Without testimony from former President Donald Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence, the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot focused its efforts on young Trump administration officials whose testimonies worked for the committee.
“We are definitely taking advantage of the fact that most high-ranking officials in Washington depend on many young staff and subordinates to do something,” Commissioner Jamie Ruskin, a former federal prosecutor, told Politico on Monday.
“Many of these people still have an intact ethic and do not want to waste the rest of their careers on other people’s mistakes and corruption.”
With weeks to go before the investigation is suspended, a House of Representatives committee is trying to obtain any information about last year’s attack on the Capitol building ahead of a public hearing in June.
“We are definitely taking advantage of the fact that most high-ranking officials in Washington depend on very young associates and subordinates to do something,” said Jamie Ruskin, a spokesman for the House of Representatives commission investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Above, an aide handed out MAGA hats to supporters ahead of a speech by then-President Donald Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on August 14, 2020. Jim Watson / AFP
Investigators have interviewed nearly 1,000 people – including key members of the Trump family such as Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner – but have not yet requested the presence of the former president or his vice president.
Now the committee says it may not even have to call Trump or Pence, thanks to lower-level aides and White House officials who were aware of sensitive meetings and were not on the commission’s original list.
Among the younger employees are Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows; Greg Jacob, Pence’s chief adviser in the vice president’s office; Ben Williamson, another longtime Meadows aide; Ken Klukowski, adviser to former Justice Department employee Jeffrey; and Alexandra Preight, a spokeswoman for Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
“Almost all, if not all, of the meetings Mr. Trump had, I had an idea,” Hutchinson told the committee in February and March.
Even those who were not in the room during the summits were able to help with the investigation through written correspondence, said Commissioner Pete Aguilar’s spokesman.
“The beauty of emails and meetings is that not many of them are from the chief to the director. Many of them involve staff, “Aguilar told Politico.
Officials were able to provide the commission with information on efforts to overturn the 2020 election results – including who was in the Oval Office on January 6 and at what time certain phone calls were made – which investigators could only get from central players themselves.
“Washington is a place where decision-makers will make decisions, but staff is needed to implement and enforce them,” Ruskin said. “These people are not bound by the kind of compromising political biases that their bosses are.
Last month, committee chairman Benny Thompson said that while the group “initially thought it would be important” to interview Pence, “there are many things on this day that we know – we know the people who tried to get him to change his mind about the count and all that, so what do we need? “
Thompson said the committee assessed[s]”lesser-known witnesses to testify” knowledge and information about what happened before January 6. “
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