Jan. 6 committee holds seventh hearing

Then-President Donald Trump planned days ahead of Jan. 6, 2021, to tell his supporters to march to the US Capitol from his rally on the National Mall, according to an unsent tweet intended for Trump's account.

The document recording the draft tweet, obtained by the House Select Committee via the National Archives, which inherited Trump White House documents, includes a stamp saying: "President has seen."

The committee on Tuesday used the tweet's existence to show how Trump and his advisers were interested in sending crowds to Capitol Hill. Lawyers for Trump since the January 6 attack have tried to argue his encouraging supporters to walk to the Capitol was political speech, and that he was not in control of the crowd nor responsible for the riot at the Capitol.

"The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the President," Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a House Select committee member, said at the hearing Tuesday.

A text message from a rally organizer also appears to confirm Trump planned days in advance about his rally moving to Capitol Hill. The message, from Kylie Jane Kremer to right-wing figure and businessman Mike Lindell, outlines that the President would have his rally march to another stage outside the Supreme Court building, which is behind the Capitol.

"It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it 'unexpectedly,'" Kremer wrote, the House committee showed on Tuesday.

Another organizer, Ali Alexander, also indicated on Jan. 5 that he expected Trump to "order" his supporters to march.

Former President Trump's Dec. 19, 2020, tweet calling his supporters to the capital on Jan. 6 united violent groups, according to Donell Harvin, the former chief of homeland security for Washington, DC.

"These nonaligned groups were aligning," he told the Jan. 6 House select committee.

"All the red flags went up at that point. When you have armed militia collaborating with white supremacy groups collaborating with conspiracy theory groups online, all towards the common goal, you started seeing what we call in terrorism a blended ideology," Harvin said.

"And that's a very, very bad sign," he added.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is back after taking a short break. 

Here's who is expected to testify:

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, laid out the foundation for the panel's seventh public hearing, saying evidence will show how former President Donald Trump "summoned a mob" in a "last-ditch effort" to overturn the 2020 election.

Thompson said by Dec. 14, 2020, Joe Biden had been elected President but, "by that point, many of Donald Trump supporters were already convinced that the election had been stolen because that's what Donald Trump had been telling them."

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol "met our expectations," said Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee.

Clips from Cipollone's testimony last week have been played during the hearing.

If you're just reading in, here are some of the key moments from the hearing so far:

A former Twitter employee who worked on the team responsible for platform and content moderation policies throughout 2020 and 2021 said they were concerned that former President Trump seemed to be talking directly to extremist organizations on Twitter and "giving them directives."

They testified that they were worried Trump would use the platform to incite violence.

"If the former president Donald Trump or any other user on Twitter, he would've been permanently suspended a very long time ago," the former employee said, speaking anonymously.

Despite concerns, the employee said Trump remained on Twitter unchecked.

On Dec. 19, the former President tweeted encouragement for his supporters to travel to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021. This tweet marked a turning point in the chatter, the former Twitter employee said.

Before the Dec. 19 tweet, the organization among extremist groups was "nonspecific but very clear," but after, the former employee said it became clear that people were willing to fight for the cause.

"It became clear not only with these individuals ready and willing, but the leader of their cause was asking them to join him in this cause and fighting for this cause in DC on Jan. 6 as well," the employee said.

They also said they were "shocked" by the responses to Trump's tweets.

"I very much believe that Donald Trump posted his tweet on December 19 was essentially staking a flag in DC on Jan. 6 for his supporters to come and rally," adding they were concerned about this gathering becoming violent.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said that former President Donald Trump eventually turned away from his advisers at the White House after an "unhinged" meeting in December 2020 with Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani and tweeted out an invitation, where he falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen and urged his supporters to come to Washington, DC, on Jan., 6, 2021 to protest.

"President Trump turned away both from his outside advisers, most outlandish and un-workable schemes and his White House counsel's advice to swallow hard and accept the reality of his loss. Instead, Donald Trump issued a tweet that would galvanize his followers, unleash a political firestorm, and change the course of our history as a country," Raskin said.

He continued, "Trump's purpose was to mobilize a crowd and how do you mobilize a crowd in 2020? With millions of followers on Twitter, President Trump knew exactly how to do it. At 1:42 a.m. on December 19, 2020, shortly after the last participants left the unhinged meeting, Trump sent out the tweet with his explosive invitation."

The tweet, Raskin said, repeated the election fraud lie and claimed it was "statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election." The tweet then went on to call for a "big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"

Former President Trump’s December tweet urging his followers to come to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021 for a “wild” and “big” protest attracted some of his most extreme supporters, including followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, and was greeted online by White supremacists and other proponents of violence, according to witness interviews and exhibits released by the House select committee on Tuesday.

Jim Watkins, the administrator of 8kun, an online forum that is the home of the QAnon conspiracy, told the House panel that he decided to go to Washington on Jan. 6 after Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19. 

“When the President of the United States announced that he was going to have a rally. Then I bought a ticket and went,” testified Watkins.

The House panel showed in its hearing Tuesday how some of Trump’s followers took to social media with violent online rhetoric; One online commenter called for the “DAY OF THE ROPE!” and for a “WHITE REVOLUTION.”

“I’m ready to die for my beliefs,” posted someone on the anonymous forum 4chan on Jan. 5, 2021. “Are you ready to die police?”

The committee also deposed Jody Willams, former owner of the racist and anti-Semitic site TheDonald.win.

"After it was announced that he was going to be there on the 6th to talk, yes, then anything else was kind of shut out and there was just going to be on the 6th," Williams said.

A commenter on the site posted that they would "bring handcuffs and wait near the tunnels." Another poster encouraged people to bring "body armor, knuckles, shields, bats, pepper spray, whatever it takes."

See how Trump's tweet ignited far-right calls to flood the Capitol:

The Jan. 6 committee is taking a short break. 

Many other Trump White House officials shared the view that once the litigation on alleged voting fraud ended and the Electoral College met, the election was over, including Ivanka Trump and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, according to Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney.

When the litigation concluded "was when I began to plan for life after the administration," McEnany said in her taped testimony to the committee.

When Ivanka Trump was asked if the conclusion of the Electoral College vote affected her planning in terms of the end to the Trump administration, she said, "I think so. I think it was my sentiment probably prior as well."