrap-up the investigation after the midterm elections and could begin issuing indictments as early as December.
11. OCTOBER: A Growing Number Of Republican Candidates For Office Refuse To Accept The Results Of Their Elections. Republican candidates for office are following in Trump’s footsteps, sowing doubt in the validity of elections, and refusing to commit to accepting the results of their elections this year. Reporting in the New York Times found six Trump-backed Republican nominees for governor and the Senate in midterm battlegrounds who would not commit to accepting this year’s election results, and another six Republicans who ignored or declined to answer a question about potential election results. Ted Budd in North Carolina, Blake Masters in Arizona, Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska, and J.D. Vance in Ohio all declined to commit to accepting the 2022 results. So did Tudor Dixon, the Republican nominee for governor of Michigan, and Geoff Diehl, who is the GOP nominee for governor of Massachusetts. Candidates for the Senate, House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State in Nevada will also not commit to trusting election results this year. Every Democrat contacted by the Times committed to accepting the outcome of the election and a peaceful post-election period.
