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Jan 6 hearing – live: Trump lawyer stopped by FBI ahead of surprise testimony by mystery witness

The January 6 committee has announced a surprise extra hearing that will contain new evidence of Donald Trump’s “dereliction of duty,” California representative Adam Schiff said on Sunday.

“The final hearing will cover what the president was doing and more importantly, what he was not doing as we were being attacked,” Mr Schiff told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

The latest round of the highly watched inquiry will take place at 1pm ET on Tuesday, 28 June.

Previously, the special congressional committee had no more planned hearings until lawmakers returned from their 4 July recess.

The final hearing will bring to a close a month that featured five other days packed with shocking testimony before the committee.

Previous hearings in June revealed Donald Trump’s unprecedented pressure campaign on the Department of Justice to tamper with the election process, and strong evidence from the president’s own inner circle that Mr Trump was clearly warned his election conspiracies were “bulls*t“ but he went on claiming them anyway.

Meanwhile, outside of Congress, one of the company’s behind Donald Trump’s social media app Truth Social is under investigation, and infamous “coup memo” author John Eastman says he was searched by federal agents.

Key Points

  • Former Meadows aide to testify in surprise hearing: report

  • Senate sergeant-at-arms in charge of security during 6 Jan riot dies

  • Filmmaker who upended Jan 6 probe talks Trump ‘aggression’

  • Trump's 'coup memo' lawyer John Eastman claims FBI stopped him at restaurant and seized his phone

  • Company behind Trump’s Truth Social now under investigation

ICYMI | Trump obsesses over exact position of water glass in bizarre clip

06:19 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

In a clip shared by the 6 January documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, former president Donald Trump can be seen fussing over a glass of water in the camera frame.

Mr Holder, the maker of ‘Unprecedented’ — a three-part documentary about the final months of the Trump presidency — tweeted a clip from it and wrote: “The Trumps did not have editorial control. Full stop.”Unprecedented is slated to be released this summer and has been bought by Discovery Plus.

In fact, Mr Holder’s documentary footage has been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot of last year.

The clip shows Mr Trump checking himself in the frame after he takes a seat for the interview. Then goes: “I don’t think you want to have the water in the picture. You can take it. Yeah.”

Maroosha Muzaffar has more.

Trump obsesses over exact position of water glass in bizarre clip from Jan 6 film

Donald Trump hit with yet another investigation

05:56 , Josh Marcus

The so-called “blank check” company behind former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform now appears to be the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors who are looking into whether the company or its executives violated federal securities laws.

Shares of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, known as Digital World Acquisition Corporation, fell nine per cent in early trading on Monday after CEO Patrick Orlando filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to report that the company, which is pursuing a merger with the former president’s Trump Media and Technology Group, was issued a subpoena by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York.

Mr Orlando also wrote that each member of DWAC’s board of directors has also been issued a subpoena by the same grand jury.

All the details here.

Company behind Trump’s Truth Social now under investigation by federal prosecutors

Former Meadows aide to testify in surprise hearing

05:42 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s onetime top aid Cassidy Hutchinson is set to testify before the House committee investigating the 6 January attacks on the Capitol.

Ms Hutchinson has already provided information to the committee, sitting with its investigators over the course of three separate interviews, The Hill reported.

She would be the first White House employee to testify publicly before the committee.

The investigating committee on Monday announced a surprise hearing, just days after chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would pause a series of hearings it has held this month while committee members review newly-acquired evidence.

Ilhan Omar calls for investigation into justice Clarence Thomas’s role

05:22 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called for a full impeachment investigation into justice Clarence Thomas’s role in the 6 January coup, in a reference to his wife Ginni’s alleged involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election.

“Congress also has the authority to impeach Members of the Supreme Court and has done so before,” she tweeted.

The January 6 hearings have an unexpected upside—for Ron DeSantis

04:56 , Josh Marcus

Ron Desantis sees the January 6 hearings as a possible way for former President Donald Trump to be indicted, according to a report.

