Thread by @SethAbramson

(🧵) LIVE THREAD: I’m now live-tweeting today’s (Tuesday’s) 1PM ET House January 6 Committee hearing. I’m a lawyer, journalist and historian who’s been contacted by the Committee and whose J6-focused substack—PROOF—the Committee has cited. I hope you’ll RETWEET and follow along.

1/ At times I may make reference in this thread to evidence previously published in the nearly 200 reports on January 6 that appear at PROOF (link below). About half of these reports are free at PROOF, while the other half are for subscribers ($5/month). sethabramson.substack.com

2/ This live thread is of course free. If, as you follow it from now until 4:00PM, you feel moved to use the tip jar in my bio (see image below for location) I appreciate it, even as I add that it is—as ever—100% optional. You can also tip via PayPal here: sethabramson.net/pp

3/ The House January 6 Committee hearing today is—as most of you know—a surprise. There wasn’t supposed to be another in June. But the Committee said it had new info requiring a televised hearing with a live witness. We learned last night that the witness is Cassidy Hutchinson.

4/ Cassidy Hutchinson was a senior aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows was subpoenaed by the House January 6 Committee, partially complied with his subpoena, ceased complying, was referred for Criminal Contempt by Congress, and was excused from a charge by DOJ.

5/ In the potential prosecution of an ex-president, few if any witnesses could be more important than his chief of staff. Meadows has been made unaccountable to Congress by the actions of the DOJ—inexplicably, I would add—but getting his former senior aide is a major achievement.

6/ Hutchinson had access to a significant percentage of the info Meadows had in his possession on and before January 6, as she shadowed him through much of his daily schedule. Remember that she was (maybe is) an ardent GOP supporter, so Meadows trusted her with sensitive info.

7/ As PROOF readers know, Trump’s modus operandi as a career criminal has been to ensure that anyone who can testify against him is represented by a lawyer he trusts and in some cases one he *shares*. In the past, this allowed him to tamper with federal witnesses with impunity.

8/ This was the situation with Hutchinson, as she was formerly represented by a “Trumpworld” lawyer. The other benefit of Trump treating lawyers—including others’ lawyers—as co-conspirators and his personal agents is that he *knows* the *second* a loyal soldier “leaves the fold.”

9/ When Hutchinson dropped her Trumpworld lawyer—who’d advised her to not cooperate with Congress and risk imprisonment to aid Trump—the death threats began. Presumably, her dropping the lawyer Trump wanted her to have led to word getting out that she was now seen as a turncoat.

10/ For this reason, the House January 6 Committee announced that it has security concerns regarding Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony. Special measures have been taken for today’s hearing, including clearing the front row of the hearing room for security personnel of various kinds.

11/ This isn’t just scary—it may be a sign of things to come. Anyone seen as a) owing loyalty to Trump, but also b) participating in efforts to hold this career criminal accountable for the first time in his life, will face real repercussions. That includes assassination threats.

12/ So how interested is the House January 6 Committee in Hutchinson’s testimony? Well, the fact that a special session has been called just for her to testify—she’s also bringing several lawyers and guests, the HJ6C says—should give some indication. But we do have a few others.

13/ First, Hutchinson has met with the Committee *3 times*, suggesting that she may have given the Committee up to 24 hours of testimony (almost certainly less, but either way, a *lot*). There are few if any witnesses who have given so much testimony to the HJ6C. That’s telling.

14/ Second, CNN reported last night that within just the last few weeks the Committee opened a "new" line of inquiry with Hutchinson that’s proved incredibly fruitful. This suggests that the Committee just started asking Hutchinson about a *new topic* it recently began pursuing.

15/ One of the *only* "new" lines of inquiry we know the Committee began pursuing in just the last few weeks—in earnest, at least—is the possibility that Ginni Thomas (a friend and ally of Meadows who was in regular contact with him pre-insurrection) was a leading coup plotter.

