[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                HEARING ON THE JANUARY 6TH INVESTIGATION

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                          SELECT COMMITTEE TO
                      INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH
                             ATTACK ON THE
                         UNITED STATES CAPITOL

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                              JUNE 9, 2022

                               __________

                            Serial No. 117-2

                               __________

Printed for the use of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 
                6th Attack on the United States Capitol
                                     

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                                     

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                               __________
                               
                     U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
48-998 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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 SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH ATTACK ON THE UNITED 
                             STATES CAPITOL

               Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi, Chairman
                    Liz Cheney, Wyoming, Vice Chair
                        Zoe Lofgren, California
                       Adam B. Schiff, California
                        Pete Aguilar, California
                      Stephanie N. Murphy, Florida
                         Jamie Raskin, Maryland
                       Elaine G. Luria, Virginia
                        Adam Kinzinger, Illinois
                            COMMITTEE STAFF

                    David B. Buckley, Staff Director
      Kristin L. Amerling, Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
             Timothy J. Heaphy, Chief Investigative Counsel
                  Hope Goins, Counsel to the Chairman
                      Jamie Fleet, Senior Advisor
          Joseph B. Maher, Senior Counselor to the Vice Chair
               Timothy R. Mulvey, Communications Director
           Candyce Phoenix, Senior Counsel and Senior Advisor

Katherine B. Abrams, Staff           Thomas E. Joscelyn, Senior 
    Associate                            Professional Staff Member
Temidayo Aganga-Williams, Senior     Rebecca L. Knooihuizen, Financial 
    Investigative Counsel                Investigator
Alejandra Apecechea, Investigative   Casey E. Lucier, Investigative 
    Counsel                              Counsel
Lisa A. Bianco, Director of Member   Damon M. Marx, Professional Staff 
    Services and Security Manager        Member
Jerome P. Bjelopera, Investigator    Evan B. Mauldin, Chief Clerk
Bryan Bonner, Investigative Counsel  Yonatan L. Moskowitz, Senior 
Richard R. Bruno, Senior                 Counsel
    Administrative Assistant         Hannah G. Muldavin, Deputy 
Marcus Childress, Investigative          Communications Director
    Counsel                          Jonathan D. Murray, Professional 
John Marcus Clark, Security              Staff Member
    Director                         Jacob A. Nelson, Professional 
Jacqueline N. Colvett, Digital           Staff Member
    Director                         Elizabeth Obrand, Staff Associate
Heather I. Connelly, Professional    Raymond O'Mara, Director of 
    Staff Member                         External Affairs
Meghan E. Conroy, Investigator       Elyes Ouechtati, Technology 
Heather L. Crowell, Printer              Partner
    Proofreader                      Robin M. Peguero, Investigative 
William C. Danvers, Senior               Counsel
    Researcher                       Sandeep A. Prasanna, Investigative 
Soumyalatha O. Dayananda, Senior         Counsel
    Investigative Counsel            Barry Pump, Parliamentarian
Stephen W. DeVine, Senior Counsel    Sean M. Quinn, Investigative 
Lawrence J. Eagleburger,                 Counsel
    Professional Staff Member        Brittany M. J. Record, Senior 
Kevin S. Elliker, Investigative          Counsel
    Counsel                          Joshua D. Roselman, Investigative 
Margaret E. Emamzadeh, Staff             Counsel
    Associate                        James N. Sasso, Investigative 
Sadallah A. Farah, Professional          Counsel
    Staff Member                     Grant H. Saunders, Professional 
Daniel A. George, Senior                 Staff Member
    Investigative Counsel            Samantha O. Stiles, Chief 
Jacob H. Glick, Investigative            Administrative Officer
    Counsel                          Sean P. Tonolli, Senior 
Aaron S. Greene, Clerk                   Investigative Counsel
Marc S. Harris, Senior               David A. Weinberg, Senior 
    Investigative Counsel                Professional Staff Member
Alice K. Hayes, Clerk                Amanda S. Wick, Senior 
Quincy T. Henderson, Staff               Investigative Counsel
    Assistant                        Darrin L. Williams, Jr., Staff 
Camisha L. Johnson, Professional         Assistant
    Staff Member                     John F. Wood, Senior Investigative 
                                         Counsel
                                     Zachary S. Wood, Clerk
                       CONTRACTORS & CONSULTANTS

                             Rawaa Alobaidi
                             Melinda Arons
                              Steve Baker
                            Elizabeth Bisbee
                              David Canady
                             John Coughlin
                             Aaron Dietzen
                              Gina Ferrise
                           Angel Goldsborough
                             James Goldston
                              Polly Grube
                          L. Christine Healey
                             Danny Holladay
                              Percy Howard
                              Dean Jackson
                           Stephanie J. Jones
                              Hyatt Mamoun
                               Mary Marsh
                               Todd Mason
                              Ryan Mayers
                              Jeff McBride
                               Fred Muram
                             Alex Newhouse
                              John Norton
                             Orlando Pinder
                               Owen Pratt
                              Dan Pryzgoda
                              Brian Sasser
                            William Scherer
                              Driss Sekkat
                              Chris Stuart
                            Preston Sullivan
                              Brian Young

                           Innovative Driven
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               Statements

The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress 
  From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Select Committee 
  to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States 
  Capitol........................................................     1
The Honorable Liz Cheney, a Representative in Congress From the 
  State of Wyoming, and Vice Chair, Select Committee to 
  Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol     4

                               Witnesses

Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol Police, Washington, DC....    16
Mr. Nick Quested, Documentary Filmmaker, New York, NY............    17

                                Appendix

Prepared Statement of Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol 
  Police, Washington, DC.........................................    27
Prepared Statement of Mr. Nick Quested, Documentary Filmmaker, 
  New York, NY...................................................    27

