“Introduction” silent on Willard Hotel “war rooms”
“Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Select Committee” in its 150+ pages contains much the January 6th Committee has shown us before, much of it transcripts from the public hearings. But a few items jump out.
The headline new revelation from the final January 6th Committee meeting Monday was a clip from testimony by trusted aide Hope Hicks in which she revealed that President Donald Trump refused requests to issue a statement before the Jan’ 6 rally for his followers to remain peaceful:
Hope Hicks texted Trump Campaign spokesperson Hogan Gidley in the midst of the January 6th violence, explaining that she had “suggested … several times” on the preceding days (January 4th and January 5th) that President Trump publicly state that January 6th must remain peaceful and that he had refused her advice to do so.[405] Her recollection was that Herschmann earlier advised President Trump to make a preemptive public statement in advance of January 6th calling for no violence that day.[406] No such statement was made.
The Hicks testimony likely buttresses the Committee’s case that the Department of Justice consider bringing charges against Trump for inciting an insurrection. Conviction under such a charge would prohibit Trump from holding any office of trust in the United States.
Another highlight from the Introduction is the weapons the Secret Service confiscated at the magnetometers (“mags”) Trump famously wanted removed. He knew people in the crowd were armed, as aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June:
When we were in the off-stage announce area tent behind the stage, he was very concerned about the shot. Meaning the photograph that we would get because the rally space wasn’t full. One of the reasons, which I’ve previously stated, was because he wanted it to be full and for people to not feel excluded because they had come far to watch him at the rally. And he felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in, but another leading reason and likely the primary reasons is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons—what the Secret Service deemed as weapons, and are, are weapons. But when we were in the off-stage announce tent, I was a part of a conversation, I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the President say something to the effect of, “I don’t F’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the F’ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the F’ing mags away.”[426]
Perhaps for the benefit of insurrection apologists who say the Jan. 6 rioters were not armed, the Introduction itemizes what the Secret Service did catch at the mags:
In addition to intelligence reports indicating potential violence at the Capitol, weapons and other prohibited items were being seized by police on the streets and by Secret Service at the magnetometers for the Ellipse speech. Secret Service confiscated a haul of weapons from the 28,000 spectators who did pass through the magnetometers: 242 cannisters of pepper spray, 269 knives or blades, 18 brass knuckles, 18 tasers, 6 pieces of body armor, 3 gas masks, 30 batons or blunt instruments, and 17 miscellaneous items like scissors, needles, or screwdrivers.[420] And thousands of others purposely remained outside the magnetometers, or left their packs outside.[421]
Others brought firearms. Three men in fatigues from Broward County, Florida brandished AR-15s in front of Metropolitan police officers on 14th Street and Independence Avenue on the morning of January 6th.[422] MPD advised over the radio that one individual was possibly armed with a “Glock” at 14th and Constitution Avenue, and another was possibly armed with a “rifle” at 15th and Constitution Avenue around 11:23 a.m.[423] The National Park Service detained an individual with a rifle between 12 and 1 p.m.[424] Almost all of this was known before Donald Trump took the stage at the Ellipse.
Note the use of “possibly” here. I hate it when Republicans use the word to modify “voter fraud” to imply “actually,” so will not let it go unmentioned here. Nonetheless.
Those confiscated weapons were just from the people willing to go through screening. Many others who remained outside the viewing area came prepared to assault the Capitol with a variety of manufactured and improvised weapons.
Another item of note is what is not in the Introduction. There is no mention of what went down at the Willard Hotel “war rooms.” Seth Abramson filed a string of reports on activities at two Willard “war rooms” shortly after Jan. 6 and into the summer of 2021. The Committee is fully aware of these events but makes no reference to them in the Introduction. A rogues’ gallery of potential suspects visited ahead of the riot on Jan. 6.
Perhaps we will learn more about the Willard when the full report posts on Wednesday.
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