WASHINGTON-
More evidence is emerging in the Jan. 6 House inquiry that supports recent testimony that former US President Donald Trump wanted to join an angry mob that marched on Capitol Hill where they rioted, a member said Sunday. of the committee.
“There will be a lot more information and stay tuned,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois.
The committee has been ramping up its year-long investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and Trump’s efforts to nullify the 2020 election. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, the committee’s vice chair, makes it clear they could follow. criminal referrals to the Justice Department, including against Trump.
At least two more hearings are scheduled this month that are aimed at showing how Trump illegally led a violent mob into Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 and then failed to take swift action to stop the attack once it began.
The committee has also been reviewing new documentary footage from Trump’s final months in office, including interviews with Trump and members of his family.
Kinzinger, in a television interview, declined to reveal the new information he was referring to and did not say who had provided it. He said many more details emerged after last week’s testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and that nothing had changed the committee’s confidence in his credibility.
“There is information that I can’t say yet,” he said. “We would certainly say that Cassidy Hutchinson has testified under oath, we find her credible, and anyone who wants to disparage that, that she was present first hand, should also testify under oath and not through anonymous sources.”
In a separate interview, another committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said, “We’re following up on additional leads. I think those leads will lead to new testimony.”
In Hutchinson’s appearance before the committee last week, Hutchinson painted a picture of Trump as an angry and defiant president who was trying to allow armed supporters to bypass security checkpoints at a rally on the morning of January 6 to protest for his loss in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe. Biden.
Legal experts have said Cassidy’s testimony is potentially problematic for Trump as federal prosecutors investigate possible criminal wrongdoing.
“There could be more than one criminal reference,” Cheney said in an interview that aired Sunday. She said the committee will decide later in the process if it proceeds.
Cassidy also recounted a conversation with Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for operations, who testified said Trump later grabbed the wheel of the presidential van when the Secret Service refused to let him go to Capitol Hill after the rally.
However, that account was quickly disputed. Bobby Engel, the Secret Service agent who was driving Trump, and Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no officers were assaulted and that Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter said. The person did not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In recent days, the committee has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and has been seeking more information from Ornato and Engel, who were previously interviewed by investigators.
Committee members expect Cipollone to show up.
“Clearly he has information about concerns about criminal violations, concerns about whether the president would go to Capitol Hill that day, concerns about whether the chief of staff would have blood on his hands if they didn’t do more to stop that violent attack on Capitol Hill.” Schiff said. “It’s hard to imagine someone else at the center of things.”
The committee has also been working to schedule an interview with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was asked to speak to the committee after revelations of her communications with the Trump team in the lead up to and on the day of the uprising on Capitol Hill.
Kinzinger appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Schiff was on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Cheney appeared on ABC’s “This Week.”