16/ For those who missed it, PROOF just published its third major exclusive report on Ginni Thomas and Clarence Thomas (🔐). It was published last night and has since gone viral, as it offers critical new details about Ginni Thomas’s role in January 6. sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-new…

17/ The Committee is also expressing more interest than before in the possibility that the Trumps expected and welcomed violence on January 6—everything from a British filmmaker saying Eric Trump told him inciting violence was "fair game" to Trump approving of Pence being hanged.

18/ So Hutchinson may also have recently been asked by the HJ6C about conversations she overheard at the White House that relate to violence. (Note: we had a report within the last three weeks revealing that Mark Meadows had advance warning that violence was coming on January 6.)

19/ A *third* sign that the Committee is very interested in Hutchinson is that she has repeatedly been featured in the hearings so far (via video depo). She was particularly useful in speaking about which GOP House members sought pardons—another new area of interest for the HJ6C.

20/ This said, the very fact that the Committee has already repeatedly used Hutchinson’s depos in the past—to great effect—suggests that they want her to talk about one of these *new* lines of inquiry today. Otherwise there would be no purpose in switching over to live testimony.

21/ And remember that the Committee has gone to great lengths to make today happen—it clearly believes it has bombshells to offer even bigger than the *many* it has already offered via video and other testimony. It called a special session, is letting her appear with lawyers...

22/ ...made a point of the fact that she would be arriving with "guests" (we don’t yet know what that means), put her in protective custody, kept her identity secret, is taking special precautions in the hearing room—it all suggests that this *isn’t* going to be more of the same.

23/ A fourth indication that the Committee is especially invested in Hutchinson is that, per a CNN report, they clearly made her feel she *would* receive a Criminal Contempt referral to DOJ if she did not cooperate. It was this—in part—that caused her to fire her first lawyer.

24/ I would note, fifth, that if you compare Hutchinson to almost any other witness who has testified *live*, she stands in a class of her own: someone who was repeatedly in the physical presence of Donald Trump and his top agent in Washington, Mark Meadows. That’s simply *huge*.

25/ There’ll also be much speculation about why the Committee felt it had to conduct this testimony *right now*—rather than waiting until July. Does it have to do with anticipated future actions by DOJ? Is it a response to DOJ letting Meadows off the hook? We can only speculate.

26/ All this said, we *do* have *some* idea of *some* things the Committee wants her to speak on. CNN reported last night that Hutchinson has testimony about—among many other things—Rudy Giuliani and Meadows discussing the coup plot (the "Green Bay Sweep") well before January 6.

27/ This is key because—remember—Giuliani was working with Eastman, who was in contact with Ginni Thomas at the time, and Meadows was in contact with his friend and ally Ginni Thomas during that period also. This is one example of the "domino effect" today’s testimony could have.

28/ It is always important to remember that in a criminal investigation you are not only focused on what someone says and what it means, but how the evidence provided to you by one witness—material or testimonial—can then lead to *new* investigative leads, witnesses, or evidence.

29/ CNN also reported (as I implied above in the thread) that Hutchinson *may* be the witness who heard Trump say—either first-hand or by it being relayed to her contemporaneously by her boss, Meadows—that he though it might be just and proper for the Vice President to be hanged.

30/ Kaitlin Collins (CNN) gives a good summary of how close Hutchinson was to the action (and remember throughout the day today that Hutchinson is another example of the Committee using a *loyal Trump Republican* to present evidence and *not* a Democrat):

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1541817271298949121?s=20&t=rY3DVwq3jZ3RGDWM0EtUEQ

31/ I’ll say that I’m personally interested—though I don’t know if it’ll be part of this hearing or not—in whether Hutchinson can or will or does testify to any federal witness tampering orchestrated by Donald Trump or his agents. It is a serious crime and would be true to form.

32/ As to what I am (as an attorney and journalist and former criminal investigator) *less* interest in than some others, I would say this: pardon requests. First, because Hutchinson already testified to this, and second because we need evidence of what members of Congress *did*.

