1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

‘Really, really bad’: Mark Meadows was worried about Jan. 6 violence when Rudy announced Capitol plans
https://www.rawstory.com/mark-meadows-cassidy-hutchinson/

[Rick Plant]

Exclusive: Jan. 6 Committee official talks about the importance of the immediacy of the Tuesday hearing
https://www.rawstory.com/january-6-revealations-cassidy-hutchinson/

[Rick Plant]

Chris Wallace 'astonished' that Trump tried to grab Secret Service agent around the neck

CNN's Chris Wallace was aghast as the House Select Committee held its first break of the sixth day of public hearings.

"Beyond these legalities, and we'll get to them, I mean, the take takeaway from this, and Cassidy Hutchinson draws a real timeline from Jan. 2nd, Rudy Giuliani saying it's going to be exciting, wait for it, and people knowing the increasing possibility of violence surrounding Jan. 6th, but what people are going to take away from this is that image inside the beast which is what they call the presidential limousine, inside the beast when Trump gets in, after the rally, and thinks he's going to Capitol Hill to be with the marchers and his Secret Service -- it's not just any Secret Service person" said Wallace. "It's the head of the presidential detail, Bobby Engel, says, 'no, we're going to the White House.' The president of the United States, I assume he's sitting in the backseat, reaches forward, tries to grab the steering wheel, and when the secret service head takes his hand away, he reaches with his other hand for the guy's throat!"

The "Beast" — the transport for the president — has the seat for the president further back from the driver and passenger seats. So, Trump would have had to launch himself far forward to try and grab the agents around the throat.

"I mean, it's — it's astonishing," Wallace said, aghast.

See the video below:

[Rick Plant]

'So compelling': Fox News host Bret Baier reacts to 'stunning' Jan. 6 hearing

Fox News anchor Bret Baier reacted to the testimony of a former aide to Mark Meadows by calling it both "stunning" and "compelling."

During a break from the Jan 6. Committee's hearing with Cassidy Hutchinson, Baier said that he was moved by the former staffer's firsthand account of former President Donald Trump's actions on Jan. 6.

"Inside the Beast, the limo, saying he wanted to go up to Capitol Hill," the anchor said of Trump. "And they said you have to go back to the White House and, according to her testimony, he says, 'I'm the effing president, take me there,' and then goes to grab at him."

"Listen, this testimony is first of all stunning," he continued, "because we haven't heard this. Two, it's compelling because of her proximity to power. All of these people directly having conversations with her."

Baier noted that Trump "wanted the crowd to be bigger, more robust" and that he didn't care about weapons in the audience.

"Listen, all of this is firsthand," he pointed out. "So it's from her listening to it. That's why it's so compelling."

Watch the video below from Fox News:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1541846957802528776

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 hearing secrecy due to ‘massive security threats’ related to Marjorie Taylor Greene: WaPo reporter



A former White House staffer will testify before a House select committee hearing that was not announced until the day before for security reasons that may be related to one of the Republican lawmakers she implicated in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, will testify Tuesday before the panel about efforts to overturn the former president's election loss, but her previous testimony -- which was recorded on video and shown in previous hearings -- about a specific GOP lawmaker necessitated the secrecy, Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"We have heard actually that some of the, as you just read, that the reason why her testimony has been so closely guarded is because of massive security threats in the last hearing," Alemany said. "She did say, reveal, that [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, she heard Marjorie Taylor Greene asked for a pardon, and you can only imagine what that does in terms of elevating her name and potentially causing far-right extremists to levy some of these credible threats that have come her way."

Hutchinson revealed she was involved in discussions about pardon requests from Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Scott Perry (R-PA), and Alemany compared the former White House aide to the bombshell witness in the Watergate hearings nearly 50 years ago.

"We have had people previously tell us that if there is anyone going to be the John Dean of this investigation, Cassidy Hutchinson is the person who is the most likely to be that person in terms of her access to the top figures in Trump's orbit and her proximity to the former president and what she was able to overhear, the people in and out of the Oval Office on Jan. 6," Alemany said. "But it is important to note we're not sure there's another witness corroborating her testimony today. There was clearly a sensitivity and urgency to her testifying today, and you've got to think that it's in part due to the security concerns, but also because they're worried she might potentially back out. This is not a small thing for this individual to come forward, put her career on the line."

"Obviously she's being compelled, there are subpoenas at play," Alemany added. "Several individuals like Bill Stepien who didn't appear were subpoenaed to appear, but this is a big thing for her. She's in her 20s, she's a young person with, you know, little institutional support in terms of the other people she used to work with cooperating with this investigation."