 
                HEARING ON THE JANUARY 6TH INVESTIGATION

                              ----------                              


                         Thursday, June 9, 2022

                     U.S. House of Representatives,
 Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on 
                                 the United States Capitol,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 8:02 p.m., in 
room 390, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Bennie G. Thompson 
[Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Thompson, Cheney, Lofgren, Schiff, 
Aguilar, Murphy, Raskin, Luria, and Kinzinger.
    Chairman Thompson. The Select Committee to Investigate the 
January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol will be in 
order.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare the 
Committee in recess at any point.
    Pursuant to House Deposition Authority Regulation 10, the 
Chair announces the Committee's approval to release the 
deposition material presented during tonight's hearing.
    Thanks to everyone watching tonight for sharing part of 
your evening to learn the facts and causes of the events 
leading up to and including the violent attack on January 6, 
2021, on our democracy, electoral system, and country.
    I am Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the January 6th, 2021, 
Committee. I was born, raised, and still live in Bolton, 
Mississippi, a town with a population of 521, which is midway 
between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the Mississippi 
River.
    I am from a part of the country where people justify the 
actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I am 
reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and 
justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021.
    Over the next few weeks, hopefully you will get to know the 
other Members, my colleagues up here, and me. We represent a 
diversity of communities from all over the United States, rural 
areas and cities, East Coast, West Coast, and the heartland.
    All of us have one thing in common: We swore the same oath, 
that same oath that all Members of Congress take upon taking 
office and afterwards every 2 years if they are reelected. We 
swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, 
foreign and domestic.
    The words of the current oath taken by all of us that 
nearly every U.S. Government employee takes have their roots in 
the Civil War. Throughout our history, the United States has 
fought against foreign enemies to preserve our democracy, 
electoral system, and country.
    When the United States Capitol was stormed and burned in 
1814, foreign enemies were responsible. Afterward, in 1862, 
when American citizens had taken up arms against this country, 
Congress adopted a new oath to help make sure no person who had 
supported the rebellion could hold a position of public trust. 
Therefore, Congresspersons and United States Federal Government 
employees were required for the first time to swear an oath to 
defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and 
domestic.
    That oath was put to the test on January 6, 2021. The 
police officers who held the line that day honored their oath. 
Many came out of that day bloodied and broken. They still bear 
those wounds, visible and invisible. They did their duty. They 
repelled the mob and ended the occupation of the Capitol. They 
defended the Constitution against domestic enemies so that 
Congress could return, uphold our own oath, and count your 
votes to ensure the transfer of power, just as we have done for 
hundreds of years.
    But, unlike in 1814, it was domestic enemies of the 
Constitution who stormed the Capitol and occupied the Capitol, 
who sought to thwart the will of the people, to stop the 
transfer of power. They did so at the encouragement of the 
President of the United States--the President of the United 
States trying to stop the transfer of power, a precedent that 
had stood for 220 years, even as our democracy had faced its 
most difficult test.
    Thinking back again to the Civil War, in the summer of 
1864, the President of the United States believed he would be 
doomed in his bid for reelection. He believed his opponent, 
General George McClellan, would wave the white flag when it 
came to preserving the Union. But even with that grim fate 
hanging in the balance, President Lincoln was ready to accept 
the will of the voters, come what may.
    He made a quiet pledge. He wrote down the words: ``This 
morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable 
that this Administration will not be reelected. Then it will be 
my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect . . . ''
    ``It will be my duty.''
    Lincoln sealed that memo and asked his Cabinet Secretaries 
to sign it, sight unseen. He asked them to make the same 
commitment he did: To accept defeat if indeed defeat was the 
will of the people, to uphold the rule of law, to do what every 
President who came before him did and what every President who 
followed him would do until Donald Trump.
    Donald Trump lost the Presidential election in 2020. The 
American people voted him out of office. It was not because of 
a rigged system. It was not because of voter fraud. Don't 
believe me? Hear what his former attorney general had to say 
about it. I warn those who are watching that this contains 
strong language.

    Attorney General Barr. No, just what I--I've been--I've had--I had 
three discussions with the President that I can recall. One was on 
November 23rd, one was on December 1st, and one was on December 14th. 
And I've been through sort-of the give-and-take of those discussions. 
And in that context, I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of 
saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told 
the President was bullshit. And, you know, I didn't want to be a part 
of it, and that's one of the reasons that went into me deciding to 
leave when I did. I observed, I think it was on December 1st, that, you 
know, how can we--you can't live in a world where--where the incumbent 
administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by 
specific evidence, that the election--that there was fraud in the 
election.