33/ By the same token—and perhaps more controversially—I’m less interested in Trump’s offhand vocal expressions of heinous opinions (e.g., regarding Pence) as while they *do* help establish his state of mind and criminal intent, they also leave a false impression that worries me.

34/ The impression that many Americans have is that *with respect to the violence on January 6*—as differentiated from the many criminal phone calls and meetings Trump held regarding DOJ, electors, state legislators and Pence—all the Committee has is (a) words, and (b) omissions.

35/ Some people believe that, besides Trump’s January 6 speech, his private comments, and his unwillingness to call out the Guard or tweet admonishment of his armed and violent supporters—all of which *do matter*, and a *lot*—Trump did nothing to further the events of January 6.

36/ In fact, and this is quite legally significant, Trump engaged in *other overt acts* that furthered a seditious conspiracy actively rather than passively—which while we already *know* with respect to DOJ and Pence (et. al.), is *also* true with respect to the January 6 attack.

37/ This said, one reason we haven’t heard much about these acts yet is that—well—the Committee hasn’t gotten to that point in its narrative yet! That is the subject of at least two upcoming July hearings. But I do wonder if it could partly be a subject of *today’s* hearing, too.

38/ My point is that a lot of analysts are looking at today’s Hutchinson hearing and hoping for either more of the same type of evidence we have already heard or an amped up version of that type of evidence.

*I* will be more excited if we move to even *graver* forms of evidence.

39/ So as you follow this live thread, this is one thing I hope you’ll watch out for: do we just get live testimony about things we already knew, and/or more corroboration of the *types* of evidence we already have, or do we get evidence that is new in *kind* as well as *degree*?

40/ That Hutchinson is appearing with multiple lawyers and—again, though we don’t know what this means—"guests" *could* suggest we are going to get something even more extraordinary than we expect. But I guess we’ll see.

The hearing will be gaveled in in 5 minutes. Stay tuned.

41/ Note that—not that it matters—Trump loyalists are now trying to pull the "coffee boy" routine on Hutchinson that they pulled with George Papadopoulos during the Russia probe.

Uh, *no*.

Hutchinson was inches away from the center of power—she was at the heart of *everything*.

42/ I’ll also note that CNN is issuing two reports in advance of this hearing:

(1) A Committee rep told CNN that "a lot that is new" will come out today.

(2) Some of the new evidence the Committee got from Hutchinson *may* result to info recently gotten from her personal phone.

43/ There’s also some reporting indicating Hutchinson can offer more info on the *truly terrifying* internal coup attempt at DOJ we heard about last Thursday. I would point people again to the PROOF report linked to above in this thread—it has links/info on this you really need.

44/ The hearing has just been gavelled open.

45/ Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) begins by summarizing the January 6 conspiracy and notes that *new* evidence has been received about exactly what was going on inside the White House *on January 6* and in the days immediately before January 6. He says America needs the info *now*.

46/ For the first time, Committee Chair Thompson references there being an extensive "cover-up" attempt that is ongoing within Trumpworld *right now*, which certainly makes me think that there have been provable attempts to *tamper* with Cassidy Hutchinson as a federal witness.

47/ Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is noting how prominent a Republican Hutchinson has been for a long time, implying that she is known and respected and trusted by many—including many Republicans. She says Hutchinson is testifying on "several important, cross-cutting topics."

48/ Hutchinson used to work for House leadership (Scalise).

The first potential bombshell: Cheney implies that Hutchinson has information about activities inside the *Secret Service*.

She implies that Hutchinson has so much to say that it cannot and will not all come out today.

49/ Cheney says that Hutchinson will testify about the knowledge people in the White House had about the January 6 violence "before it happened."

Whoa.

50/ Cheney is clear in saying that Cassidy Hutchinson can testify not just to the words and actions of her former boss, Mark Meadows, but also the former President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Thompson will begin the questioning.

51/ Thompson starts by showing pictures of Hutchinson’s career, including how close she often was to Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, Kevin McCarthy... basically *everyone* atop the Republican Party. There was also a picture of her aboard Air Force One. She is a key player.

