Former US President Donald Trump is on increasingly thin ice. The January 6 Committee has presented evidence after evidence and witness after witness that Donald Trump actively planned the demonstration that ended with an attack on Congress last January. On January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington to protest the election results. Around 2,000 broke into the Congress. Five people died and 128 police officers were injured. The eighth round of hearings begins tonight. Now Trump’s actions during the storm itself will be scrutinized. The pressure on the attorney general to open a criminal case against Trump is growing. In addition, there are two important processes taking place outside the work of the congressional committee: First, the Department of Homeland Security is investigating the disappearance of almost all the text messages sent by Secret Service agents on January 6. Second, the Steve Bannon trial is underway. Bannon will testify tonight at 02.00 Norwegian time. WATCH OUT: The Secret Service looks on during a “Make America Great Again” rally in Hickory, North Carolina on November 1, 2020. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP Investigating suspicious disappearance of text messages The Secret Service is, among other things, responsible for protecting the the American president and important politicians. In other words, 6 January 2021 was a packed day at work for the agents, as several top politicians may have been in mortal danger. Thus, the text messages they sent that day would have been important evidence in the 6 January hearings. But according to CNN, the Secret Service has only managed to forward a single SMS to the committee and other bodies investigating the congressional storming. That SMS was sent from Washington’s Government Quarters police chief, Steven Sund, to former Secret Service division chief Thomas Sullivan. In the message, Sund asked for assistance during the storming. ASKED FOR HELP: Steven Sund testifies in the Senate just a few weeks after the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021. Photo: POOL / Reuters The reason, according to the Secret Service itself, is that the agents changed mobile phones from January 27, 2021. It should then have been up to each single agent to transfer the stored content from the old phones. This despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and the congressional committee both sent requests to access relevant evidence long before January 27. SUSPICIOUS: Zoe Lofgren, congressional representative for the Democrats from California, says it “doesn’t look good” that the Secret Service’s text messages have disappeared without a trace. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP – In the letter they sent us, the Secret Service gave no information about whether they had secured the phones as evidence. That is something we would like to know. Obviously, this doesn’t look good. Coincidences can happen, but we really need to get to the bottom of this case, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren told MSNBC on Tuesday. Now the Ministry of Security is investigating how the SMS were lost. POSITIVE: Steve Bannon speaks to the press after leaving a courtroom in Washington on July 20, 2022. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Bannon to testify in court Steve Bannon led Donald Trump’s campaign team to victory in 2016. Then he was named chief strategist and senior adviser to the president. Just eight months later, he resigned, returning to his old job as chairman of the controversial website Breitbart News. Despite the official break with Trump, Bannon is said to have remained in close contact with the president. In addition, he played an important role in organizing and motivating Trump’s supporters. INVESTIGATORS: The January 6 committee is looking at a video of Bannon’s radio show and podcast “War Room” on July 12 of this year. Photo: POOL / AFP In the “War Room” radio program, Bannon gave advice on how Trump’s electorate could best manipulate the electoral system, and actively encouraged participation in the gathering in Washington DC in January 2021. September 23, 2021 January 6- the committee Bannon a direct order to testify in the hearings. Bannon refused, and the Attorney General thus charged Bannon with “contempt of Congress.” The trial began on Monday, and on the night of Friday, 68-year-old Bannon will testify. If found guilty, he faces a sentence of between 30 days and one year in jail, as well as a fine of between $100 and $100,000. Facts about Steve Bannon Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Bannon before Breitbart: Born 1953. Grew up in a working-class family in Virginia, USA Master’s degree in national security Former officer in the US Navy Worked at the investment bank Goldman Sachs for a few years before he together with some colleagues started the investment bank Bannon & Co. Entered the film industry in the 1990s as a producer in Hollywood, where he produced a number of films. Experience with media and politics: In 2012 he took over as head of the right-wing website Breitbart News. In 2013, he helped start the consulting company Cambridge Analytica, which was closed in 2018 after the revelation that the company had illegally collected information on millions of Facebook users. The collaboration with Donald Trump: In August 2016, he became the leader of Donald Trump’s election campaign. After Trump’s election victory, he was given a special position as chief strategist and a permanent seat on the US National Security Council. In April 2017, he was removed from the council. In August 2017, a week after the Charlottesville riots, he left the White House and returned to Breitbart. In January 2018, he was fired from Breitbart after making disparaging comments about Trump. In October 2018, Bannon and the Belgian right-wing politician Mischaël Modrikamen launched the group The Movement, with the aim of uniting right-wing forces in Europe. Indictments and trials: In August 2020, Bannon was indicted for embezzling money from the “We Build The Wall” fundraiser. The trial was originally supposed to start in May 2021, but Bannon was pardoned by President Donald Trump on the latter’s last day in office. On November 12, he was indicted by a federal grand jury for contempt of Congress by refusing to testify before the committee investigating the congressional storming. He has not wanted to testify about the congress storming that took place on January 6, 2021. Although he has changed his mind and now wants to testify, he has been charged with showing contempt for Congress. This trial will start on 18 July 2022. Source: NTB RESCUE WOMAN? Deputy Chair of the January 6 Committee in Congress, Republican Liz Cheney, speaks during one of the hearings on July 12. Many see Cheney as a savior of American democracy. Photo: ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Reuters To sum up Trump’s actions during the actual storming At the same time as Bannon is going to court, the eighth day of hearings in Congress begins. This time it will be about Trump’s failure to ask his supporters to stop the storming for several hours. Facts about the congress storming Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP Thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered in Washington on 6 January last year to protest the election results and show their support for the president. In a speech to them, Trump repeated the unsubstantiated allegations of widespread election fraud and encouraged those in attendance to march toward the congressional building on Capitol Hill. The protesters followed the call and then stormed the Senate, where the senators were in the process of approving the election results. An estimated 2,000 protesters entered the buildings where the elected representatives hid and barricaded themselves before being evacuated. Five people died. One of the protesters was shot dead by guards when she tried to force her way through a barricaded door, and a policeman later died of his injuries. Three others died in what police describe as medical emergencies. 140 police officers were injured in the clashes. At the same time as the storming of the congressional building, Trump once again tweeted that the election had been stolen from him. He also posted a video saying he loves the protesters but told them to go home. Just over six hours after they were evacuated, the members of Congress gathered again in the Senate and the House of Representatives, where Biden’s election victory was eventually – long overtime – formally approved by Vice President Mike Pence and Congress. More than 720 people have so far been prosecuted after the storming. Over 100 of them have been arrested, and at least 25 have been charged with terrorism. Close to 70 have been sentenced. Source: NTB and AFP Two key witnesses are expected to take the stand, security adviser Matthew Pottinger and assistant spokesperson Sarah Matthews. These two are said to have had close contact with Trump on the day itself. It is expected that they will describe an apathetic Trump who watched the storm safely behind the TV screen in the White House.
ttn-69
Latest news from the hearings about the storming of Congress in the USA – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