    Chairman Thompson. Bill Barr, on election day 2020, he was 
the Attorney General of the United States, the top law 
enforcement official in the country, telling the President 
exactly what he thought about claims of a stolen election.
    Donald Trump had his days in court to challenge the 
results. He was within his rights to seek those judgments. In 
the United States, law-abiding citizens have those tools for 
pursuing justice. He lost in the courts just as he did at the 
ballot box. In this country, that is the end of the line.
    But for Donald Trump, that was only the beginning of what 
became a sprawling, multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning 
the Presidential election, aimed at throwing out the votes of 
millions of Americans--your votes, your voice in our 
democracy--and replacing the will of the American people with 
his will to remain in power after his term ended.
    Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy. 
Ultimately, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, 
spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march 
down the Capitol and subvert American democracy.
    Any legal jargon you hear about seditious conspiracy, 
obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud 
the United States boils down to this: January 6th was the 
culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one 
rioter put it shortly after January 6th, to overthrow the 
Government. The violence was no accident. It represented 
Trump's last stand, his most desperate chance to halt the 
transfer of power.
    Now you may hear those words and think this is just another 
political attack on Donald Trump by people who don't like him.
    That is not the case. My colleagues and I all wanted an 
outside, independent commission to investigate January 6th, 
similar to what we had after 9/11. But, after first agreeing to 
the idea, Donald Trump's allies in Congress put a stop to it. 
Apparently, they don't want January 6th investigated at all.
    In the last 17 months, many of those same people have tried 
to whitewash what happened on January 6th, to rewrite history, 
call it a tourist visit, label it ``legitimate political 
discourse.''
    Donald Trump and his followers have adopted the words of 
the songwriter: Do you believe me or your lying eyes?
    We can't sweep what happened under the rug. The American 
people deserve answers. So, I come before you this evening not 
as a Democrat but as an American who swore an oath to defend 
the Constitution. The Constitution doesn't protect just 
Democrats or just Republicans. It protects all of us, ``We the 
people.'' This scheme was an attempt to undermine the will of 
the people.
    So, tonight and over the next few weeks, we are going to 
remind you of the reality of what happened that day, but our 
work must do much more than just look backward. Because our 
democracy remains in danger, the conspiracy to thwart the will 
of the people is not over. There are those in this audience who 
thirst for power but have no love or respect for what makes 
America great: devotion to the Constitution, allegiance to the 
rule of law, our shared journey to build a more perfect Union.
    January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put 
2\1/2\ centuries of Constitutional democracy at risk. The world 
is watching what we do here. America has long been expected to 
be a shining city on the hill, a beacon of hope and freedom, a 
model for others when we are at our best. How can we play that 
role when our house is in such disorder?
    We must confront the truth with candor, resolve, and 
determination. We need to show that we are worthy of the gifts 
that are the birthright of every American. That begins here, 
and it begins now with a true accounting of what happened and 
what led to the attack on our Constitution and our democracy.
    In this moment when the dangers of our Constitution and our 
democracy loom large, nothing could be more important. Working 
alongside the public servants on this dais has been one of the 
greatest honors of my time in Congress.
    It has been a particular privilege to count as a partner in 
this effort and to count as a friend the gentlewoman from 
Wyoming, Ms. Cheney. She is a patriot, a public servant of 
profound courage, of devotion to her oath and the Constitution.
    It is my pleasure to recognize Ms. Cheney for her opening 
statement.
    Vice Chair Cheney. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    Let me echo those words about the importance of 
bipartisanship and what a tremendous honor it is to work on 
this Committee.
    Mr. Chairman, at 6:01 p.m. on January 6th, after he spent 
hours watching a violent mob besiege, attack, and invade our 
Capitol, Donald Trump tweeted. But he did not condemn the 
attack. Instead, he justified it.
    ``These are the things and events that happen,'' he said, 
``when a sacred landslide election victory is so 
unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots 
who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long.''
    As you will see in the hearings to come, President Trump 
believed his supporters at the Capitol, and I quote, ``were 
doing what they should be doing.'' This is what he told his 
staff as they pleaded with him to call off the mob, to instruct 
his supporters to leave.
    Over a series of hearings in the coming weeks, you will 
hear testimony, live and on video, from more than half a dozen 
former White House staff in the Trump administration, all of 
whom were in the West Wing of the White House on January 6th. 
You will hear testimony that, ``the President did not really 
want to put anything out,'' calling off the riot or asking his 
supporters to leave.
    You will hear that President Trump was yelling and, 
``really angry'' at advisors who told him he needed to be doing 
something more.
    Aware of the rioters' chants to hang Mike Pence, the 
President responded with this sentiment, ``Maybe our supporters 
have the right idea.'' Mike Pence, ``deserves it.''
    You will hear evidence that President Trump refused for 
hours to do what his staff, his family, and many of his other 
advisors begged him to do: Immediately instruct his supporters 
to stand down and evacuate the Capitol.
    Tonight you will see never-before-seen footage of the 
brutal attack on our Capitol, an attack that unfolded while a 
few blocks away President Trump sat watching television in the 
dining room next to the Oval Office.
    You will hear audio from the brave police officers battling 
for their lives and ours, fighting to defend our democracy 
against a violent mob Donald Trump refused to call off.
    Tonight, and in the weeks to come, you will see evidence of 
what motivated this violence, including directly from those who 
participated in this attack. You will see video of them 
explaining what caused them to do it. You will see their posts 
on social media. We will show you what they have said in 
Federal court.
    On this point, there is no room for debate: Those who 
invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were 
motivated by what President Trump had told them, that the 
election was stolen and that he was the rightful President. 
President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit 
the flame of this attack.
    You will also hear about plots to commit seditious 
conspiracy on January 6th, a crime defined in our laws as 
conspiring to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the 
Government of the United States or to oppose by force the 
authority thereof.
    Multiple members of two groups, the Oath Keepers and the 
Proud Boys, have been charged with this crime for their 
involvement in the events leading up to and on January 6th. 
Some have pled guilty.
    The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot. 
Intelligence available before January 6th identified plans to, 
``invade the Capitol,'' ``occupy the Capitol,'' and take other 
steps to halt Congress' count of electoral votes that day.
    In our hearings to come, we will identify elements of those 
plans, and we will show specifically how a group of Proud Boys 
led a mob into the Capitol Building on January 6th.
    Tonight, I am going to describe for you some of what our 
Committee has learned and highlight initial findings you will 
see this month in our hearings.
    As you hear this, all Americans should keep in mind this 
fact: On the morning of January 6th, President Donald Trump's 
intention was to remain President of the United States, despite 
the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his 
Constitutional obligation to relinquish power. Over multiple 
months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated 7-
part plan to overturn the Presidential election and prevent the 
transfer of Presidential power. In our hearings, you will see 
evidence of each element of this plan.
    In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and 
his advisors knew that he had, in fact, lost the election. But, 
despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to 
spread false and fraudulent information, to convince huge 
portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the 
election from him. This was not true.
    Jason Miller was a senior Trump campaign spokesman. In this 
clip, Miller describes a call between the Trump campaign's 
internal data expert and President Trump a few days after the 
2020 election.

    Mr. Miller. I was in the Oval Office, and at some point in the 
conversation Matt Oczkowski, who was the lead data person, was brought 
on, and I remember he delivered to the President pretty blunt terms 
that he was going to lose.
    Mr. Heaphy. And that was based, Mr. Miller, on Matt and the data 
team's assessment of the sort-of county-by-county, State-by-State 
results as reported?
    Mr. Miller. Correct.

    Vice Chair Cheney. Alex Cannon was one of President Trump's 
campaign lawyers. He previously worked for the Trump 
organization. One of his responsibilities was to assess 
allegations of election fraud in November 2020. Here is one 
sample of his testimony, discussing what he told White House 
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

    Mr. Cannon. I remember a call with Mr. Meadows where Mr. Meadows 
was asking me what I was finding, and if I was finding anything. And I 
remember sharing with him that we weren't finding anything that would 
be sufficient to change the results in any of the key States.
    Mr. Harris. When was that conversation?
    Mr. Cannon. Probably in November, mid- to late-November. I think it 
was before my child was born.
    Mr. Harris. And what was Mr. Meadows' reaction to that information?
    Mr. Cannon. I believe the words he used were, so there's no there 
there.

