CNN
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A Jan. 6 committee in the House of Representatives released another witness interview transcript on Sunday.
The new release is part of a recent series of transcript drops from the House Select Committee and complements the release of the extensive 845-page report.
The latest drop in the minutes comes as the House majority is set to change from Democrats to Republicans at the start of the new Congress on Tuesday, and the panel will scale back its work.
The minutes released so far reveal new details about how a House committee conducted its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and what key witnesses told the panel. sheds new light on
Below are some of the highlights from the latest disclosure.
Former President Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, sent 6,600 pages of email records and about 2,000 text messages, according to deposition transcripts that Meadows did not attend in December 2021. Provided to selection committee.
Investigators looked at several items, including an email from Meadows in December 2020, that they wanted to ask about whether Meadows showed up. According to commission records, it was the president’s decision.
The committee also wanted to ask Meadows about specific passages in his book, specific text message exchanges, and activities to the Department of Justice to “encourage investigations into alleged voter fraud.” The committee also planned to ask Meadows about his correspondence regarding deploying the National Guard on January 6. -Trump people, end of quote.
The committee also worked for former Trump administration aide Dan Scavino, former Trump administration official Peter Navarro, and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon, who previously worked in Trump’s White House. , convened a no-show deposition meeting. Brief minutes of these meetings document the failure of witnesses to appear and the correspondence that the Commission exchanged with them or their representatives.
In a recording with Alexandra Pleet, who worked as a spokeswoman for Bannon, the committee asked about their text exchanges. After Joe Biden took office, the two appeared to be discussing a million people surrounding the Capitol.
A committee interviewer quotes Bannon’s text as “utterly silencing the Capitol.”
When asked if she and Bannon still discussed bringing people back to Washington, D.C. after Jan. 6, Preet said, “I don’t remember,” and it was “not my deal.” He also said he believed Trump lost the election.
Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel told the committee that the former president called her on Jan. 1, 2021, asking about her relationship with then-Vice President Mike Pence.
According to the transcript, McDaniel told the selection committee, “I remember him asking me how was my relationship with the vice president. I said I didn’t know him very well. .
McDaniel said he can’t remember if Pence specifically discussed the role he would play in authenticating votes for the Electoral College five days after that call. Afterwards, Trump told her personally that he “in some way told them that the Vice President has the power…the power not to accept electors.” ”
She also said Trump called her on Jan. 7, but they didn’t talk about the attack.
The panel said during the summer hearings that Trump called McDaniel directly in December to tell her about plans for a group of states to submit alternatives to the electoral rolls, referring her to his election attorney John East. Mann, but her full record reveals more details about what was shared between the RNC, Trump’s White House, and the Trump campaign at the time.
In the lead up to January 6, McDaniel was made aware that electoral candidate lists were being considered for non-provisional electors in case legal challenges changed the state’s election results. She added that she was not involved in many of those discussions, and that she had undergone ankle surgery around the time of the Capitol attack.
McDaniel told commission investigators that she called Trump campaign attorney Justin Clarke after that December call. When informed, he testified that he had sent the note to former Trump White House aide Molly Michael.
In response to a fundraising email from the Republican National Committee on the 2020 election, McDaniel said the GOP committee had worked closely with Clark, but after Giuliani took over Trump’s legal efforts, McDaniel said. He said he was “doing his own thing and didn’t really reach out to the Republican Commission.”
