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Aguilar told the media on July 1 that the focus of the investigation is to uncover the truth. "One-hundred forty Capitol Police officers were injured, some of them permanently, [on Jan. 6]," he said. Aguilar is a member of the House Democratic leadership, serving as vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Rep. Jim Jordan, who House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked from serving on the Jan. 6 select committee, pinned the lack of security presence at the Capitol during the riot on Pelosi. Calling the attack a "massive security failure that should never happen again," Comer said he was unsurprised by the the partisan bickering over who serves on the Democratic-lead select committee.
Officers Give Harrowing Testimony On Their Experience Defending The Capitol On Jan. 6
The committee has now shown Officer Caroline Edwards footage of the moment when she was injured during the riot, where she sustained a traumatic brain injury. Fox hosts offered their own version of events of what they said unfolded on Jan. 6 and who was at fault, even if they didn’t always agree on how serious the situation got. While Mr. Carlson spent his program dismissing the threat the rioters posed that day, Mr. Hannity said the threat was serious enough that it should have been treated as such by the United States Capitol Police and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Despite being temporarily knocked unconscious, Officer Edwards regained consciousness and went back to help her fellow officers defend the Capitol and treat officers who had been wounded or sprayed by pepper spray.
Before publication
When asked how this move helps officers and the families affected by the Capitol riot, McCarthy said it is "politics by Pelosi." “That’s why people objected,” McCarthy said, referring to Democrats’ objections to including the attack on Good Friday that led to the death of fallen Officer William “Billy” Evans, among other reasons. Jordan told reporters that his “hunch” for why Democrats don’t want to address that question is because “the Democrats normalized anarchy.” Jordan then pinned the protests and violence of last summer on Democrats. Harris also told those in attendance at the meeting that they are upholding some of the most important tenants of our democracy and asked them to share some of the challenges they have faced carrying out elections, specifically threats they faced surrounding the 2020 election.
The latest on the House Capitol riot committee
The high court’s ruling, expected by July, could affect the federal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump, who was also charged with the obstruction crime. During over 90 minutes of arguments, most justices signaled concern with how the Justice Department is using the law, which was enacted by Congress more than two decades ago. Critics claimed the felony charge, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, was intended to prevent evidence tampering – not an insurrection. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority indicated Tuesday that it may toss out a charge prosecutors have lodged against hundreds of people who took part in the January 6, 2021, riot on the US Capitol, a decision that could force the Justice Department to reopen some of those cases. Kinzinger is an outspoken critic of Trump and voted, along with Cheney and eight other Republicans, to impeach the former president following the Jan. 6. Rep. Elaine Luria arrives at Pelosi's office for a meeting with committee members on July 22.
What we learned in the second hour of the hearing: The Proud Boys and attacks on the police were the focus.
Asked by CNN why he opposed the failed bipartisan Capitol riot independent commission if he really wants to get to the bottom of what happened on Jan. 6, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it’s because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the time played politics with the scope of that now moot commission. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, one of McCarthy’s picks that Pelosi did not reject from the committee said, “we have credibility with the American people,” and argued that Pelosi’s decision shows that she holds an “iron grip” on the House. CNN's Annie Grayer, Jeremy Herb, Ryan Nobles and Daniella Diaz contributed reporting to this post. If people were not involved in the attack or the insurrection or the plot to overthrow the electoral count process then they don't have anything to worry about, but I mean, I would hope that any elected official who knows anything about what took place would step forward to tell us,” he said. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, and a member of the Select Committee to investigate Jan. 6 said today that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s decision to pull the members he selected from the committee after Pelosi rejected two of them, will not prevent the committee from doing their work.
Republican congressman calls for Capitol riot commission that does not include politicians
During a news conference last year, she reflected on her family's personal experience with political violence in communist Vietnam. Prior to her election to Congress in 2016, she served as a national security specialist for the secretary of defense. "Five people lost their lives. Staffers were barricaded here in the Capitol. Members were affected. Everyone touched by Jan. 6 deserves to find the truth of what transpired, what led up to it and how we can protect our democracy moving forward."
The document, which is more than 800 pages long, recommends the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in the attack. And they say Congress should act to bar Trump, and others involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection, from ever holding federal office again. Responding to a question from Justice Elena Kagan, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the Justice Department has used the obstruction law only in cases in which defendants knew Electoral College votes were being counted on January 6 and specifically tried to interfere with Congress. At least four conservative justices have had questions for Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar that suggest they remain unpersuaded by her arguments that the obstruction statute should be read broadly to use against the US Capitol rioters. While the court’s three-justice liberal wing signaled support for the charge, the conservative majority raised a series of skeptical questions about its potential scope and whether it would criminalize other conduct, such as protests. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with the same obstruction crime at issue in this case.