    Vice Chair Cheney. ``There is no there there.''
    The Trump campaign's general counsel, Matt Morgan, gave 
similar testimony. He explained that all of the fraud 
allegations and the campaign's other election arguments taken 
together and viewed in the best possible light for President 
Trump could still not change the outcome of the election.
    President Trump's Attorney General, Bill Barr, also told 
Donald Trump his election claims were wrong.

    Attorney General Barr. Repeatedly told the President in no 
uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud. And--you know, 
that would have affected the outcome of the election. And frankly a 
year and a half later, I haven't seen anything to change my mind on 
that.

    Vice Chair Cheney. Attorney General Barr also told 
President Trump that his allegations about Dominion voting 
machines were groundless.

    Attorney General Barr. I saw absolutely zero basis for the 
allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they 
obviously were influencing a lot of people--members of the public--that 
there was this systemic corruption in the system and that their votes 
didn't count and that these machines controlled by somebody else were 
actually determining it, which was complete nonsense. And it was being 
laid out there. And I told them that it was--that it was crazy stuff 
and they were wasting their time on that. And it was doing a great, 
grave disservice to the country.

    Vice Chair Cheney. But President Trump persisted, repeating 
the false Dominion allegations in public at least a dozen more 
times, even after his Attorney General told him they were, 
``complete nonsense.''
    After Barr's resignation on December 23rd, the Acting 
Attorney General who replaced him, Jeff Rosen, and the Acting 
Deputy, Richard Donoghue, told President Trump over and over 
again that the evidence did not support allegations he was 
making in public.
    Many of President Trump's White House staff also recognized 
that the evidence did not support the claims President Trump 
was making. This is the President's daughter commenting on Bill 
Barr's statement that the Department found no fraud sufficient 
to overturn the election.

    Mr. Heaphy. How did that affect your perspective about the election 
when Attorney General Barr made that statement?
    Ms. Trump. It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General 
Barr. So, I accepted what he was saying.

    Vice Chair Cheney. As you will hear on Monday, the 
President had every right to litigate his campaign claims. But 
he ultimately lost more than 60 cases in State and Federal 
courts. The President's claims in the election cases were so 
frivolous and unsupported that the President's lead lawyer, 
Rudy Giuliani, not only lost the lawsuits, his license to 
practice law was suspended. Here is what the court said of Mr. 
Giuliani: Giuliani ``communicated demonstrably false and 
misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at 
large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. 
Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump's failed 
effort at reelection in 2020.''
    As you will see in great detail in our hearings, President 
Trump ignored the rulings of our Nation's courts. He ignored 
his own campaign leadership, his White House staff, many 
Republican State officials. He ignored the Department of 
Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
    President Trump invested millions of dollars of campaign 
funds purposely spreading false information, running ads he 
knew were false, and convincing millions of Americans that the 
election was corrupt and that he was the true President. As you 
will see, this misinformation campaign provoked the violence on 
January 6th.
    In our third hearing, you will see that President Trump 
corruptly planned to replace the Attorney General of the United 
States so the U.S. Justice Department would spread his false 
stolen election claims. In the days before January 6th, 
President Trump told his top Justice Department officials, 
``Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me 
and the Republican Congressmen.''
    Senior Justice Department officials, men he had appointed, 
told him they could not do that because it was not true.
    So, President Trump decided to replace them. He offered 
Jeff Clark, an environmental lawyer at the Justice Department, 
the job of Acting Attorney General. President Trump wanted Mr. 
Clark to take a number of steps, including sending this letter 
to Georgia and 5 other States, saying the United States 
Department of Justice had, ``identified significant concerns 
that may have impacted the outcome of the election.''
    This letter is a lie. The Department of Justice had, in 
fact, repeatedly told President Trump exactly the opposite, 
that they had investigated his stolen election allegations and 
found no credible fraud that could impact the outcome of the 
election. This letter and others like it would have urged 
multiple States to withdraw their official and lawful electoral 
votes for Biden.
    Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue described 
Jeff Clark's letter this way, ``this would be a grave step for 
the Department to take and it could have tremendous 
Constitutional, political, and social ramifications for the 
country.''
    The Committee agrees with Mr. Donoghue's assessment. Had 
Clark assumed the role of Attorney General in the days before 
January 6th and issued these letters, the ramifications could 
indeed have been grave.
    Mr. Donoghue also said this about Clark's plan.

    Acting United States Deputy Attorney General Donoghue. And I recall 
toward the end saying what you're proposing is nothing less than the 
United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a 
Presidential election.

    Vice Chair Cheney. In our hearings, you will hear first-
hand how the senior leadership of the Department of Justice 
threatened to resign, how the White House Counsel threatened to 
resign, and how they confronted Donald Trump and Jeff Clark in 
the Oval Office. The men involved, including Acting Attorney 
General Jeff Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard 
Donoghue, were appointed by President Trump. These men honored 
their oaths of office. They did their duty. You will hear from 
them in our hearings.
    By contrast, Jeff Clark has invoked his Fifth Amendment 
privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify.
    Representative Scott Perry, who was also involved in trying 
to get Clark appointed as Attorney General, has refused to 
testify here. As you will see, Representative Perry contacted 
the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a 
Presidential pardon.
    Multiple other Republican Congressmen also sought 
Presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn 
the 2020 election.
    In our fourth hearing, we will focus on President Trump's 
efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to 
count electoral votes on January 6th.
    Vice President Pence has spoken publicly about this.

    Vice President Pence. President Trump is wrong. I had no right to 
overturn the election. The Presidency belongs to the American people 
and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-
American than the notion that any one person could choose the American 
President.

    Vice Chair Cheney. What President Trump demanded that Mike 
Pence do wasn't just wrong. It was illegal, and it was 
unconstitutional. You will hear this in great detail from the 
Vice President's former general counsel.
    Witnesses in these hearings will explain how the former 
Vice President and his staff informed President Trump over and 
over again that what he was pressuring Mike Pence to do was 
illegal. As you will hear, President Trump engaged in a 
relentless effort to pressure Pence, both in private and in 
public. You will see the evidence of that pressure from 
multiple witnesses live and on video.
    Vice President Pence demonstrated his loyalty to Donald 
Trump consistently over 4 years, but he knew that he had a 
higher duty to the United States Constitution. This is 
testimony from the Vice President's Chief of Staff.

