[Politics] Pressure campaigns, predictable violence: What the first round of Jan. 6 hearings revealed

[-Sethu]

The sun set in late July on a summer of shocking revelations about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and nearly three months later, America is poised to learn more about the riot and the efforts that led to it.

Members of the House Committee investigating the attack are scheduled to resume testimony Thursday after pausing the initial round of hearings in late July.

The first hearing captivated its audience with revelatory information about former President Donald Trump's involvement in the lead up to the attack. 

And tensions ran high during the summer's eighth and final hearing, held during prime-time on July 21, where the committee laid out Trump's choice not to act during the 187 minutes between his speech at the Ellipse and his video telling supporters to go home. 

In between,  committee members heard testimony about the pressure put on officials felt to challenge election results, the lawmakers and extremist organizations involved and how Trump and some of his closest advisors responded on that day.

Here's what we've learned so far in eight congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

A 'sprawling, multistep conspiracy'
During the first Jan. 6 committee hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., laid out a roadmap for the hearings to come.

Members of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack argued the attack was "not a spontaneous riot," but the result of a broader conspiracy.
"Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power," Cheney said during the first hearing. 
Trump's own advisers and family members didn't believe in his efforts to overturn the election. The rift caused by that became apparent during the Jan. 6 attack, when the former president ignored pleas by his top aides and staff to call off the rioters, according to committee members. 

Trump knew he lost the election
Trump launched a disinformation campaign about the results of the 2020 election, despite knowing he lost the race, and financially benefitted from it, the committee argued in the second hearing.

In the second hearing, the Jan. 6 committee revealed evidence that proved Trump knew he lost the 2020 election but continued a disinformation campaign about the results regardless.
Cheney said that the former president "knew before the election" that mail ballots – crucial in battleground states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – would favor Biden. Testimony from Trump allies, like former Attorney General Bill Barr, revealed that Trump's advisers told him that his election fraud claims were baseless, and that he ignored them. "All the early claims that I understood were completely bogus and silly and usually based on complete misinformation," Barr said in a videotaped deposition.
Committee members argued that Trump raised $250 million from campaign donors to continue fighting the results of the 2020 election, despite knowing his claims were false. But that money didn't go toward supporting litigation.

Pressuring Pence
Trump and his allies initiated a pressure campaign against former Vice President Mike Pence in hopes that he would assist them in overturning election results in several states, the committee argued in the third hearing. 

Evidence revealed in the third Jan. 6 hearing showed a concerted effort by Trump and his allies to use slates of fake electors in battleground states to overturn the 2020 election. The plan, based on a debunked legal theory, relied on key states to find Trump-supporting electors and on Pence to toss out the real electors.  
Trump was informed that the "scheme" was unconstitutional before Jan. 6 and went through with it anyways, testimony to the committee revealed. Greg Jacob, a lawyer and former chief legal counsel for Pence, said "it is unambiguous that the vice president does not have the authority to reject electors."
Retired conservative Judge Michael Luttig, who advised Pence on his actions, told the committee that "there was no basis in the Constitution or laws of the United States at all with the theory espoused by Mr. Eastman. At all. None." Pence relayed that to Trump “many times” and “very consistently,” Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, said in a videotaped deposition.
The committee showed evidence in the seventh Jan. 6 hearing that revealed Trump incited his supporters against Pence. Trump instructed a speechwriter to "REINSERT THE MIKE PENCE LINES" in an email, sent after the former president called Pence a "wimp" for refusing to comply with the electors scheme. While ransacking the Capitol, rioters sought out Pence. 

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