Former US President Donald Trump is on increasingly thin ice. Last night Norwegian time, the congressional committee for the 6 January hearings conducted its 8th hearing. Trump’s actions during the actual storming are under scrutiny. 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. During the night’s hearings, even more witness statements and evidence were presented. Among other things, a previously unpublished video was shown. The day after the storming, Trump was supposed to condemn the storming of Congress, but the video shows that Trump will not acknowledge that “the election is over”. The committee itself cannot make legally binding decisions, but the pressure on the attorney general to open a criminal case against Trump is growing. 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. UNWORRIED: Donald Trump addresses supporters to contest the outcome of the election in front of the White House, January 6, 2021. Photo: JIM BOURG / Reuters A former adviser claimed during the hearing that Trump gave the “green light” to the protesters outside Congress. Two witnesses corroborated the statement of Cassidy Hutchinson, the assistant to one of Trump’s advisers, in the June 28 extraordinary congressional hearing. A former police officer who worked with the president’s motorcade on January 6 says that “The president was upset, and he was determined that he was going to Congress.” A new video was also shown to the committee of Trump filming the storm and saying “we love you, you are very special.” Several witnesses have described how Trump sat and watched the storming on television for hours, while people around him, including the president’s own children, pleaded with him to do something. “Trump didn’t fail to act, he chose not to act,” the Illinois Republican representative said at the hearing. 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 towards 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 Security guards fear for their own lives A security guard at the White House gave an anonymous statement. The witness explained that Vice President Mike Pence’s security guards were “yelling” as they tried to get him out. Furthermore, the witness explained that Pence’s security guards felt their lives were in danger and called family members “to say goodbye.” “On the ground, the security guards thought things were going to get really ugly,” the witness said. Security adviser Matthew Pottinger and assistant spokeswoman Sarah Matthews testified last night. These two are said to have had close contact with Trump on the day itself. Pottinger and Matthews, explained that they resigned their positions after the president posted criticism of the vice president, Mike Pence, on Twitter during the storming. The protesters shouted things like “hang Mike Pence” as they made their way into Congress. According to witnesses in previous hearings, Mike Pence’s life was in danger. WATCH: The Secret Service looks on during a “Make America Great Again” rally in Hickory, North Carolina on November 1, 2020. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP Bannon to testify in court Steve Bannon led Donald Trump’s campaign team to victory in 2016. So He was appointed 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. READ ALSO: – Fearing the future if Trump returns POSITIVE: Steve Bannon speaks to the press after leaving the courtroom in Washington on July 20, 2022. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP To summarize Trump’s actions during the actual storming In addition to the investigation of Steve Bannon, there is another important process taking place outside the work of the congressional committee: the Department of Homeland Security is investigating the disappearance of almost all the text messages sent by Secret Service agents on January 6. Among other things, the Secret Service is responsible for protecting the US president and important politicians. 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. According to the Secret Service itself, the reason is that the agents changed mobile phones from 27 January 2021. It should then have been up to each individual agent to transfer the stored content from the old phones.
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