    Mr. Short. That's why I think the Vice President was proud of his 4 
years of service, and he felt like much had been accomplished in those 
4 years. And I think he was proud to have stood beside the President 
for all that had been done. But I think he ultimately knew that his 
fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost oath. And--and 
that's--that's what he articulated publicly. And I think that that's 
what he felt.
    Mr. Heaphy. His fidelity to the Constitution was more important 
than his fidelity to President Trump and his desires----
    Mr. Short. The oath he took.
    Mr. Heaphy. Yes.

    Vice Chair Cheney. You will also hear about a lawyer named 
John Eastman. Mr. Eastman was deeply involved in President 
Trump's plans. You will hear from former Fourth Circuit Federal 
Judge Michael Luttig, a highly-respected leading conservative 
judge. John Eastman clerked for Judge Luttig. Judge Luttig 
provided counsel to the Vice President's team in the days 
before January 6th. The judge will explain how Eastman, ``was 
wrong at every turn.''
    You will see the email exchanges between Eastman and the 
Vice President's counsel as the violent attack on Congress was 
underway. Mr. Jacob said this to Mr. Eastman: ``Thanks to your 
bullshit, we are under siege.''
    You will also see evidence that John Eastman did not 
actually believe the legal position he was taking. In fact, a 
month before the 2020 election, Eastman took exactly the 
opposite view on the same legal issues.
    In the course of the Select Committee's work to obtain 
information from Mr. Eastman, we have had occasion to present 
evidence to a Federal judge. The judge evaluated the facts, and 
he reached the conclusion that President Trump's efforts to 
pressure Vice President Pence to act illegally by refusing to 
count electoral votes likely violated two Federal criminal 
statutes.
    The judge also said this: ``If Dr. Eastman and President 
Trump's plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the 
peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy 
and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to 
investigating and pursuing accountability for those 
responsible, the Court fears January 6th will repeat itself.''
    Every American should read what this Federal judge has 
written.
    The same judge, Judge Carter, issued another decision on 
Tuesday night, just this week, indicating that John Eastman and 
other Trump lawyers knew that their legal arguments had no real 
chance of success in court, but they relied on those arguments 
anyway to try to, ``overturn a democratic election.''
    You will hear that, while Congress was under attack on 
January 6th and the hours following the violence, the Trump 
legal team in the Willard Hotel war room continued to work to 
halt the count of electoral votes.
    In our fifth hearing, you will see evidence that President 
Trump corruptly pressured State legislators and election 
officials to change election results. You will hear additional 
details about President Trump's call to Georgia officials, 
urging them to, ``find 11,780 votes,'' votes that did not 
exist, and his efforts to get States to rescind certified 
electoral slates without factual basis and contrary to law.
    You will hear new details about the Trump campaign and 
other Trump associates' efforts to instruct Republican 
officials in multiple States to create intentionally false 
electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress, to the 
Vice President, and the National Archives, falsely certifying 
that Trump won States he actually lost.
    In our final two June hearings, you will hear how President 
Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them illegally to 
march on the United States Capitol. While the violence was 
under way, President Trump failed to take immediate action to 
stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the 
Capitol.
    As we present these initial findings, keep two points in 
mind: First, our investigation is still on-going. So, what we 
make public here will not be the complete set of information we 
will ultimately disclose. Second, the Department of Justice is 
currently working with cooperating witnesses and has disclosed 
to date only some of the information it has identified from 
encrypted communications and other sources.
    On December 18, 2020, a group, including General Michael 
Flynn, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and others, visited the 
White House. They stayed late into the evening. We know that 
the group discussed a number of dramatic steps, including 
having the military seize voting machines and potentially rerun 
elections.
    You will also hear that President Trump met with that group 
alone for a period of time before White House lawyers and other 
staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene.
    A little more than an hour after Ms. Powell, Mr. Giuliani, 
General Flynn, and the others finally left the White House, 
President Trump sent the tweet on the screen now, telling 
people to come to Washington on January 6th. ``Be there,'' he 
instructed them, ``will be wild.''
    As you will see, this was a pivotal moment. This tweet 
initiated a chain of events. The tweet led to the planning for 
what occurred on January 6th, including by the Proud Boys, who 
ultimately led the invasion of the Capitol and the violence on 
that day.
    The indictment of a group of Proud Boys alleges that they 
planned, ``to oppose by force the authority of the Government 
of the United States.''
    According to the Department of Justice, on January 6, 2021, 
the defendants directed, mobilized, and led members of the 
crowd onto the Capitol Grounds and into the Capitol, leading to 
the dismantling of metal barricades, the destruction of 
property, the breaching of the Capitol Building, and the 
assaults on law enforcement.
    Although certain former Trump officials have argued that 
they did not anticipate violence on January 6th, the evidence 
suggests otherwise. As you will see in our hearings, the White 
House was receiving specific reports in the days leading up to 
January 6th, including during President Trump's Ellipse rally, 
indicating that elements in the crowd were preparing for 
violence at the Capitol.
    On the evening of January 5th, the President's close 
advisor, Steve Bannon, said this on his podcast.

    Mr. Bannon. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just 
understand this. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.

    Vice Chair Cheney. As part of our investigation, we will 
present information about what the White House and other 
intelligence agencies knew and why the Capitol was not better 
prepared.
    But we will not lose sight of the fact that the Capitol 
Police did not cause the crowd to attack. We will not blame the 
violence that day, violence provoked by Donald Trump, on the 
officers who bravely defended all of us.
    In our final hearing, you will hear a moment-by-moment 
account of the hours-long attack from more than half a dozen 
White House staff, both live in the hearing room and via 
videotaped testimony.
    There is no doubt that President Trump was well aware of 
the violence as it developed. White House staff urged President 
Trump to intervene and call off the mob.
    Here is a document written while the attack was under way 
by a member of the White House staff, advising what the 
President needed to say: ``Anyone who entered the Capitol 
without proper authority should leave immediately.''
    This is exactly what his supporters on Capitol Hill and 
Nation-wide were urging the President to do. He would not.
    You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the 
President for help, including Republican Leader McCarthy, who 
was ``scared'' and called multiple members of the President 
Trump's family after he could not persuade the President 
himself.
    Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to 
leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the U.S. 
Government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. He did not 
call his Secretary of Defense on January 6th. He did not talk 
to his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of 
Homeland Security. President Trump gave no order to deploy the 
National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the 
Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement 
assets.
    But Vice President Pence did each of those things. For 
example, here is what General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, testified to this Committee.