Here are the 9 lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
McCarthy called Pelosi's move "an egregious abuse of power" and pulled all of his picks from the panel. The two Republicans who Pelosi appointed — Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — have paid a high political price for their participation. The panel comprises seven Democrats and two Republicans all appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. McCarthy also argued that Pelosi played politics and took too long to get the committee together, stating that Rep. Rodney Davis, who McCarthy had appointed to serve on the committee, requested an investigation as early as Jan. 13.
Those recommendations include clarifying that the role of the vice president in the transition of power is purely ceremonial and a new federal law enforcement emphasis on anti-government extremist groups. Capitol on Jan. 6 will hold the first of a series of hearings on Thursday about what it has learned over the course of its 10-month investigation. Footage from the morning of Jan. 6 showed how Caroline Edwards, a witness called in Thursday’s hearings, was among the first police officers to face the violent mob. Ms. Edwards, one of about 150 officers injured that day, sustained burns from rioters’ chemical spray and suffered a concussion resulting in a traumatic brain injury.
Cheney's continued participation keeps the committee bipartisan even without anyone appointed by McCarthy. McCarthy slammed Pelosi's decision today and pulled the GOP members he selected from the committee, saying unless the House Speaker "reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts." "The American people deserve to know what happened. The people who did this must be held accountable," Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Trump, told reporters outside of the US Capitol.
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Ms. Edwards described in detail the difficulty she faced trying to fend off the crowd, which ultimately overwhelmed police and left more than 140 law enforcement officers injured. Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who is believed to have been the first injured during the riot, testified in chilling detail about the first breach of police lines, in which she was crushed beneath bike racks that were pushed on her and a handful of other officers who had no chance to hold back the mob. The prime-time hearing featured dramatic video of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group, leading the assault on the Capitol, and the emotional testimony of a Capitol Police officer who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the hands of the mob. The bipartisan House panel investigating the attack, led by Representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, opened its landmark series of public hearings by making the case for a methodical conspiracy led by former President Donald J. Trump. (1) INTERIM REPORTS.—In addition to the final report addressing the matters in subsection (a) and section 3, the Select Committee may report to the House or any committee of the House from time to time the results of its investigations, together with such detailed findings and legislative recommendations as it may deem advisable. While the full report won't be available to the public until Wednesday, the panel released an executive summary following its meeting.
Still, Pelosi's move gives House Republicans an avenue to attack the select committee as a partisan endeavor. McCarthy slammed the move shortly after it was announced Wednesday, and said that unless the House Speaker "reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts." In a bow to the networks carrying the hearing, the committee conveniently took a break after the powerful footage of the breach of the Capitol to allow for advertisements and for news anchors to weigh in on what had transpired so far. The committee caps off two hours of testimony, video footage and taped depositions about the violent attack on the Capitol with a montage of Trump supporters saying that they came to Washington that day because the president asked them to, using the words of Trump’s own supporters to tie him to their actions.
For one, committee sessions are almost always conducted during the day, in concert with the schedules of lawmakers, so the timing alone — a bid for a bigger audience — was unusual. Activists have scheduled more than 90 watch events in various states, hoping to drum up interest in the hearings. The other witness on Thursday was Nick Quested, an Emmy Award-winning British documentarian who was embedded with the Proud Boys during the riot, filming footage with the group’s blessing. “He lit the fuse that ultimately resulted in the violence of Jan. 6,” Mr. Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said of Mr. Trump. “I am not allowed to say what is going to happen today because everyone’s just going to have to watch,” one woman said on video on the morning of Jan. 6, when no hint of an attack was evident.
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was appointed to the Jan. 6 select committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said the rhetoric around the investigation by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and by those GOP members who Pelosi rejected to put on the committee has been "disgraceful." Comer also objected to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's decision to deny membership on the select committee to two outspoken Republicans, saying the GOP ought to have the right to choose their own members. He added that some Republicans view Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who is on the commission, with the same disdain Democrats hold for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who Pelosi rejected. "Outside people... because any time you have political people, I don't care if they're Democrats or Republicans, it's going to turn into a political event. It's going to turn into a political entity." GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said Congress should set up a non-political investigation into the Capitol riot of Jan. 6 which excludes elected officials.
