Today’s January 6th Committee Hearing will feature the results of three main areas of investigation, according to the The Washington Post.
They will open with an examination of Trump’s actions leading up to the certification of the electoral vote, and what efforts he undertook to summon his rag-tag army of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and just irregular hooligans to disrupt those proceedings…
“A committee aide said on a conference call with reporters Monday that the hearing will lay out the way that far-right militant groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others took cues from the former president and his allies. Particular attention will be paid to his Dec. 19, 2020, posting on Twitter: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!”
The tweet that served as “a pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including preplanning by the Proud Boys,” noted the committee aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record. The tweet was issued “a little more than an hour after meeting with Rudy Giuliani, Gen. Mike Flynn [ret.], Sidney Powell and others where they consider taking actions like seizing voting machines, appointing a special counsel to investigate the election.”
The aide also promised a particular focus on the roles of Gen. Flynn and Roger Stone and their ties to the extremists.
Can’t wait.
Phase two will hone in specifically on the involvement of the Oath Keepers and their indicted leader, Stewart Rhodes. New testimony from Rhodes’ and the Oathkeepers’ former National Spokesman, Jason Van Tatenhove, will highlight this segment:
“Van Tatenhove’s job involved trying to get Rhodes on Fox News or Infowars, an online trafficker of conspiracy claims. Van Tatenhove was part of the inner circle of Oath Keepers leadership in its formative years, but had left the group well before the 2020 election. In interviews with The Washington Post last year, Van Tatenhove described Oath Keepers as a cult of personality around Rhodes.
Von Tatenhove is among many former Oath Keepers who say Rhodes, who boasts a Yale law degree, promoted violent ideology and called on supporters to revolt but was adept at shielding himself from legal consequences. Van Tatenhove said Rhodes raked in membership dues to radicalize cadres of military veterans and former police officers. Rhodes amassed a large nationwide network, though he commanded few actual forces; the Jan. 6 showing was among the biggest in Oath Keeper history and ultimately was the group’s undoing.”
The final portion will outline efforts to keep Trump from joining his mob at the Capitol, as described previously by Cassidy Hutchinson, and, perhaps most of interest to me, an examination of the involvement of some Congresspersons in the events of the day.
Will you be watching, Jordan, Loudermilk, Boebert and MTG?
“The latter portion of the hearing will look at efforts by White House staffers and advisers to the president to keep Trump away from the Capitol, despite his attempts to get there. Murphy and Raskin will also home in on “the involvement of members of Congress in the final stretch before January 6, particularly their involvement in a pressure campaign against the Vice President specifically” said a committee aide.”
Along the way they will also demonstrate the role that conspiracy theorists, such as the QAnon crowd, contributed to the almost fall of the republic.
Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) will officiate over today’s proceeding and I expect they will deliver an incisive and devastating blow to the gang-of-clowns that will rival the fireworks sent up by Hutchinson a couple of weeks ago.
Pop some popcorn, folks, it should be good.