52/ Hutchinson has started speaking. She is obviously nervous, but in the good way—I say this as a former trial attorney who has called and questioned *many* in-court witnesses—that makes you trust what she is saying as honest and earnest.

53/ Thompson’s questions are intended to establish how central to the operation of the White House Hutchinson was. She says she was in contact with Meadows all day, every day. I am not yet sure who will be doing the "main" questioning, but likely not Thompson.

54/ The Committee is establishing that Hutchinson’s daily office was *5-10 seconds away* from the Oval Office. Even closer to the Vice President’s Office, Kushner’s office, and—of course—Meadows’ office.

Cheney has started her questions. And her first question is about Giuliani.

55/ Giuliani told Hutchinson that January 6 would be great—that Trump would be going up to the Capitol in person. When she asked Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (her boss) about it, Meadows warned Hutchinson that things could get "real, real bad" on January 6.

Wow.

56/ Hutchinson said that after speaking to Meadows she was "scared and nervous" about January 6, even as Giuliani was very enthusiastic about what was going to happen. Cheney is now asking about a December 2020 conversation Hutchinson had with DNI Ratcliffe (former House member).

57/ Ratcliffe told Hutchinson he believed January 6 could "spiral out of control" and become "dangerous for our democracy." Ratcliffe was the head of intelligence for the Trump administration—a major national security player in Washington pre-insurrection.

58/ When the nation’s chief national security official is warning people openly that things are about to "spiral out of control" and get "dangerous" and that Trump should "concede" the 2020 election, that should have terrified every single person in the Trump Administration.

59/ January 4 national security email from Deputy Acting AG Richard Donoghue: Trump intel apparatus knew that Trump supporters planned to occupy federal buildings and storm the Capitol on January 6. This information would have been widely known inside the White House.

60/ Hutchinson said that "when [Trump’s personal lawyer] Giuliani was around" in the White House *pre-insurrection*, should would suddenly hear the phrases "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keepers" repeated frequently in conversation.

Um... holy sh*t?

61/ Hutchinson is confirming PROOF reports that Tony Ornato (former Secret Service, then made a political appointee atop White House security) had told Mark Meadows before January 6 that things would get violent on Capitol Hill on January 6.

*Trump knew the violence was coming*.

62/ Ornato had "intel reports" about "potential violence" on January 6 that were distributed in the White House. On Insurrection Eve Ornato had further reports about weapons inside D.C. among January 6 protesters. It is clear that the *whole White House knew* violence was coming.

63/ OMG—the Secret Service confiscated *so many weapons* from the people it admitted to the White House Ellipse speech, knowing that *thousands* of people were in areas that didn’t require them to go through magnetometers. The Secret Service knew there were *AR-15s* in the crowd.

64/ The Secret Service audio from January 6—truly shocking—is being played. Security emergency after security emergency is being relayed throughout the Secret Service *hours before Trump spoke* due to men with pistols, AR-15, and ballistic equipment and armor.

This is...insane.

65/ Hutchinson confirms that Ornato relayed to Meadows *before Trump spoke*—at 10AM on January 6—that "knives and guns and spears and flagpoles and bear spray and armor" were present throughout the crowd Trump was about to speak to. There is no way Trump was not told all of this.

66/ Hutchinson indicates that Meadows was clearly trying to ignore Ornato’s warnings—Meadows did not want to know about active threats throughout the Trump crowd. But (but!) Ornato *confirmed to Meadows* that he had told Trump about all of the security threats.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

67/ Hutchinson says that Meadows refused to act on any of the security threats he *and his boss*—Trump—had been told about. Anthony Ornato was telling Hutchinson that the reason some people would not get closer to Trump as he spoke was *they wanted to avoid the metal detectors*.

68/ Trump was merely "furious" about certain spaces not being full in the television "shot" that the news would show.

Trump was angry that the Secret Service would not let in people with weapons. He told the USSS "take the fucking mags away"—he *wanted* armed people marching.

