Senate Committee on Capitol Hill riots has mounting evidence to impeach Trump

By Ashok Nilakantan

New York, June 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Senate committee probing the Jan 6, 2021 riots on Capitol Hill tapped 19 key witnesses to testify before the bold disclosures made on Tuesday by a top White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, that Donald Trump and his key west wing staff knew the mob was armed, that the ex-President wanted to lead them and the White House COS Mark Meadows did nothing to stop Trump.

The shocking revelations, which could reach down the alley to impeachment of an ex-President never seen before in American democracy, has led the Senate committee to make its case stronger with mounting evidence it has gathered with the depositions of 19 key witnesses to testify on Trump's alleged involvement in inciting the mob, coercing VP Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 verdict against Trump, and his un-president like behaviour in grabbing the steering wheel from his security to the Capitol Hill to lead the mob and asking the security there to dismantle metal detectors and allow his protesters to have a free run.

Now the committee has left the nation in an awe-inspiring shock on who is next to testify against the ex-President.

The select committee has had 1,000 people before it having their say on the Jan 6 riots through several hearings televised live to the American public, causing much ripples.

Among the 19 key officials to have been tapped are Pat Cipollone, one of former President Trump's top legal advisors on January 6, 2021.

Cipollone was in talks with the January 6 committee to publicly testify about last year's Capitol Riots and would focus on discussing Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official who allegedly used his powers to try and aid Trump in overturning the 2020 elections, according Business Insider which had tracked the hearing's progression.

The Jan 6 committee co-chair Liz Cheney had urged Cipollone to testify at the Capitol Hill hearing saying, "We think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally."

Richard Donoghue, former Department of Justice official, is another DOJ official the Senate committee tapped for inside information on the riots as he served as Trump's acting deputy attorney general on January 6, 2021.

CNN had reported that Donoghue jotted down notes about a call he was on during which Trump tried pressuring him and Rosen to overturn the 2020 election results. Donoghue testified on June 23.

Caroline Edwards, US Capitol Police officer, who was the first law enforcement officer injured by the rioters storming the Capitol grounds, testified before the bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence related to the January 6 attack at the Capitol Hill for a year. It will present its findings in a series of televised hearings.

On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the US Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. Edwards was one of the congressional police officers who confronted the violent mob of Trump supporters as they swarmed the Capitol building.

The New York Times had reported that she was thrown to the ground, blinded with chemical spray, and suffered a concussion during the hours-long ordeal. Edwards testified on June 9 about the carnage she witnessed that day.

Steve Engel, former Department of Justice attorney, charged two men with giving gifts to ingratiate themselves with federal law enforcement officers. Engel was an attorney in Trump's Department of Justice on January 6, 2021.

ABC News had reported that the January 6 committee members wanted to work him into a panel that would include former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general. Engel testified on June 23.

Benjamin Ginsberg, GOP election lawyer, and Robert Bauer, co-chair of The Presidential Commission on Election and Administration, were key Trump advisors. Ginsberg was one among the attorneys who worked on the month-long recount fight in 2000 that ended with George W. Bush becoming President. In 2000, Ginsberg wrote that the GOP was "destroying itself on the altar of Trump" in a scathing op-ed. Ginsberg testified on June 13.

Tom Jacob, part of the Trump coterie, is one of the people then-Trump attorney John Eastman blamed for the violence on January 6.

"The 'siege' is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened," Eastman wrote to Jacob during the attack, according to The Washington Post. Jacob testified on June 16.

Michael Luttig, Conservative attorney and former judge, was a Conservative lawyer and former appeals court judge who advised Vice President Mike Pence during Trump's attempt to overturn the election, The Washington Post reported. He testified that Trump is working on rigging the 2024 election "in plain sight" on June 16.

Wandrea AR Shaye Moss, former Georgia election worker, was a full-time employee in the Fulton County, Georgia elections office during the 2020 election who was allegedly harassed by Trump supporters, who embraced the embattled former president's baseless claims of election fraud. Moss testified on June 21.

Byung J. Pak, former US attorney for the northern district of Georgia, was a Department of Justice attorney in Atlanta who resigned in January 2021 because he said he refused to go along with President Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud. Pak testified on June 13.

Nick Quested, British filmmaker who documented the Proud Boys, recipient of the courage under fire award from the Los Angeles academy, had been following the Trump-supporting Proud Boys in the months leading up to Capitol riots of January 6, 2021, and was likely privy to planning conversations involving alleged rioter Enrique Tarrio, the New York Times had reported. The Department of Justice charged Tarrio with seditious conspiracy. Quested testified on June 9.

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, was one of the Georgia officials Trump famously asked to "find" 12,000 votes he needed to beat Biden in the Peach State. Instead, Raffensperger conducted a recount and certified Biden's victory, compelling Trump to campaign against him in May's GOP primary (which Raffensperger won, anyway). Raffensperger testified on June 21.

Jeff Rosen, former acting attorney general, served as Trump's acting attorney general on January 6, 2021. He spoke to the committee in October 2021 about ideas Trump and those who supported false claims about the 2020 election kicked around to try and overturn the results. Rosen testified on June 23.

Al Schmidt, former Philadelphia city commissioner, from Pennsylvania who defended the state's electoral process in 2020, thus invoking former President Donald Trump's wrath. Schmidt testified on June 13.

Marc Short (C) was Pence's chief of staff on January 6, 2021. Short warned the Secret Service that Trump was about to publicly attack his boss the day before the January 6 insurrection. The committee showed clips from his taped deposition during the June 16 hearing.

Bill Stepien, former Trump campaign manager, was former Trump's 2020 campaign manager. The New York Times reported that during a meeting on November 7, 2021, in which Trump was pushing his baseless claims of election fraud, Stepien had laid out the "exceedingly low odds of success with his challenges."

The January 6 committee staff announced on June 12 that Stepien was scheduled to testify on June 13, but later said Stepien would not appear due to a family emergency and that his lawyer would make an on the record statement.

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia state election official, was Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperberger's top deputy. Sterling testified on June 21.

Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News executive, was the Fox digital politics editor who called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020. He was fired in January 2021. Stirewalt testified on June 13.

Source: IANS