A Republican consultant told Politico over the weekend: “That’s where his head is at. He thinks the goal here is to get main justice to go after him.”

“That’s what Ron thinks this is all about,” the consultant, said to be familiar with the governor’s thinking, told the outlet.

Catch up with Gustaf Kilander’s full report.

DeSantis wants Jan 6 hearings to get Trump indicted, report claims

Senate sergeant-at-arms in charge of security during 6 Jan riot dies

04:22 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Michael Stenger, who served as the Sergeant at Arms for the US senate during the 6 January riot at the Capitol last year, has died.

His death comes amid the House of Representatives’s attempt to investigate the riot at the US Capitol last year wherein supporters of former president Donald Trump raided the complex in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Stenger assumed the role in 2018 after he served as chief of staff to his predecessor Frank Larkin, Roll Call reported at the time. He previously served in the United States Marine Corps and for 35 years in the US Secret Service.

Eric Garcia reports.

Senate sergeant-at-arms in charge of security during Jan 6 riot dies

The documentary that changed the January 6 hearings

03:56 , Josh Marcus

Alex Holder, the British filmmaker who recently provided the House January 6 select committee with a trove of footage shot in the months leading up to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, says members of former president Donald Trump’s family appeared largely unconcerned about the possibility that his repeated lies about a “stolen” election could lead to violence.

Last week, the select committee received hours of video from Mr Holder after he was issued a subpoena calling for “raw footage” taken by him and his colleagues on the day of the Capitol attack. The subpoena also requested footage of interviews with Mr Trump, Mr Pence, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, or Jared Kushner and “any footage pertaining to discussions of election fraud or election integrity surrounding the November 2020 presidential election”.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Holder said the focus of the series, which is set to premiere later this year on the Discovery+ streaming service, was on Mr Trump and his three eldest children — Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — and spanned from September 2020 through the last days of Mr Trump’s tumultuous presidency.

Read more on the film of the moment here.

Filmmaker who upended Jan 6 probe talks Trump ‘aggression’, what he saw

The January 6 committee’s June surprise

02:56 , Josh Marcus

The House January 6 select committee will hold a surprise hearing on Tuesday 28 July at 1.00 pm, just days after chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would pause a series of hearings it has held this month while committee members review newly-acquired evidence.

In a press release on Monday, the committee said the hearing’s purpose will be to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony,” but the panel did not elaborate on the identity of the witnesses or the nature of the evidence.

On Thursday, Mr Thompson closed the panel’s fifth public session by telling attendees and viewers that the committee’s next hearings would “show how Donald Trump tapped into the threat of violence, how he summoned a mob to Washington, and how after corruption and political pressure failed to keep Donald Trump in office, violence became the last option”.

Andrew Feinberg has the details.

Was Trump’s violent rhetoric ‘fair game’? His son certainly thinks so.

01:56 , Josh Marcus

The British documentarian whose footage of former president Donald Trump and his family in the days leading up to the January 6 insurrection prompted a pause in the House January 6 select committee’s hearings says Mr Trump’s son Eric was unconcerned by the possibility that his father’s supporters would react violently to his lies alleging that the 2020 election was stolen.

Last week, filmmaker Alex Holder appeared to give evidence before the committee in an interview after turning over a copy of raw footage captured between September 2020 and mid 2021 for a documentary which will air this summer on Discovery+.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Holder said Trump family members — and Eric Trump in particular — were unbothered by the idea that the often violent rhetoric they and their patriarch espoused after his loss to now-president Joe Biden would inspire his supporters to act out.

Read Andrew Feinberg’s exclusive interview.

Filmmaker subpoenaed by Jan 6 committee says Eric Trump felt violence was ‘fair game’

Star Watergate witness John Dean says surprise January 6 hearing ‘better be a big deal'

Tuesday 28 June 2022 00:45 , Josh Marcus

John Dean knows a thing or two about high-profile hearings.In 1973, the former White House counsel testified against Richard Nixon as part of the Watergate scandal.