69/ According to Hutchinson, Trump said he didn't care how many weapons the mob had "because they're not here to hurt me." He said they were there to march on Congress—with weapons—and that was fine with him.

This is the biggest political bombshell America has ever heard.

Ever.

70/ I am speechless. This is a horrifying historic moment.

71/ Donald Trump wanted all the magnetometers removed so that more of the mob listening to his speech at a close distance would be holding AR-15s and pistols. Trump was angry that the armed people in the mob would not be able to get closer to him because of the "fucking mags."

72/ The Secret Service knew as the armed mob approached the Capitol that the Capitol defenders were undermanned. She’s saying that not only did Trump want armed insurrectionists marching on Congress but that the administration knew the Capitol wasn’t prepared for an armed attack.

73/ Meadows continued to ignore all warnings about potential violence. It is clear that he had resigned himself to the violence well in advance of it, presumably because he understood that this was the plan Trump and Giuliani had as to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers all along.

74/ Hutchinson is now testifying to desperate attempts to change Trump’s speech beforehand to exclude references he ultimately put back in—because he and others had been warned that there could be legal consequences for things he was planning to say about "fighting for me" (etc).

75/ Hutchinson is now confirming PROOF reporting that Trump *did plan to go to the Capitol* on January 6, which confirms his coordination with the Stop the Steal terrorists that Trump and his supporters have denied for months. All the PROOF reporting on this is confirmed by this.

76/ Hutchinson is testifying about a conversation she had with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone about Trump going to the Capitol. Cipollone was trying to stop this from happening because of "serious legal concerns." Meadows appeared to be facilitating Trump going to the Capitol.

77/ Cipollone said the White House would be charged "with every crime imaginable" if Trump went to the Capitol.

I want to state here that it is worse than that: had Trump gone to the Capitol he would have been leading an armed force in a hot civil war. A nightmare of nightmares.

78/ Cipollone agreed at the time. He told Hutchinson "inciting a riot" would be a charge faced by Trump if he went to the Capitol.

Trump aide Max Miller is confirming Hutchinson’s account: Trump wanted to drive to the Capitol. Trump aide Nick Luna says Trump wanted to *march*.

79/ Trump only backed off his plan once he knew the Capitol was already being attacked—in other words, he was not needed to ensure that that would happen.

80/ Kevin McCarthy called Hutchinson *furious* about Trump saying in his speech he was going up to the Capitol. He called in real time—right when Trump said it—saying "you promised me he wasn't going to do this, you lied to me. Do not come up here!" McCarthy knew the threat, too.

81/ Hutchinson says Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Rudy Giuliani were part of the many conversations about Trump going up to the Capitol on January 6. It’s clear from this evidence that Trump had a long-term and detailed plan to try to incite an armed crowd in person at the Capitol.

82/ Hutchinson spoke to Ornato in the White House as soon as Trump returned from his January 6 speech. Ornato told Hutchinson that on the drive from the Ellipse to the White House Trump was under the impression that they were *driving to the Capitol*.

83/ "I’M THE FUCKING PRESIDENT! TAKE ME UP TO THE CAPITOL NOW!" Trump yelled at the Secret Service *and tried to grab the steering wheel* and then *physically attacked the Secret Service* to try to stop them from taking him to the White House.

I *swear* I am not making this up.

84/ This is literally the most batshit thing I have ever heard uttered by any witness under oath in any case I have ever seen.

And it is clearly 100% true and corroborated.

85/ Kayleigh McEnany is now testifying (via video depo) for the first time, confirming that Trump planned to *march* to the Capitol.

Apparently, Trump ultimately blamed Meadows for blocking him from going to the Capitol (it actually appears that it was the U.S. Secret Service).

86/ "Bobby" is the Secret Service agent Trump physically assaulted in the Beast (his presidential vehicle) on January 6. I missed whether a last name was given.

