Here’s what to know about Tuesday’s unexpected Jan. 6 hearing

The House select committee investigating the riots at the U. S. Capitol on Jan.

6, 2021, reconvened Tuesday for a hastily scheduled hearing, featuring testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Hutchinson has cooperated extensively with the investigation, having sat for four closed-door depositions. During her testimony in front of the panel on Tuesday, she revealed how then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle were warned about the potential for violence on Jan.

6, and how Trump wanted to join the throngs of his supporters at the U. S. Capitol that day.

The testimony bolstered the narrative that the committee has been driving toward over the last few weeks: That Trump incited and supported the riots as part of an attempt at a second term and that many of his top advisers thought his schemes were illegal. Watch the first half of Hutchinson’s testimony in the video above. Here are takeaways from Hutchinson’s key testimony.

Hutchinson testified that Trump was aware of the potential for violence, but forged ahead on Jan. 6 with his attempts to rile up his supporters to interfere with the joint session of Congress to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. She said Trump was told that morning that weapons were being confiscated from some of his supporters who came for his rally.

Later, when Trump and his team were at the Ellipse — the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House — and before his speech, Trump told staffers to “take the mags away” — referring to the metal detectors — because the people in the crowd, “They’re not here to hurt me. ” Trump also said, “I don’t [expletive] care that they have weapons,” according to Hutchinson. Hundreds of Trump’s diehard supporters soon stormed the Capitol, many carrying knives, bear spray, metal poles, tasers and a few guns.

When Hutchinson told her boss, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, about early reports of weapons getting confiscated, Meadows didn’t even look up from his phone, Hutchinson said. Two days earlier, he told her that “things might get real, real, bad on Jan. 6.

” “The potential for violence was learned or known before the onset of the violence, early enough for President Trump to have taken steps to prevent it,” said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s GOP vice chair. She added that Trump could have urged his supporters not to march to the Capitol, or condemned the violence more quickly, but didn’t, because he “had something else in mind.

” The select committee effectively proved as much on Tuesday by featuring a mix of witness testimony and White House records that show Trump intended to join his supporters at the Capitol and was pushing to do so just minutes before the violence began to escalate. It was previously known that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but Hutchinson’s testimony established for the first time that people around Trump had advance knowledge of this plan. The reality of Trump’s intentions became clear to national security officials in real time as they learned the Secret Service was scrambling to find a way for the president to travel to the Capitol while he was on stage urging his followers to march, according to National Security Council chat logs from that day that were revealed for the first time during Tuesday’s hearing.

The NSC chat logs provide a minute-by-minute accounting of how the situation evolved from the perspective of top White House national security officials on Jan. 6 and, along with witness testimony delivered on Tuesday, contradict an account by Meadows in his book where he says Trump never intended to march to the Capitol. “MOGUL’s going to the Capital .

. . they are clearing a route now,” a message sent to the chat log at 12:29 p.

m. ET on Jan. 6 reads — referring to the former president’s secret service code name.

“MilAide has confirmed that he wants to walk,” a 12:32 p. m. message reads.

“They are begging him to reconsider. ” “So this is happening,” a message sent at 12:47 p. m.

states. Hutchinson also testified that some in Trump’s orbit had made clear days before Jan. 6 that Trump wanted to travel to the U.

S. Capitol. She told the committee Tuesday that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told her on Jan.

2 — four days before the U. S. Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters — that “we’re going to the Capitol” on Jan.

6, and that Trump himself was also planning to be there. Hutchinson testified Tuesday that she heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol on Jan. 6 that he lunged to the front of his presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel.

Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, told Hutchinson that Robert Engel, who was the Secret Service agent in charge on Jan. 6 repeatedly told Trump on their way back to the White House after Trump’s Ellipse speech that it wasn’t safe to go to the Capitol. According to Hutchinson, Ornato recounted Trump screaming, “I’m the [expletive] president.

