The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol launched a number of batches of transcripts from interviews with key staffers and allies of former President Donald Trump.
The transcripts have been launched because the committee wound down its work on the finish of the 117th Congress, earlier than Republicans officially take control of the House on Tuesday. The interviews, performed over the previous 12 months and a half, have been a part of the investigation into the Jan. 6 assault and Trump’s position within the day’s occasions.
Of their final public listening to, held on Dec. 19, the committee voted to refer to the Justice Division potential felony fees towards Trump and legal professional John Eastman.
Listed below are some key particulars from the transcripts that have been launched:
John Eastman takes the fifth
Eastman, who wrote the controversial memo that proposed that former Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to delay and even reject the certification of state electors, exercised his Fifth Modification proper towards self-incrimination at nearly each main query.
When Eastman was requested why he had written within the two-page memo that seven states had transmitted twin slates of electors regardless of indicating to The New York Instances that there we no certifications of alternate electors, he took the Fifth. He additionally took the Fifth when requested if he disagreed with former Legal professional Basic Invoice Barr’s remark that Trump’s election claims have been “bullsh**,” and when requested about feedback he made on Jan. 6.
Eastman additionally pleaded the Fifth when requested if he had suggestions to stop Jan. 6 from taking place once more.
Hope Hicks says “all of us appear like home terrorists now”
Textual content messages from Trump’s communications director Hope Hicks, considered one of his most loyal aides, were released by the choose committee on Monday.
In a single change with Julie Radford, Ivanka Trump’s chief of workers, Hicks wrote, “In someday he ended each future alternative that does not embody talking engagements on the native proud boys chapter. And all of us that did not have jobs lined up shall be perpetually unemployed. I am so mad and upset … All of us appear like home terrorists now.”
Radford responded, “oh sure, I have been crying for an hour.”
Hicks then wrote, “She has no concept this made us all unemployable … Like untouchable … God I am so f***** mad.”
Ginni Thomas: “I remorse the tone and content material” of texts with Meadows
Virginia Thomas, the spouse of Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas, attended the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021 earlier than the Capitol was breached. She additionally exchanged texts with Trump chief of workers Mark Meadows encouraging him to pursue each effort to overturn the election.
Committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., requested her if she regretted sending the texts, or simply that the texts turned public.
“I remorse the tone and content material of those texts,” Thomas mentioned. “And apart from that, it was an emotional time, and I used to be texting with a pal who I had recognized a very long time. So I actually discover my language imprudent and my selections of sending the context of those emails unlucky.”
Kellyanne Conway texted Melania Trump on Jan. 6 as a result of Trump has a “concern” of her
Trump 2016 marketing campaign supervisor and former high adviser Kellyanne Conway resigned in the summertime of 2020 however remained near the Trump household. Conway advised the committee that she was attempting to get via to Trump on Jan. 6, contacting Hicks and Trump aide Nick Luna, amongst others. Conway mentioned she additionally texted Melania Trump.
“I texted her, please — one thing to the impact of, you realize, please discuss to him, as a result of I do know he listens to her,” Conway mentioned. “He reserves — he listens to many people, however he reserves concern for one particular person, Melania Trump.”
Conway mentioned the primary woman did not reply as a result of she did not have her telephone that day.
Stephanie Grisham: Trump would by no means go to the Capitol as a result of he’s “afraid of individuals”
Melania Trump’s former chief of workers Stephanie Grisham, who additionally served as a White Home aide, advised the committee that Melania Trump misplaced her “impartial streak” within the closing weeks of the administration.
Grisham additionally mentioned that Trump and chief of workers Mark Meadows tried to fireside the usher on the White Home after Election Day as a result of he was getting ready for the transition for then-President-elect Joe Biden to maneuver in.
At one other level, Grisham mentioned that Trump wouldn’t have walked to the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a result of he’s “afraid of individuals.”
Cassidy Hutchinson: “They’ll damage my life”
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, gave blockbuster public testimony at a Home Jan. 6 committee listening to on June 28. In an interview with the committee in September, she mentioned she could not afford a lawyer and was anxious about discovering a professional bono legal professional.
“I wished to have the ability to do that by myself, and I did not wish to really feel like I used to be utilizing an legal professional in Trump world the place I might probably need to be responding to their pursuits as effectively,” Hutchinson mentioned.
Former White Home legal professional Eric Herschmann related Hutchinson with Alex Cannon, she mentioned. Cannon advised Hutchinson that “they” had a lawyer for her, however didn’t disclose who can be paying for it. Hutchinson met with Stefan Passantino, who represented her for her first two interviews with the committee. In a February assembly, Hutchinson testified that Passantino advised her they might “downplay” her position on the White Home and on Jan. 6.
Hutchinson mentioned she was uncomfortable with the association however felt she had no different selection, telling the committee that she mentioned to her mom, “I’m fully indebted to those folks … they may damage my life, Mother, if I do something they do not need me to.”
Hutchinson mentioned Passantino advised her to maintain her solutions “brief” and mentioned that saying “I do not recall” is an “fully acceptable” response as a result of “they do not know that you simply recall a few of these issues.” She advised the committee that testifying with him as her lawyer was “felt like (she) had Trump wanting over (her) shoulder.”
“I knew in some trend it will get again to him if I mentioned something that he would discover disloyal. And the prospect of that genuinely scared me. You already know, I might seen this world damage folks’s lives or attempt to damage folks’s careers. I might seen how vicious they are often,” Hutchinson mentioned.
She additionally advised the committee that Passantino additionally talked about job alternatives and labored to attach her with different folks on getting a job, saying, “We’re gonna get you taken care of. We wish to preserve you within the household.”
[Need to add that Passantino has said that he told her to tell the truth, etc., which I believe was his statement.]