87/ Trump threw a (full) plate at the wall when he heard the AP interview with the AG in which Barr said there was no systemic fraud in the election. Hutchinson was warned not to go anywhere near the president due to his level of anger. (Hutchinson said Trump often threw dishes.)

88/ Stories are being told of Trump’s extremely violent, scary temper. A lot of breaking of public property and unnerving those around him.

The Committee is in a brief recess.

This may be the most stunning public hearing in American history. I am not kidding—this is staggering.

89/ Honestly some watching this hearing will think that a warrant for Trump’s arrest should be issued *today*.

And no one could blame them. At all.

90/ CNN is calling today’s testimony "obscene," "shocking," "worse than we ever imagined."

"Everyone" and "Trump" knew that "violence was coming."

CNN lawyer Laura Coates says the testimony clearly and unambiguously indicates Trump committed criminal acts—"premeditated" ones.

91/ "Arrest Trump" is now trending on Twitter—and it is in no way facetious or casual or half-hearted. If you watched what I just watched, you *do* think Trump that must be arrested now. Today. Without any delay other than the securing of a properly signed federal arrest warrant.

92/ I’m trying to even *process* that there’s at least an hour more of this hearing to go.

What could be worse than we’ve already heard?

93/ Update: the assaulted Secret Service agent’s name is Robert (Bobby) Engel.

CNN legal analysis is now saying that Trump faces a "long" list of criminal charges.

94/ I said at the start of this thread that I hoped we’d hear a new type of evidence: Trump’s actions and directives.

That’s just what we got. Again, I don’t even know how to properly summarize my thoughts on what we just heard. Watergate is no longer in the conversation—at all.

95/ The *mob* was violent on January 6? We now know *the President of the United States* was violent on January 6! And he used force to advance *precisely* the same aim as the armed and violent rioters at the Capitol. Do we now have to call Trump a "January 6 rioter"? Maybe? Yes?

96/ CNN legal analyst: "These are the actions of a tyrant."

97/ I no longer see any way for former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to avoid testifying publicly. It would be obscene if America did not hear from him now.

Rep. Thompson is gavelling the hearing back in. Stay tuned.

98/ Cheney continues her questioning. She is focusing on Meadows and *Roger Stone* and *Michael Flynn* on January 5. This is information PROOF has repeatedly focused on over the last 18 months, resulting in a threat of a lawsuit by Flynn.

99/ On Insurrection Eve, Trump ordered Meadows to contact Roger Stone and Michael Flynn by phone. Meadows called Stone and Flynn.

100/ Hutchinson does not know what was said in those two calls. Giuliani and Eastman had a war room at the Willard Hotel. Meadows wanted to work with the Secret Service to set up *him going to the war room personally* on Insurrection Eve. Hutchinson urged Meadows not to go there.

101/ Instead, Mark Meadows "dialed in" to the Willard Hotel war room on Insurrection Eve—confirming PROOF reporting that the White House would use conference calls to call into war rooms. I have been reporting on this at PROOF for almost a year and a half.

102/ We are now watching the coward Michael Flynn take the Fifth Amendment repeatedly, *including* on whether he "believes in the peaceful transfer of power in America."

103/ Hutchinson says that even after a riot was declared at the U.S. Capitol at 1:49PM on January 6, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was just sitting in his office staring at his phone doing and saying *nothing*.

104/ Hutchinson saw Pat Cipollone begging Meadows to go with him to talk to Trump after the Capitol was breached. "He doesn't want to do anything, Pat," Meadows replied.

JFC.

105/ Hutchinson encountered Meadows in the presidential dining room (to tell him Rep. Jordan was on the phone). She heard the conversation in the dining room, which was about the "HANG MIKE PENCE" chant. Meadows, Cipollone, and maybe Hershmann came back to her office and...

106/ ...heard Pat trying to urge Meadows to do something about the possible imminent assassination of the Vice President. Meadows: "You heard it, Pat. He [Trump] thinks Mike [Pence] deserves it [to be hanged]. He doesn't think they [the rioters] are doing anything wrong."