Now he’s warning that the January 6 committee’s surprise extra hearing “better big a big deal,” to justify springing a new round of testimony on Washington right before the 4 July recess.“There was only one surprise witness during the Senate Watergate Committee hearings,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday. “On July 16, 1973 an unannounced witness appeared: Alex Butterfield, who testified to Nixon’s secret taping system — forever changing history!”

“The January 6 Committee is dealing with a very high historical standard in springing a surprise hearing and witness tomorrow,” he added. “If it is not really important information it’s going to hurt the credibility of this committee! Cancel now if you can’t match!”

Kevin McCarthy says things “all good” with Donald Trump despite reports of fury at January 6 hearings

Monday 27 June 2022 23:58 , Josh Marcus

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says things are “all good” with Donald Trump, despite a bruising round of January 6 hearings and reports that the former president is furious with congressional Republicans for electing not to participate in the inquiry and offer a defence of their party leader.

The GOP leader told Fox News’s Dana Perino he had talked with Mr Trump “recently” and things were “all good.”

That’s not what leaks from Mr Trump’s camp would suggest.

A close advisor told The Washington Post that Mr Trump is at “the point of about to scream at the TV” as he watches the hearings.

Trump angrily watches every Jan 6 hearing, almost screaming at TV, report says

Trump donors are reportedly ‘getting sick of the sh** show'

Monday 27 June 2022 23:38 , Josh Marcus

Donald Trump’s backers in the Republican world may be getting tired of the “sh** show” that surrounds the former president and his election conspiracies, according to a new report in Politico.

The January 6 hearings might be a tipping point, according to GOP donor Dan Eberhart.

“Trump is facing an important onslaught of negative facts with these hearings and there is no real defense. He has no friendly members on the committee and there aren’t facts to put in front of the public to make any of this sound less bad,” he told the outlet.

This frustration could create an opening in the 2024 presidential campaign for Mr Trump’s rival Ron DeSantis of Florida.

“I think the January 6 hearings are continuation of the exhausting circus that surrounds Trump,” a close DeSantis added. ““It’s a shitshow...Some donors are getting sick of the shitshow.”

Trump's 'coup memo' lawyer John Eastman claims FBI stopped him at restaurant and seized his phone

Monday 27 June 2022 23:18 , Josh Marcus

A lawyer linked to Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the result of the 2020 election has claimed the FBI stopped him outside a restaurant and seized his phone.

In a court filing, John Eastman said that federal agents approached him on the evening of 22 June.

Andrew Buncombe is following the breaking news story.

Trump’s ‘coup memo’ lawyer says FBI seized his phone outside restaurant

Trump election lawyer says federal agents took his phone

Monday 27 June 2022 23:02 , Josh Marcus

John Eastman, the Trump campaign elections attorney who helped shape the former president’s plans to overturn the 2020 election, says in a new court filing federal agents took his phone as part of a search warrant.

Mr Eastman, author of the infamous “coup memo,” said agents seized his iPhone on 22 June, according to a New Mexico court filing.

He claims he wasn’t able to get a copy of the warrant until after his phone was seized, and is seeking to retrieve his property.

Who is John Eastman and why did he ask Trump for a presidential pardon?

Half of Americans think Donald Trump wanted to stay in office illegally: poll

Monday 27 June 2022 22:31 , Josh Marcus

Half of Americans think Donald Trump wanted to stay in office using illegal means, according to a new poll from CBS News and YouGov.

However, just less than half, 46 per cent, say the January 6 committee should recommend that the former president face criminal charges.

And in a sign of just how partisan the reaction to 6 January really is, half Republicans still consider the storming of the Capitol to be “patriotism.”

Unpack the full poll results via CBS.

ICMYI: Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert among lawmakers who asked for pardons from Trump, Jan 6 hearing told

Monday 27 June 2022 21:50 , Josh Marcus

One of the biggest bombshells from the January 6 hearings so far was the revelation of which Republican lawmakers sought pardons during the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

“The only reason you ask for a pardon is if you think you’ve committed a crime,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger said during the hearings.

