The 1/6 Committee has evidence that the far-right militias that attacked the Capitol were in contact with Trump’s rally.
And the select committee has also now heard testimony from award-winning documentary film-maker Nick Quested on Wednesday about contacts between the militia group leaders, far-right political operatives and the Save America rally organizers, the sources said.
The information, which could play a large role in establishing for the select committee whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy as part of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is being viewed internally as a significant breakthrough, the sources added.
Most crucially for the panel, it could form part of the evidence to connect the militia groups that stormed the Capitol on 6 January to the organizers of the Save America rally that immediately preceded the attack – who in turn are slowly being linked to the Trump White House.
Republicans have argued that Trump’s rally and the Capitol attack were two unrelated events. The GOP theory is that Trump’s supporters were acting independently, and this was not a coordinated assault on democracy to overturn an election.
If the 1/6 Committee can prove that the militias were in contact with Trump’s campaign, then the Capitol attack was the violent arm of a coordinated coup, which was being run out of the Oval Office.
The coup was quite vast. It appears to have federal and state arms that involved everything from lawsuits to blocking certification of the election to fake sets of state electors.
The plot did not come together in days or even weeks. It has the sort of depth that suggests months of work went into the plan to overturn the election.
If Trump’s campaign gets connected to the 1/6 violence, it suggests that the seditious conspiracy goes to the top.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
