Trump does not cooperate with commission of January 6 and appeals to Supreme Court 1:32
(CNN) -
The select committee of the House of Representatives investigating the insurrection of January 6 is showing signs that it managed to penetrate the wall of obstruction mounted by Donald Trump on what was happening inside the White House and his own family while refusing to stop the mob attack on the United States Capitol, which marks one year this week.
Revelations released Sunday by the commission's two top lawmakers reveal the truth about the violence he incited to fuel his coup attempt, which turned out to be the worst assault on American democracy in modern times.
Cheney: Jan. 6 Commission Has "First Hand Testimony" That Ivanka Asked Trump To Intervene During Uprising On Capitol Hill
Commission Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, said on CNN's "State of the Union" show that the panel has "significant testimony" showing that the White House was told to "do something" when the Crowds of Trump supporters turned on by their electoral fantasies stormed the Capitol. Wyoming Republican Vice President Liz Cheney told ABC News there are "first-hand testimonies" that Trump's daughter Ivanka, then a White House aide, asked her twice to intervene in the tumult in which the police officers were beaten by their crowd.
Thursday's anniversary will review the horrors of the attack, during which Trump had told his supporters to "fight like hell" in support of his conspiracy to steal power from Joe Biden in violation of the will of the people expressed in an election. democratic.
Why did Trump sue the commission investigating the insurrection?
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Commission penetrates Trump's obstruction wall
And now the comments from the commission's leadership shed new light on the former president's motivation for keeping the documentary evidence of his role secret on January 6, which reached the United States Supreme Court.
They also explain the refusal of several of Trump's closest aides and acolytes to speak to the commission about exactly what he was doing in the White House.
It is increasingly clear that such appearances could force them to choose between telling the truth under oath or betraying their former boss, who continues to dominate the Republican Party.
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Two of those Trump allies, his former political guru Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have already received contempt referrals to the Justice Department from the committee and the House floor.
Bannon faces trial in July.
But this week's events will also highlight that, a year later, Trump's enormous power over the Republican Party and the complicity of many of its top leaders in his lies about electoral fraud mean that American democracy is in more trouble. deep and under wider assault than ever.
Commission highlights Trump's breach of duty
Thompson and Cheney's comments will also fuel the growing impression that the commission, which conducted several hundred interviews, built a detailed behind-the-scenes picture of what transpired inside the Trump White House on an infamous day in American history. . Some of this evidence has already appeared in journalistic accounts of what happened during the insurrection. But the commission's eventual final report would have the ability to create a definitive record for history - and future voters - of the truth of the attack.
There were additional indications on Sunday that the commission is making progress on tracking funding for the Washington rally leading up to the assault, which Trump addressed with his inflammatory lies about voter fraud on Jan.6.
Thompson raised in "State of the Union" his concern about the possibility of financial fraud in connection with the event.
Analysis denies Trump's theory of alleged fraud 1:39
"We have not made those concerns public at this time. But we think it is very concerning on our part that people have raised money for an activity and we cannot find the money that was spent for that particular activity," he said.
The president also notably refused to dismiss the notion that the commission could take the extraordinary step of making a criminal referral of Trump to the Justice Department. Although it is not clear whether the full commission would agree to that measure, it would raise the possibility that the attorney general of a ruling administration will consider an indictment against the president of the former White House, an enigma that could add fuel to the problem. political hellfire in a midterm election year.
"We don't know ... If there's anything that we find as a commission that we think warrants a referral to the Justice Department, we will," Thompson told Dana Bash.
Cheney added on CBS that Trump was guilty of "gross negligence in the line of duty" and that the commission was studying whether it was necessary to "increase penalties" for such behavior, although it appeared to refer to legislation that would likely not be retroactive in relationship to Trump's conduct.
Trump would not have been "fit for office"
However, Cheney warned that Trump's conduct was so egregious that he should not be allowed to approach power again, as the former president considers a possible new attempt to reach the White House in 2024.
"This is a man who showed that he is at war with the rule of law. He showed that he is willing to break through all the barriers of democracy," Cheney said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program on Sunday.
"And he can't get anywhere near the White House again."
New images show severity of assault on Capitol 2:50
On the face of it, the commander-in-chief's refusal to intervene to stop an assault on Congress, the citadel of American democracy, during the certification process for Biden's election is a clear violation of his oath to preserve, protect, and defend. the Constitution.
But even a deeply damning report from the commission seems unlikely to break the denial dynamic in the Republican Party about Trump's transgressions.
A new poll, for example, by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland shows that only 27% of Republicans believe that the former president deserves "a lot" or "good amount" of blame for the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
These data, reflecting a year of lies by Trump and the conservative media, help explain why members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, especially, anchored their hopes of obtaining a majority in the elections of mid-term in loyalty to the insurgent ex-president.
Aside from Cheney and the other Republican on the select committee, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, much of the Republican conference is participating in or instigating the whitewashing of history.
Trump has already announced that he will give new impetus to a process that convinced millions of supporters of the lie that he was robbed of power and that he should remain president, with a press conference at his luxurious Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Thursday.
The former president plans to argue that the real insurrection took place during the November 2020 elections - which Biden won in a free and fair vote - and not on January 6, despite the attack on the Capitol taking place before the eyes of the world. and that there is no evidence of voter fraud in 2020.
"We want to verify everything," says commission president
The commission is focusing on what it says are the crucial 187 minutes between the start of the uprising on Capitol Hill and Trump issuing a message to his supporters to go home. Thompson hinted that there are indications that the former president tried to record several previous messages, but apparently his words were not up to the moment and were not released by the White House. That's one of the reasons the commission wants the Supreme Court to allow it to examine the documents, texts, emails and memos on which Biden refused to assert executive privilege but that Trump does not want released. After several previous setbacks in court,The former president appealed in the days leading up to Christmas to the conservative majority on the Supreme Court that he helped build.
Mark Meadows no longer wants to appear against Trump 1:22
"We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been ordered to do something," Thompson told Bash Sunday.
"We want to verify everything, so that when we produce our report and when we have the hearings, the public has the opportunity to see it for themselves."
The commission chairman added: "All I can say is that it is very unusual for someone in charge of something to see what is going on and do nothing."
Cheney also gave his thoughts on those crucial moments, expanding on the information contained in the books "I Alone Can Fix It," by Washington Post journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, and "Peril," by Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. .
"We know that your daughter ... we have firsthand testimony that her daughter Ivanka went at least twice to ask her to 'please stop this violence,'" Cheney told ABC News's "This Week."
Cheney's willingness to pursue the truth of January 6, which sets her apart from many of her fellow House Republicans, has led her to be ostracized from her party.
She lost a leadership position in the Republican House conference and is being challenged by a Trump-backed primary hopeful.
But he still voiced his hope on CBS Sunday that a commission attacked by Trump's allies on Capitol Hill could produce evidence with the power to change the minds of skeptics.
He also had a challenge for his party, much of which long ago chose to protect Trump and disregard the truth for political gain.
"Our party has to choose. We can be loyal to Donald Trump or we can be loyal to the Constitution, but we cannot be both," he said.
Donald trump