Here’s our full report on the pardons.

Trump lashes out over rumours Republicans are ditching him over Jan 6

Monday 27 June 2022 21:30 , Josh Marcus

Donald Trump is lashing out over suggestions that the Republican Party is rejecting him because of the January 6 insurrection as the House Select Committee lays out a detailed description of what led up to and followed the attack on Congress.

On Sunday, Mr Trump took aim at conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, saying that she doesn’t understand his base and its politics.

In a statement issued via his political action committee Save America, the former president said: “I listen to all of these foolish (stupid!) people, often living in a bygone era, like the weak and frail RINO, Peggy Noonan, who did much less for Ronald Reagan than she claims, and who actually said bad things about him and his ability to speak”.

Mr Trump was responding to a piece Ms Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “both parties are rejecting their leaders, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It’s a continuing tectonic shift and the story underlying every daily political story. It’s building and will only grow. Both parties are starting to scramble for what’s next, who’s next. Both are casting about”.

Gustaf Kilander is following the story.

Trump lashes out over rumours Republicans are ditching him over Jan 6

Company behind Trump’s Truth Social now under investigation by federal prosecutors

Monday 27 June 2022 21:10 , Josh Marcus

The so-called “blank check” company behind former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform now appears to be the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors who are looking into whether the company or its executives violated federal securities laws.

Shares of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, known as Digital World Acquisition Corporation, fell nine per cent in early trading on Monday after CEO Patrick Orlando filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to report that the company, which is pursuing a merger with the former president’s Trump Media and Technology Group, was issued a subpoena by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York.

Mr Orlando also wrote that each member of DWAC’s board of directors has also been issued a subpoena by the same grand jury.

Read more from Andrew Feinberg’s full report.

Company behind Trump’s Truth Social now under investigation by federal prosecutors

Filmmaker subpoenaed by Jan 6 committee says Eric Trump thought inciting violence was ‘fair game’

Monday 27 June 2022 20:50 , Josh Marcus

The British documentarian whose footage of former president Donald Trump and his family in the days leading up to the January 6 insurrection prompted a pause in the House January 6 select committee’s hearings says Mr Trump’s son Eric was unconcerned by the possibility that his father’s supporters would react violently to his lies alleging that the 2020 election was stolen.

Last week, filmmaker Alex Holder appeared to give evidence before the committee in an interview after turning over a copy of raw footage captured between September 2020 and mid 2021 for a documentary which will air this summer on Discovery+.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Holder said Trump family members — and Eric Trump in particular — were unbothered by the idea that the often violent rhetoric they and their patriarch espoused after his loss to now-president Joe Biden would inspire his supporters to act out.

Andrew Feinberg has more.

Filmmaker subpoenaed by Jan 6 committee says Eric Trump felt violence was ‘fair game’

DeSantis wants Jan 6 hearings to get Trump indicted, report claims

Monday 27 June 2022 20:30 , Josh Marcus

Ron Desantis sees the January 6 hearings as a possible way for former President Donald Trump to be indicted, according to a report.

A Republican consultant told Politico over the weekend: “That’s where his head is at. He thinks the goal here is to get main justice to go after him.”

“That’s what Ron thinks this is all about,” the consultant, said to be familiar with the governor’s thinking, told the outlet.

But the consultant added that Mr DeSantis is more focused on winning reelection in Florida by a larger margin than the 3.2 points that Mr Trump won the state by in the 2020 election.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

DeSantis wants Jan 6 hearings to get Trump indicted, report claims

Will the press corps face new rules under Trump's Supreme Court?

Monday 27 June 2022 20:13 , Josh Marcus

The Supreme Court should revisist the standard for libel established decades ago by the Court which has protected media organisations from vengeful public officials, Justice Clarence Thomas says.

The startling remark was made in a dissent Mr Thomas filed on Monday as part of the Court’s decision on Coral Ridge Ministries vs the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in which the court declined to issue a ruling overturning the landmark New York Times vs Sullivan case that established America’s libel standard. In his dissent, Mr Thomas wrote that he thought the Court should revisit that standard.

