The latest public hearing related to the January 2021 Capitol riot focused on the Justice department officials.
A congressional inquiry heard that as then-President Donald Trump hounded U.S. government lawyers almost daily to help overturn his 2020 Presidential election defeat, they threatened to quit en masse. Officials of the Justice department said that they told Trump that there was no evidence for his claims of mass voter fraud, reported BBC.
Trump's plan to reverse his loss in key states in 2020 was "a murder-suicide pact," the lawyers testified.
The Jan. 6 committee, which is investigating the riot as an attempted coup, is seeking to build a case that Trump's efforts to stay in power in the lead-up to the deadly attack by his supporters on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 amounted to illegal conduct.
The Republican politician has described the investigation as a "kangaroo court." According to Trump, it is designed to distract Americans from the "disaster" of Democratic-led governance and spiralling inflation ahead of mid-term elections in November.
The fifth hearing that was held on Thursday focused on a pressure campaign waged by Trump against the Department of Justice. It is the federal agency that enforces U.S. law. It is supposed to be independent from the White House. Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department to aid in his campaign to overturn the election culminated in an Oval Office meeting. It happened just days ahead of the Jan. 6 riot. At the time, top Justice officials threatened to resign if Trump installed Jeffrey Clark atop the agency as he was willing to assist in Trump's plans, reported NBC News.
The hearing is the last one in June. The panel decided to push the final scheduled hearings into July.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington are betting that the televised hearings aren't breaking through. Voters are apparently more worried about gas prices and inflation rather than the hearings. But Trump is not happy that no one is defending him, according to NBC News.
He has reserved special criticism for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who made the call to yank all five Trump allies from the committee. The move was taken after Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his picks.
Trump said Wednesday on his social media platform, Truth Social, that such "tremendous lies and innuendo took place yesterday at the Unselect Committee on Jan. 6." According to him, Republicans should be "allowed representation!"
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