Pro-Trump mob attacked US Capitol after seeing ‘wild’ rally tweet as call to arms: committee
- At the latest January 6 hearing, Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney says the ex-president recently tried to call a witness for the investigating committee
- The witness contacted their lawyer instead, and the information has been passed on to the US Justice Department
Right-wing extremists and supporters of Donald Trump staged the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol after a tweet from the former president seen as a “call to arms”, lawmakers said on Tuesday.
Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the House select committee investigating the attack on Congress, said meanwhile that Trump had attempted recently to call a committee witness.
The witness, who was not identified, did not take the call from Trump and alerted their lawyer, who contacted the committee, Cheney said.
“This committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice,” she said.
During its seventh televised public hearing, the House committee examined the impact of a tweet that Trump sent on December 19 urging his supporters to descend on Washington on January 6 for a rally he promised would be “wild”.
The tweet was sent a little more than an hour after Trump met at the White House with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former general Mike Flynn, and Sidney Powell, another lawyer, for a meeting which one White House aide described as “unhinged”.