JFC.

107/ This conversation between Meadows, Cipollone, and Trump *preceded* Trump’s 2:24PM tweet inciting violence against Pence. Hutchinson says that her response to that tweet was to be "disgusted" by Trump’s "un-American, unpatriotic" conduct—which was based (she says) on a "lie."

108/ Cheney is now playing video of other White House advisers’ responses to the Trump tweet about Pence at 2:24PM on January 6. One man (Matt Pottinger, former Trump deputy national security adviser) immediately decided to resign his position at the White House.

109/ Hutchinson says there were 3 camps in the White House on January 6 as to a response:

1. White House Counsel’s Office and Ivanka: he needs to take action immediately.
2. A "neutral" group—toeing the line re: Trump not wanting to do anything.
3. The "deflect and blame" camp.

110/ Hutchinson says that Meadows was in the "deflect and blame" camp (specifically "blame antifa") for much of the time, though he drifted toward the second group and possibly up to (but not quite at) the first as the hours went on on January 6.

111/ The White House Counsel’s Office tried to get Trump to issue a statement about "illegal" conduct at the Capitol but the president refused.

112/ Apparently Ivanka did try to get her dad to do something—and though she is the only person in the world besides himself he cares about, he refused her. Over and over and over. That tells you how far gone and criminally deranged he was on January 6 (he also ignored Don Jr.).

113/ Cheney is showing video/audio of Republican after Republican after Republican *begging* Trump—in real time—to say something to stop the attack on the Capitol. Trump ignored every single plea. It is hard to emphasize how many pleas he ignored on January 6. Trump did nothing.

114/ Even when Trump put out a video statement at 4:17PM—187 minutes after the attack—Hutchinson says Trump was reluctant" to even film that video (in which Trump called the people in the Capitol "evil").

115/ Cheney has turned to Cabinet conversations about using the 25th Amendment for the first time in U.S. history to strip the powers of the presidency from Trump.

116/ Sean Hannity texted Meadows saying that his information told him that the conversations about the 25th Amendment were "real" and ongoing.

117/ On January 7, Trump lawyer Philbin wrote a statement for Trump that was reviewed by the White House Counsel’s Office. Trump resisted releasing *any* statement on January 6, let alone the one his own lawyer had written for him. "He didn’t think he needed to do anything more."

118/ Specifically, Trump wanted no mention of prosecuting any January 6 rioters in his speech; instead he wanted language about *pardoning* rioters. He told his advisers the attackers did nothing wrong—that the only person who did anything wrong on January 6 was *VP Mike Pence.*

119/ Apparently a primary reason Trump issued *any* statement on January 7 is because he was worried about being removed from office under the 25th Amendment. The statement was intended as—Hutchinson says—"cover."

120/ Apparently Mark Meadows *encouraged* Trump to put language about pardoning rioters in his January 7 speech.

121/ Hutchinson: Giuliani said he wanted a pardon.

Hutchinson: Meadows said he wanted a pardon.

122/ Rep. Cheney is giving a closing statement commending Hutchinson for her courage. But Cheney says that the Committee now has evidence that federal witnesses are being contacted by their former Trump Administration colleagues trying to influence their testimony.

*Tampering*.

123/ One of the emails Cheney is showing strongly implies that Donald Trump used an intermediary to commit the federal crime of witness tampering.

Thompson is now speaking, thanking Hutchinson for her testimony and her courage. He is openly asking more witnesses to come forward.

124/ Rep. Thompson says he is hoping witnesses will "remember" things they previously said they "forgot" and/or rediscover a "courage" they did not know they had. The Committee *clearly* has certain witnesses in mind (Pat Cipollone is only one).

The hearing is now adjourned.

(📢) FEED NOTE: This concludes this feed’s sixth June 2022 January 6 live thread. If you’d like to leave a tip in any amount for these threads, you can click the tip button in my bio or use PayPal here: sethabramson.net/pp

Today was a historic—harrowing—day for all of us.