Take me up to the Capitol now. ” Trump then “reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel,” Hutchinson remembered learning. She added that, according to Ornato, Trump used his other hand “lunge” at Engel.

Engel and Ornato have both testified to the committee behind closed doors, but their statements were not used in the hearing Tuesday. Trump defended the rioters chanting for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, according to Hutchinson.

Hutchinson relayed a conversation she observed between White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Meadows after they discussed with Trump the chants to inflict violence on Pence. “I remember Pat saying something to the effect of ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be [expletive] hung,'” Hutchinson recalled.

Meadows replied, “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” according to Hutchinson.

Cipollone responded, “This is [expletive] crazy. We need to be doing something more. ” Hutchinson testified that Cipollone had previously rushed into Meadows’ office after rioters breached the Capitol and told Meadows what had happened, and said they needed to go meet with Trump.

“Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and the blood’s gonna be on your [expletive] hands,” Cipollone told Meadows, according to Hutchinson. “This is getting out of control. ” Trump delivered a speech on Jan.

7, 2021, finally acknowledging that Biden would be inaugurated in part because there was a “large concern” by the White House that Pence and the Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from power, according to Cassidy’s testimony. Hutchinson also testified that Trump did not want to include references in the speech to prosecuting the pro-Trump rioters, but instead wanted to float pardons for them. After the White House Counsel’s office pushed back, Trump did mention pardons in that speech.

If the 25th Amendment had been invoked, Trump could’ve put his presidency up for a vote before Congress, where two-thirds would have been necessary to kick him out. “There was a large concern of the 25th Amendment potentially being invoked, and there were concerns about what would happen in the Senate if it was,” Hutchinson testified. The thinking at the time was that Trump needed the speech “as cover” to protect himself from the threat of his Cabinet trying to oust him from power, Hutchinson said.

She said that was a “secondary reason” for Trump to give the speech; the first was that Trump needed to condemn the violent attack to try and prevent it from becoming his legacy. While Trump gave the speech effectively conceding the election, he wanted to remove calls for “prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent” from early drafts of his Jan. 7 speech, according to Hutchinson, but wanted to float pardons to his supporters.

“He didn’t want that in there,” Hutchinson said. “He wanted to put in that he wanted to potentially pardon them. ” “He didn’t think that they did anything wrong,” said Hutchinson, referring to the pro-Trump rioters.

“The people who did something wrong that day-or-the person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence, by not standing with him. ” In emotional and powerful testimony, Hutchinson said Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 was “unpatriotic” and “un-American.

” The committee asked Hutchinson to describe her real-time reaction from Jan. 6, when Trump attacked Pence in a tweet at 2:24 p. m.

ET, which was after his supporters invaded the Capitol, forcing Pence, lawmakers, and staffers to run for their lives. “As a staffer . .

. I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really, it felt personal. It was really sad,” Hutchinson said.

“As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American.

We’re watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest. .

. . I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.

” Her condemnation of Trump’s behavior may shed some light on her motivations for coming forward with so much damaging information about Jan. 6. Committee members have heaped praise on Hutchinson and other Republicans who have testified, calling them patriots.

The committee has secured testimony from some major witnesses members of Trump’s inner circle, even members of his family. But Cheney suggested during the hearing that there might be a Trump-imposed blockade of sorts and that the panel has evidence of witness tampering. She said one witness — whom the committee did not identify — testified that: “What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump world.

” Another unidentified witness said they were told by someone in Trump’s orbit that Trump was “thinking about you” and that “he knows you’re loyal” and hopes that “you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition. ” Cheney said the committee takes this “seriously” and will be considering “next steps,” potentially hinting at a criminal referral, for possible witness tampering or obstruction. Democratic Rep.

Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee chairman, issued a public plea for more cooperation, saying to potential witnesses that if “you discovered some courage you had hidden away somewhere, our doors remain open. ” Trump has denied all wrongdoing regarding Jan. 6 and the related investigations.

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