    General Milley. There were two--two or three calls with Vice 
President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, 
very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that. 
And--and he was--and--and I can give you the exact quotes, I guess, 
from some of our records somewhere. But he was very animated, very 
direct, very firm. And to Secretary Miller: get the military down here. 
Get the Guard down here, put down this situation, et cetera.

    Vice Chair Cheney. By contrast, here is General Milley's 
description of his conversation with President Trump's Chief of 
Staff, Mark Meadows, on January 6th.

    General Milley. He said we have--we have to kill the narrative that 
the Vice President is making all the decisions. We need to establish 
the narrative that, you know, that the President is still in charge and 
that things are steady or stable or words to that effect. I immediately 
interpret that as politics, politics, politics. Red flag for me 
personally, no action. But I remember it distinctly.

    Vice Chair Cheney. You will hear from witnesses how the day 
played out inside the White House, how multiple White House 
staff resigned in disgust, and how President Trump would not 
ask his supporters to leave the Capitol. It was only after 
multiple hours of violence that President Trump finally 
released a video instructing the riotous mob to leave. As he 
did so, he said to them: ``We love you, and you are very 
special.''
    You will also hear that, in the immediate aftermath of 
January 6th, members of the President's family, White House 
staff, and others tried to step in to stabilize the situation, 
``to land the plane'' before the Presidential transition on 
January 20th.
    You will hear about members of the Trump Cabinet discussing 
the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment and replacing 
the President of the United States.
    Multiple members of President Trump's own Cabinet resigned 
immediately after January 6th. One member of the Cabinet 
suggested that the remaining Cabinet officers needed to take a 
more active role in running the White House and the 
administration.
    But most emblematic of those days is this exchange of texts 
between Sean Hannity and former President Trump's press 
secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. Sean Hannity wrote in part: ``Key 
now. No more crazy people.'' ``No more stolen election talk.'' 
``Yes, impeachment and 25th amendment are real . . . many 
people will quit.''
    Ms. McEnany responded in part: ``Love that.'' ``That is the 
playbook.''
    The White House staff knew that President Trump was willing 
to entertain and use conspiracy theories to achieve his ends. 
They knew the President needed to be cut off from all of those 
who had encouraged him. They knew that President Donald Trump 
was too dangerous to be left alone at least until he left 
office on January 20th.
    These are important facts for Congress and the American 
people to understand fully.
    When a President fails to take the steps necessary to 
preserve our Union or, worse, causes a Constitutional crisis, 
we are at a moment of maximum danger for our Republic.
    Some in the White House took responsible steps to try to 
prevent January 6th. Others egged the President on. Others who 
could have acted refused to do so.
    In this case, the White House Counsel was so concerned 
about potentially lawless activity that he threatened to resign 
multiple times. That is exceedingly rare and exceedingly 
serious. It requires immediate attention, especially when the 
entire team threatens to resign.
    However, in the Trump White House, it was not exceedingly 
rare, and it was not treated seriously.
    This is a clip of Jared Kushner addressing multiple threats 
by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his team of lawyers to 
resign in the weeks before January 6th.

    Vice Chair Cheney. Jared, are you aware of instances where Pat 
Cipollone threatened to resign?
    Mr. Kushner. I--I kind-of--like I said, my interest at that time 
was on trying to get as many pardons done. And I know that, you know, 
he was always--to him and the team were always saying, Oh, we're going 
to resign. We're not going to be here if this happens, if that happens. 
So, I kind-of took it up to just be whining to be honest with you.

    Vice Chair Cheney. ``Whining.''
    There is a reason why people serving in our Government take 
an oath to the Constitution. As our Founding Fathers 
recognized, democracy is fragile. People in positions of public 
trust are duty-bound to defend it, to step forward when action 
is required.
    In our country, we don't swear an oath to an individual or 
a political party. We take our oath to defend the United States 
Constitution, and that oath must mean something.
    Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are 
defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald 
Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.
    Finally, I ask all of our fellow Americans, as you watch 
our hearings over the coming weeks, please remember what is at 
stake. Remember the men and women who have fought and died so 
that we can live under the rule of law, not the rule of men.
    I ask you to think of the scene in our Capitol rotunda on 
the night of January 6th. There, in a sacred space in our 
Constitutional Republic, the place where our Presidents lie in 
state, watched over by statues of Washington and Jefferson, 
Lincoln and Grant, Eisenhower, Ford, and Reagan, against every 
wall that night encircling the room there were SWAT teams, men 
and women in tactical gear with long guns, deployed inside our 
Capitol Building.
    There in the rotunda these brave men and women rested 
beneath paintings depicting the earliest scenes of our 
Republic, including one painted in 1824 depicting George 
Washington resigning his commission, voluntarily relinquishing 
power, handing control of the Continental Army back to 
Congress. With this noble act, Washington set the indispensable 
example of the peaceful transfer of power, what President 
Reagan called nothing less than a miracle.
    The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of 
power has been honored by every American President except one.
    As Americans, we all have a duty to ensure that what 
happened on January 6th never happens again, to set aside 
partisan battles, to stand together to perpetuate and preserve 
our great Republic.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Thompson. As we provide answers to the American 
people about January 6th, it is important that we remember 
exactly what took place, that this was no tourist visit to the 
Capitol.
    Most of the footage we are about to play has never been 
seen. The Select Committee obtained it as a part of our 
investigation.
    This isn't easy to watch. I want to warn everyone that this 
video includes violence and strong language.
    Without objection, I include in the record a video 
presentation of the violence of January 6th.