“I would grant certiorari in this case to revisit the ‘actual malice’ standard,” Mr Thomas wrote plainly. He claimed that the standard set in Sullivan had “allowed media organizations and interest groups ‘to cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity’.”

John Bowden has this look at what comes next for the First Amendment.

Clarence Thomas signals SCOTUS may revisit media libel precedent

Our columnist’s take? Tomorrow’s hearing is going to be big.

Monday 27 June 2022 19:50 , Josh Marcus

The only reason the January 6 committee would announce a new hearing so last minute is if they had something major, suggests Independent columnist Ahmed Baba.

“The House was on recess and they had postponed all future hearings until July, so given the January 6 Committee is coming back for a hearing they must have significant new evidence to present,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Before tomorrow’s testimony, catch up on Ahmed’s analysis of the hearings so far.

Today we learned January 6 wasn’t a directionless coup. It was a targeted attack

What we just heard about Trump and Pence on Jan 6th is beyond the worst-case scenario

Today, William Barr gave the most damning testimony I’ve ever seen about Trump

Filmmaker who upended Jan 6 probe talks Trump ‘aggression’, what he saw, and how the spotlight has led to death threats

Monday 27 June 2022 19:35 , Josh Marcus

Alex Holder, the British filmmaker who recently provided the House January 6 select committee with a trove of footage shot in the months leading up to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, says members of former president Donald Trump’s family appeared largely unconcerned about the possibility that his repeated lies about a “stolen” election could lead to violence.

Last week, the select committee received hours of video from Mr Holder after he was issued a subpoena calling for “raw footage” taken by him and his colleagues on the day of the Capitol attack. The subpoena also requested footage of interviews with Mr Trump, Mr Pence, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, or Jared Kushner and “any footage pertaining to discussions of election fraud or election integrity surrounding the November 2020 presidential election”.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Holder said the focus of the series, which is set to premiere later this year on the Discovery+ streaming service, was on Mr Trump and his three eldest children — Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — and spanned from September 2020 through the last days of Mr Trump’s tumultuous presidency.

Read more of Andrew Feinberg’s interview with the filmmaker who is roiling the January 6 probe.

Filmmaker who upended Jan 6 probe talks Trump ‘aggression’, what he saw

Hearing could focus on Ginni Thomas, controversial activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice

Monday 27 June 2022 19:20 , Josh Marcus

We still don’t know what tomorrow’s January 6 hearing will be about.

What we do know is that lawmakers have been working to get testimony from Ginni Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about her repeated attempts to get the Trump White House to challenge the 2020 election results.

Ginni Thomas agrees to talk to Jan 6 committee to ‘clear up misconceptions’

Ms Thomas has said she’s agreed to sit down with the inquiry. Tomorrow’s hearing could feature video of her testimony.

Pre-taped testimony from other Trump backers like Ivanka Trump has been deployed so far to devastating effect.

Ivanka had ‘bad feeling’ Trump was setting up Pence on Jan 6, biographer claims

What is tomorrow’s January 6 hearing about?

Monday 27 June 2022 19:05 , Josh Marcus

Lawmakers have not divulged much about what tomorrow’s January 6 hearings will entail.

The committee has only announced Tuesday’s hearing would “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”

That might involve details learned in footage shared with lawmakers from Alex Holder, a British documentarian who interviewed Donald Trump and members of his inner circle in the days surrounding January 6.

Here’s our look at what might be on those tapes, courtesy of Andrew Buncombe.

The January 6 committee announces a surprise encore

Monday 27 June 2022 19:00 , Josh Marcus

Just when we thought June’s bombshell January 6 hearings were out of surprises, committee members announced a surprise final hearing for Tuesday.

The inquiry will continue at 1 pm ET on Capitol Hill on 28 June, and feature new evidence about Donald Trump’s conduct the day of January 6.

As always, The Independent will be covering all the details live.