Senate Committee heading for final push in Jan 6 riots hearing

Ashok Nilakantan

New York, July 12 (IANS) The Congress Senate House Committee says its heading for the final push to wrap up a year-long investigation into the January 6 Capitol Hills "insurrection" in which former US president Donald Trump stands accused of leading ultra-right wing groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys to attack the citadel of democracy in the US.

The senate has lined up probably just two more hearings from two-star witnesses -- White House counsel Pat A Cipollone witness to January 6 events, before, during and after and Steve Bannon, white house strategist, media executive and banker, advising Trump what to do -- to corroborate top aide to Trump's administration Cassidy Hutchinson devastating testimony of the wrongdoings of the ex-president that fateful day.

The January 6 committee is hitting the home stretch of the public hearings phase of its historic, yearlong investigation into the attack on the Capitol -- and American democracy, says NBC news.

The senate house has claimed gathering damning evidence of Trump's involvement through a closed-door testimony from one of the members of the Oath Keepers asking Trump's aide on phone to tell ex-president to "send more militia" to help overrun the 2020 verdict of (current US President) Joe Biden's election to the high office.

After a half-dozen hearings, committee members are building momentum with a pair of back-to-back panel meetings this week to give the final push for constituting a special House panel with the main purpose of officially establishing a record for the history books, but also to demonstrate Donald Trump's role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, and to warn the public about ongoing threats to the election system.

"I know they'll make a very coherent closing argument," said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., who was trapped in the House chamber on January 6 and has attended all but one of the hearings as an observer. "Any good trial lawyer knows that you need a clear opening, a clear arc and a very clear summary.

"I think the facts are what power the summary -- you don't have to add to it, you don't have to decorate it," Dean said in an interview.

"The facts are so damning about a president who cared nothing for people as high up as the vice president or as low down as an election worker or election volunteer, and didn't care about destroying lives or killing people in the violence."

Tuesday's meeting is focusing on on what some panel members called the "marshaling of the mob", including evidence of coordination between Trump, his top aides and associates, and white nationalist or militia groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who members say led the assault on the Capitol that day.

The committee will examine how Trump's "pressure merges with the physical violence" that his supporters carried out at the Capitol, said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., who will lead part of Tuesday's hearing, ABC News reports.

The final planned hearing is expected on Thursday and will zero in on Trump's actions -- or inactions -- as his vice president, Mike Pence, House and Senate lawmakers and hundreds of police officers came under attack. There were "187 minutes where people were pleading with him to take action, and he failed to do so," Dean said.

Thursday's hearing is likely to be set for prime time, just like the first hearing, seeking a bigger televised audience. But it's not clear whether the Cipollone testimony will actually be televised because it's a testimony and not a deposition that could last for hours and hours not possible to televise live throughout.