January 6 Hearings (Still Photo Courtesy of PBS)

The Associated Press reports the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump’s most inner circle, the January 6th committee provided gripping detail in contending that Trump’s repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden’s victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy

The hearings may not change Americans’ views on the Capitol attack, but the panel’s investigation is intended to stand as its public record. Ahead of this fall’s midterm elections, and with Trump considering another White House run, the committee’s final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814, and to ensure such an attack never happens again.

Testimony showed Thursday how Trump desperately clung to his own false claims of election fraud, beckoning supporters to the Capitol on January 6 when Congress would certify the results, despite those around him insisting Biden had won the election.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr in videotaped testimony said: “I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen..”

In another videotaped interview, the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified to the committee that she respected Barr’s view that there was no election fraud.

Others showed leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys preparing to storm the Capitol to stand up for Trump. One rioter after another told the committee they came to the Capitol because Trump asked them to.

“President Trump summoned a violent mob,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel’s vice chair who took the lead for much of the hearing. “When a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union — or worse, causes a constitutional crisis — we’re in a moment of maximum danger for our republic.”

There was an audible gasp in the hearing room when Cheney read an account that said when Trump was told the Capitol mob was chanting for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged for refusing to block the election results. Trump responded that maybe they were right, that he “deserves it.”

At another point it was disclosed that Republican Representative Scott Perry, a leader of efforts to object to the election results, had sought a pardon from Trump, which would protect him from prosecution.

When asked about the White House lawyers threatening to resign over what was happening in the administration, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner scoffed they were “whining.”

Police officers who had fought off the mob consoled one another as they sat in the committee room reliving the violence they faced on January 6.

The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.

Biden, in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, said many viewers were “going to be seeing for the first time a lot of the detail that occurred.”

Trump, unapologetic, dismissed the investigation anew — and even declared on social media that January 6 “represented the greatest movement in the history of our country.”

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tweeted: “All. Old. News.”

Emotions are still raw at the Capitol, and security was tight. Law enforcement officials are reporting a spike in violent threats against members of Congress.

Against this backdrop, the committee was speaking to a divided America. Most TV networks carried the hearing live, but Fox News Channel did not.

Among those testifying was documentary maker Nick Quested, who filmed the Proud Boys storming the Capitol — along with a pivotal meeting between the group’s then-chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, the night before in a nearby parking garage.

Court documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were discussing as early as November a need to fight to keep Trump in office. Leaders of both groups and some members have since been indicted on rare sedition charges over the military-style attack.

In the weeks ahead, the panel is expected to detail Trump’s public campaign to “Stop the Steal” and the private pressure he put on the Justice Department to reverse his election loss — despite dozens of failed court cases attesting there was no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the results in his favor.

The panel faced obstacles from its start. Republicans blocked the formation of an independent body that could have investigated the January 6 assault the way the 9/11 Commission probed the 2001 terror attack.

Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ushered the creation of the 1/6 panel through Congress and rejected Republican-appointed lawmakers who had voted on January 6 against certifying the election results, eventually naming seven Democrats and two Republicans.

The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.

Daniel Scavino, Peter Navarro

NPR reports the U.S. House voted Wednesday to hold former Trump White House aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt of Congress after they defied subpoenas from the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The move comes after the Democratic-led panel last month approved a contempt report against Navarro, the former trade adviser, and Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff.

The 220-203 floor vote, cast largely along party lines, triggers a series of steps to send the criminal referrals to the U.S. attorney’s office, leaving the Justice Department to decide whether it will pursue prosecution.

Congressman Tom Reed said in a weekly media call prior to the vote that he would not be supporting the vote. He said he voted for a bipartisan committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol and that’s not what was approved, “And once Speaker Pelosi elected not to recognize the Republican members that were elected to represent us on that committee, they went down this partisan path of the January 6 committee today. And as I look at this, that has contaminated this entire process and therefore I will not be supporting this sanction today.”

Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the only two Republicans appointed to serve on the select committee, were the only two from their party to vote for the referral.
Wednesday’s floor vote marks the third for a criminal contempt referral effort tied to the January 6 committee’s work. Previously, the House has approved criminal referrals for ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

So far, the Justice Department has only pursued prosecution for one of those cases, Bannon, who is now battling related criminal charges.

In each case, a subpoenaed witness could face up a year in jail for each contempt charge, plus fines of up to $1,000 each.