    Voice. Grab your bullet. Grab your bullet. Grab your bullet.
    MPD Radio Transmission. Yeah. Just be aware, be advised there's 
probably about 300 Proud Boys. They're marching eastbound in this 400 
block of kind-of Independence, actually on the Mall toward the United 
States Capitol.
    Crowd. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
    Voice. I am not allowed to say what's going to happen today, 
because everyone's just going to have to watch for themselves. But it's 
going to happen. Something's going to happen.
    Crowd. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. 
Whose streets? Our streets.
    Voice. Don't need to hurt you. We are on your side. Don't make us 
go against you. Must be a brown shirt. Pick a side. Pick a side. These 
are our streets. 20 bucks a picture.
    President Trump. I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope 
so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the 
election . . . 
    All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the States to 
recertify, and we become President, and you are the happiest people . . 
. 
    Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he 
doesn't, that will be a--a sad day for our country, because you'll 
never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, 
and you have to be strong.
    Crowd. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
    MPD Radio Transmission. Cruiser 50, it does look like we're going 
to have an ad hoc march stepping off here. There's a crowd surge 
heading east.
    Crowd. We love Trump. We love Trump. We love Trump. We love Trump. 
We love Trump. We love Trump. We love Trump. We love Trump.
    President Trump. Mike Pence, I hope you are going to stand up for 
the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if 
you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you, I will tell you 
right now.
    Crowd. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
    Voice. [screaming]
    Voice. Get back, lady. Get back, lady.
    USCP Radio Transmission. EA 101 priority, we've been passed first 
on Peace Circle, breached the line. We need back-up.
    Voice. What are you doing? Guys, what are you doing? Fuck yeah. 
Fuck yeah. [unintelligible]
    House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving. Madam Speaker, the Vice 
President and the United States Senate. [applause]
    MPD Radio Transmission. Cruiser 50, we're going to give riot 
warning [unintelligible]. We're going to give riot warning. We're gonna 
try and get compliance, but this is now effectively a riot.
    MPD Radio Transmission. 1349 hours, declaring it a riot.
    MPD Radio Transmission. Cruiser 5 to 50, be advised Capitol Police 
1 advised they're trying to breach and get into the Capitol.
    MPD Radio Transmission. 50, I copy.
    Voice. Hold the line. Hold the line. Hold the line. Hold the line. 
Hold the line.
    Voice. Fuck the line.
    MPD Radio Transmission. 42, we're about 5 minutes out. We're trying 
to make our way through all this.
    Crowd. [unintelligible]
    Voice. Go, go, go, go, go.
    MPD Radio Transmission. Cruiser 50, we have a breach of the 
Capitol, breach of the Capitol from the upper level.
    MPD Radio Transmission. Be advised, they are requesting additional 
resources on the east side, as they have broken into that window, and 
they're trying to kick it in.
    Rep. James P. McGovern. Without objection, the Chair declares the 
House in recess pursuant to clause 12(b) of rule I.
    Voice. ``Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have 
been done to protect our Country and our Constitution giving States a 
chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or 
inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. US[A] 
demands the truth.''
    Crowd. Bring out Pence. Bring out Pence. Bring him out. Bring out 
Pence. Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike 
Pence. Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.
    Voice. You pepper sprayed another American that was fighting for 
you. [unintelligible]
    Voice. Take it all away. Take it all away. Get him back in. 
[unintelligible]
    Crowd. Our house. Our house. Our house. Move, move. Our house. 
Whose house? Our house. Whose house? Our house. [unintelligible]
    Voice. Get the fuckers. [unintelligible]
    Voice. We can't hold this. We're going to get too many fucking 
people here. Look at this fucking vantage point. Man, we're fucked.
    USCP Radio Transmission. We need an area for the House Members. 
They're all walking over now through the tunnel.
    MPD Radio Transmission. We're trying to hold the upper deck. We are 
trying to hold the upper deck now. We need to close the doors of the 
Capitol. I need more support. [unintelligible]
    We've lost the line. We've lost the line. All MPD get back. All MPD 
pull back up to the upper deck. All MPD pull back to the upper deck 
ASAP.
    Crowd. Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, 
Nancy, Nancy, Nancy. [unintelligible]
    Voice. Nancy Pelosi. [unintelligible]
    MPD Radio Transmission.  . . . Cruiser 50, be advised that Capitol 
Police are going to start moving their resources inside. They're going 
to start the N4 officers first.
    Voice. No violence. No violence. [unintelligible]
    USCP Radio Transmission.  . . . H-208 with the four Members, the 
door's barricaded. There's people flooding the hallways outside, and we 
have no way out.
    USCP Radio Transmission.  . . . Is that officers still remaining on 
the House floor in the--on the third floor to use the subways 
themselves. It's time to evacuate, so we can secure the Members on the 
other side. Copy?
    Crowd. Stop the steal! Stop the steal!
    Voice. It's up to us people now, the American people.
    Voice. But what are you ready to do?
    Voice. One more time?
    Voice. What are you ready to do?
    Voice. Whatever it takes. I'll lay my life down if it takes.
    Voice. Absolutely. That's why we showed up today.
    Voice. Bring her out. Bring her out here. We're coming in if you 
don't bring her out. Fuck you. Fuck you, you son of a bitch. You back 
up. You back up.
    Voice. Can I have my cell phone back?
    Voice. Go ahead and try.
    Voice. Get him up. Get him up. Get a medic.
    Voice. Officer down, get him up.
    Voice. We love you guys.
    Voice. Get him up. Get him up. Get him up.
    Crowd. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! 
[unintelligible]
    MPD Radio Transmission.  . . . West Terrace door for backup.
    Voice. I need backup. I need backup.
    Voice. Back up. Back up. [unintelligible]
    President Trump. They were peaceful people. These were great 
people. The crowd was unbelievable. And I mentioned the word love. The 
love--the love in the air, I've never seen anything like it.