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

Trump’s intel director feared Jan. 6: ‘He expressed concern it could spiral out of control’



Donald Trump's last director of national intelligence was deeply concerned about the former president's effort to overturn his election loss, according to new testimony from a former White House aide.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday before the House Select Committee that she grew fearful about Jan. 6, 2021, as she learned more about the the planning.

"In the days before Jan. 2, I was apprehensive about the 6th," Hutchinson said. "I heard general plans for a rally, I heard tentative movements to go to the Capitol. But that was the first evening that I felt scared and nervous on Jan. 6, and I had a deeper concern for what was happening with the planning aspects of it."

Hutchinson testified that her concerns were shared by John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence and a former Republican congressman.

"My understanding is that Director Ratcliffe didn't want much to do with the post-election period," Hutchinson testified. "He felt that it wasn't something that the White House should be pursuing. He felt it was dangerous for the president's legacy. He had expressed concern that it could spiral out of control and potentially be dangerous, either in our democracy or for the way that things were going on the 6th, trying to fight the results of the election, finding missing ballots, pressuring -- filing lawsuits in certain state where's there did not seem to be significant evidence and reaching out to legislatures about -- that's pretty much the way the White House is handling the post-election period. They felt there could be dangerous repercussions in terms of precedents set for elections, for our democracy, for the 6th. They were hoping we would concede."

https://www.rawstory.com/cassidy-hutchinson-2657576310/

[Rick Plant]

Trump 'set us up': Capitol cop 'shocked' former president knew he was endangering police officers



WASHINGTON, D.C. — Metro Police Officer Daniel Hodges has been among those sitting in the audience at the public hearings for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks. Hodges is most well-known for the footage of him bleeding from the mouth and the doors being used to smash his body on that fateful day.

After the sixth hearing, one official from the committee went over to him to talk about their gratitude toward the officers for their efforts that day. He told the officer that he was just glad that what he did gave members the time necessary to get to safety.

Speaking to CNN after the hearing, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) said that she watched the faces of the officers as they learned that the White House was well aware that the whole ordeal would be violent.

“They’re not here to hurt me," Hutchinson recalled Trump saying.

Officer Hodges told Raw Story that he doesn't have any insider knowledge, and each time he hears the witnesses, it is new information for him.

"Most of what I hear is shocking to me," he told reporters outside the committee hearing room on Tuesday. "I mean, hearing that he essentially set us up, yeah, that's shocking."

He went on to say that he hopes the public understands that the witnesses are professional political people who are all Republicans.

"They're all about the truth," Hodges continued. "They can't help the fact that the truth is hurtful to or critical of one party."

He cited Trump's comment that the crowd wasn't there to hurt him, "implying that they were there to hurt someone and he knows who and then he said, yeah, they can march on the Capitol. So, he set us up."

Hodges went on to say that "the only person Trump cares about is himself. So, I know that he doesn't really care about officers' safety or the safety of Congress as long as he gets what he wants."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-set-officers-up/

[Rick Plant]

Next J6 hearings could be even more explosive: Insider hints there's more testimony coming about the riot's 'pivot man for everything'



Former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman, who worked as a senior staff member for the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, suggested that the bombshell testimony at Tuesday's public hearing was just the beginning.

"TRUMP SOUGHT TO JOIN JAN. 6 MOB," was the headline online by The New York Times. "Enraged, He Lunged for Limo Wheel, Aide Says."

"Trump wanted armed mob to march to Capitol, sought to join, aide says," was The Washington Post headline.

Riggleman was interviewed about the hearing by MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace.

"I want to be very careful in how I say this, Nicolle. I said Mark Meadows was the MVP of the committee of the investigation. Today, I think we see Mark Meadows is the Rosetta Stone of the investigation. He was sort of the pivot man for everything happening between these groups and up to the president," he said.

"When you hear an individual on the couch sending text messages -- I have the unique insight into being the first to see some of those text messages after we identified them -- so when I saw that at the beginning, the committee saw the same thing and they automatically knew that what they saw on the text messages -- there was a story here they could break apart," he explained. "We have to know this too, Nicolle, and I'm being very careful, there are 1,000 text messages that we know that we hadn't seen, that he said that were privileged."

Riggleman said, "...I don't think the American public has seen anything yet."

"Oh, wow," Wallace interjected.

"I actually believe that Cassidy Hutchinson was the bridge to the following -- and I will be very careful here -- a bridge to the operational planning and the data the committee still has in his back pocket," he continued. "So again, Mark Meadows is the MVP player for the committee. I think it is the Rosetta Stone. He was in the middle of it all and I think it puts his legal team in a tremendously challenging position."

Watch below: