What did we learn about the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol after the second public hearing? What’s next?
Donald Trump’s team was the centre of the second hearing and their relationship with events at the riot.
On day two of the January 6 hearing, Donald Trump was explicitly in the firing line, including by those whomst were part of his inner circle during the riot. Video testimony was shown that proved officials in the White House at the time knew there was no evidence of election fraud despite claims from former president Trump to the contrary.
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said in his opening statement that they would “tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election, and knew he lost an election and as a result of his loss decided to wage an attack on our democracy, an attack on the American people, by trying to rob you of your voice in our democracy, and in doing so, lit the fuse that led to the horrific violence of Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.”
What was revealed at the hearing?
Several witnesses spoke on Monday and they offered some insight into what was going on in the Trump camp in the aftermath of the November 2020 election.
It was also shown that millions of dollars were raised for a so-called “Election Defense Fund” immediately after the election result. However, in a testimony from former Trump campaign staffer Hanna Allred, it was shown that the fund didn’t really exist and it was not clear where the money was going.
“I don’t believe there is actually a fund called the Election Defense Fund,” Allred testified.
It was also claimed by Liz Cheney, one of the two Democrat members of the committee, that Trump did not listen to his advisors who told him to respect the result but that he did listen to a “definitely intoxicated” Rudy Giuliani. Former Trump adviser Jason Miller corroborated this in a video but Giuliani’s lawyer dismissed this in a statement.
When is the next hearing?
The third hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, 15 June. The Committee plans to uncover President Trump’s plan “to replace the Attorney General of the United States so the US Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims.”
A further hearing will take place on Thursday.