Matthew Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser under President Donald J. Trump and the top White House official, who resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, are expected to testify that day at a House select committee hearing on Thursday, people familiar with the plan said.
Mr Pottinger, who was at the White House for most of the day of the riot, is one of the live witnesses at the hearing, which is expected to focus on the more than three hours Mr Trump watched unfold violence without taking any substantive steps to withdraw his supporters, even as they threatened Vice President Mike Pence.
Mr Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary who also resigned on January 6, are expected to help recount what transpired in the West Wing during those 187 minutes in a hearing the committee sees capping a series of public sessions in which he detailed Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in office despite his defeat and how they led to the storming of the Capitol.
The hearing, scheduled for 8 p.m., is expected to give a detailed account of how Mr Trump has resisted numerous pleas from officials, lawyers and even his own family to call off the attack.
Mr Pottinger declined to comment. Ms. Matthews and a spokesman for the commission did not respond to requests for comment. Their scheduled appearances were previously reported by CNN.
Key takeaways from the January 6 hearings
Ms. Matthews is expected to talk about, among other things, efforts to get Mr. Trump to make a statement, people familiar with the planning said.
Mr Pottinger, like Ms Matthews, had previously given a videotaped interview to the committee describing what he saw that day. Excerpts from both of their interviews were played at hearings the committee held in recent weeks.
The committee said it would use the hearing to expose Mr Trump’s “dereliction of duty” that day.
Among the things Mr. Pottinger discussed with the committee was his visit to the Oval Office when the riot was underway sometime after 3 p.m., while Mr. Trump was in the small dining room next door, according to a person familiar with the matter. his interview.
A short time earlier, Mr Pottinger received a call from Charles Cooperman, a former deputy national security adviser in the Trump White House, who relayed a message obtained by an intermediary saying the mayor of Washington was trying to contact The White House to have the National Guard deployed, according to a former senior White House official.
Mr. Pottinger told the committee that he had not seen Mr. Trump, but that he had spoken to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and informed him that a former colleague of his had said that the National Guard was not yet arrived at the Capitol.
Mr. Pottinger told the committee that Mr. Meadows, looking frustrated, responded by saying he had made several calls to a senior Pentagon official to send the National Guard to Capitol Hill, according to the person familiar with his testimony.
Mr Pottinger resigned shortly afterwards; he told the committee he did so after Mr. Trump issued a tweet attacking Mr. Pence as the riot unfolded. Mr. Pottinger stayed a few hours during the night so that he could do some work before he left.
A video of another former White House official, White House adviser Pat A. Cipollone, is also expected to be used to narrate the day, a third person familiar with the plans said.
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