“Straight to Violence”
In support of their statements, the parliamentarians projected several videos of the former president, some of his relatives or former White House employees.
In footage taken just before the 2020 presidential election by a Danish documentary crew, Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former Republican president, can be heard saying he doesn’t care about the vote.
“Fuck the vote, let’s go straight to violence,” he said.
Stone, who has not been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 incident, disputed the authenticity of the videos, saying they had been doctored.
The commission also played the recording of a call from Trump to Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia, in which the former president says that he “needs” some 11,000 ballots in his name, enough to beat his rival Biden in this state of the south.
It also revealed elements of hundreds of thousands of pages provided by the Secret Service, the elite police force responsible for the close protection of high-ranking state officials.
The parliamentarians want to understand why SMS sent by the agents on the day of the assault were deleted.
The documents confirm evidence presented in previous hearings that Trump angered his supporters, even though they were briefed on the potential for violence, lawmaker Adam Schiff said.
Since its creation, the commission has questioned more than a thousand witnesses, including two sons of Donald Trump, and has finely combed tens of thousands of documents.
The investigative report is expected to be made public later in the year, but probably not before the congressional elections on November 8, which will determine which party controls Congress for the remainder of President Biden’s term.
Panel members openly suggested that Attorney General Merrick Garland should impeach Trump in connection with the attack on Capitol Hill.
The commission itself has not officially said whether it will recommend referrals to justice.