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| Photo Credit: AP. |
The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 2021 storming of the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump will focus its hearing Tuesday in probing the former president’s ‘siren call’ to extremist to come to Washington for his “Stop the Steal” crusade.
The rally
ended after Mr Trump ordered his supporters to go to the Capitol to make their
voices heard which resulted in a deadly siege. The panel would also consider
other steps taken by the former President to overturn election results after
his defeat and his possible call to violence.
Trump and
his allies had filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the election victory in a
number of states on grounds that there was widespread voter fraud but those
lawsuits soon failed as several courts struck out the suits.
Frustrated
that he was not successfully at upturning the election results in court, Trump
tweeted the rally invitation, a pivotal moment, the committee said, according
to The Associated Press. The far-right Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others
answered the call and a number of them came to Washington with guns ready to
take the battle to the field.
“We will lay
out the body of evidence that we have that talks about how the president’s
tweet on the wee hours of December 19th of ‘Be there, be wild,’ was a siren
call to these folks,” said one panel member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.,
over the weekend on “Meet the Press,” according to The Associated Press. In
fact, Trump tweeted, “Be there, will be wild!”
Some of the
witnesses expected to testify at the hearing include Stephen Ayres, who pleaded
guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building
as well as Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Steward Rodes,
The
Associated Press reported that the names of the witness were released by
someone familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because
the names of the witnesses have not yet be released by the committee. Ayres
admitted posting an image January 2, 2021 stating that Trump was “calling on us
to come back to Washington on January 6th for a big protest.”
The
committee seeks to establish whether the extremist groups including the Proud
Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon adherents who took part in the Trump rally before,
coordinated with White House allies for January 6.
The panel
would also highlight new testimony from Pat Cipollone, the former White House
counsel, who “was aware of every major move” Trump was making, said Rep. Jamie
Raskin (D-Md.) who will lead the session, The Associated Press reported.