Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if “there will be witnesses who describe actual conversations between these extremist groups and someone in Trump’s orbit?” Representative Benny Thompson replied: “Yes.
“Obviously, you’re going to have to go through the hearings, but we have a number of witnesses who have come forward that people haven’t talked to before, which will document a lot of things that happened in Trump’s orbit while it was happening. “Said the Mississippi Democrat.
Thompson did not specify the nature of the talks, although evidence gathered in the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys cases of the Justice Department shows that both groups have been close to some right-wing VIPs, especially those they believe provide Voluntary “security” for 5 and 6 January 2021
Joshua James, a guardian of the oath who pleaded guilty to a rebel conspiracy, drove Roger Stone, for example. Stone also has close ties to prominent members of the Proud Boys, going back years. During the riot, some oath keepers discussed trying to help Republican Ronnie Jackson – though they didn’t know who they were in contact with to find out about Jackson’s status. And according to other evidence in the Guardians of the Oath case, a lawyer working with the group discussed keeping in touch with people around Trump’s campaign during a recorded conference call in November 2020. However, not all contacts are described so explicitly. An oath guard said as part of his guilty plea that he had witnessed the group’s leader, Stuart Rhodes, call an unnamed man on the night of Jan. 6 and want to speak directly to Trump. The man did not commit. Thompson’s comments came after the committee held its first prime-time hearing, detailing the findings of its investigation and releasing a new video of behind-the-scenes testimony from members of Trump’s team depicting violence in the Capitol. The committee briefed the American public on two of the country’s most militant far-right extremist groups that attended on January 6: The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
These groups were at the forefront of the revolt. They were among the first to break into the building and are accused of planning violence.
Explaining the committee’s approach to the hearings, Thompson told Tapper that “everything the audience heard tonight is a fact. We can prove it. we wear only what we can prove. “
“So, we released the tweets from the president. We posted a video of the president, “he continued. “We put everything in order, but we put it in such a way that the public can now see that even when the president was told by the chief of police that he had appointed a prosecutor general, he was not to blame for the election. Apparently, the people he listened to were not reputable when it came to examining the evidence. So the president blew it out and started listening to people who had no real basis on the issue. “
Thursday’s hearing was the first in a series this month that will highlight findings from the commission’s investigation, which includes interviews with more than 1,000 people about how Trump and his team tried to overturn the 2020 election results on various fronts.
Marshall Cohen and Zachary Cohen of CNN contributed to this report.
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