    Chairman Thompson. Pursuant to the order of the Committee 
of tonight, the Chair declares the Committee in recess for a 
period of approximately 10 minutes.
    [Accordingly, at 9:02 p.m., the Committee recessed until 
9:12 p.m., when it was called to order by the Chairman.]
    Chairman Thompson. I want to thank our witnesses for being 
with us this evening to share their first-hand accounts of that 
terrible day.
    I know that some of the witnesses from our first hearing 
are in the room with us, along with some of the family members, 
friends, and widows of the officers who lost their lives as a 
result of the attack. Thank you all for being here for us and 
the American people.
    Officer Caroline Edwards has been with the United States 
Capitol Police since 2017. On January 6th, Officer Edwards was 
assigned to the First Responder Unit, which serves as the first 
line of defense at the Capitol complex. She also served as a 
member of the Civil Disturbance Unit, a special subset of the 
Uniformed Division trained to respond to mass demonstration 
events. Officer Edwards is a graduate of the University of 
Georgia and currently is working on a master's degree in 
intelligence analysis from Johns Hopkins University.
    Nick Quested is an acclaimed filmmaker whose credits 
include documenting stories from war zones in Afghanistan, 
Syria, and Iraq. On January 6th, Mr. Quested was working on a 
documentary about, ``why Americans are so divided when 
Americans have so much in common.'' During that day, Mr. 
Quested interviewed and documented movements of the people 
around the Capitol, including the first moments of the violence 
against the Capitol Police and the chaos that ensued.
    I will now swear in our witnesses. The witnesses will 
please stand and raise your right hands.
    [Witnesses sworn.]
    Chairman Thompson. Let the record reflect the witnesses 
answered in the affirmative.
    Without objection, the witnesses' statements will be 
included in the record.
    Pursuant to section 5(c)(8) of House Resolution 503, I 
recognize myself for questioning.
    As you saw just a few minutes ago, the Proud Boys 
instigated the first breach of the Capitol just before 1 
o'clock p.m., where rioters pushed over barricades near the 
Peace Circle at the foot of the Capitol. Our two witnesses 
tonight were both there at the time of that first breach.
    Officer Edwards was standing with other officers behind a 
line of bike racks that marked the perimeter of the Capitol 
Grounds. She bravely tried to prevent an angry crowd from 
advancing on the Capitol. Unfortunately, she was overrun and 
knocked unconscious as the crowd advanced on the Capitol.
    Mr. Quested was a few yards away from Officer Edwards, 
taking footage of the Proud Boys as part of his work on a 
documentary film. Most of his footage has never been shown 
publicly before we shared it this evening.
    Officer Edwards, I would like to start by asking if you 
could tell us why you believe it is important for you to share 
your story this evening with the Committee and the American 
public.
    Officer Edwards.\1\ Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really 
appreciate it. Thank you to the Committee for having me here to 
testify.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Officer Edwards' prepared statement is included in the Appendix 
beginning on p. 27.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021, and the 
days thereafter. I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called 
incompetent, called a hero, and a villain. I was called a 
traitor to my country, my oath, and my Constitution.
    In actuality, I was none of those things. I was an American 
standing face-to-face with other Americans asking myself how 
many times--many, many times--how we had gotten here.
    I had been called names before, but never had my patriotism 
or duty been called into question. I, who got up every day, no 
matter how early the hour or how late I got in the night 
before, to put on my uniform and to protect America's symbol of 
democracy; I, who spent countless hours in the baking sun and 
freezing snow to make sure that America's elected officials 
were able to do their job; I, whose literal blood, sweat, and 
tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent 
countless holidays and weekends working in.
    I am the proud granddaughter of a Marine that fought in the 
Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War. I think of my 
papa often in these days, how he was so young and thrown into a 
battle he never saw coming, and answered the call at a great 
personal cost; how he lived the rest of his days with bullets 
and shrapnel in his legs but never once complained about his 
sacrifice.
    I would like to think that he would be proud of me, proud 
of his granddaughter that stood her ground that day and 
continued fighting even though she was wounded, like he did 
many years ago. I am my grandfather's granddaughter, proud to 
put on a uniform and serve my country.
    They dared to question my honor. They dared to question my 
loyalty. They dared to question my duty. I am a proud American, 
and I will gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the 
America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come.
    Thank you.
    Chairman Thompson. Officer Edwards, your story and your 
service is important, and I thank you for being here tonight.
    Mr. Quested, I would also like to ask you to introduce 
yourself. Can you tell us how you found yourself in Washington, 
DC, on January 6, 2021?
    Mr. Quested.\2\ Good evening, Chair and Madam Vice Chair. 
Thank you for the introduction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ Mr. Quested's prepared statement is included in the Appendix 
beginning on p. 27.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As stated, in the winter of 2020, I was working on a 
documentary. As part of that documentary, I filmed several 
rallies in Washington, DC, on December 11th and December the 
12th, and I learned there would be a rally on The Mall on 
January 6th. So, my three colleagues and I came down to 
document the rally.
    According to the permit at the event, there was going to be 
a rally at the Ellipse. We arrived at The Mall and observed a 
large contingent of Proud Boys marching toward the Capitol. We 
filmed them, and almost immediately I was separated from my 
colleagues.
    I documented the crowd turn from protesters to rioters to 
insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the group, the 
anger, and the profanity.
    For anyone who didn't understand how violent that event 
was, I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it. I heard 
incredibly aggressive chanting, and I subsequently shared that 
footage with the authorities.
    I am here today pursuant to a House subpoena.
    Thank you so much.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Quested.
    The Select Committee has conducted extensive investigative 
work to understand what led the Proud Boys and other rioters to 
the Capitol on January 6th.
    We have obtained substantial evidence showing that the 
President's December 19th tweet calling his followers to 
Washington, DC, on January 6th energized individuals from the 
Proud Boys and other extremist groups.
    I would like to play a brief video highlighting some of 
this evidence.

    Mr. Childress. My name is Marcus Childress, and I'm an 
investigative counsel for the Select Committee to Investigate 
the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
    President Trump. What do you want to call him? Give me a 
name. Give me a name. Go ahead.
    Debate Moderator Chris Wallace. White supremacists. 
[crosstalk]
    President Trump. Who would you like me to condemn?
    Debate Moderator Chris Wallace. White supremacists and----
    Then-Candidate Biden. Proud Boys. [crosstalk]
    President Trump. Proud Boys, stand back and stand by----
    Mr. Childress. After he made this comment, Enrique Tarrio, 
then chairman of the Proud Boys, said on Parler, ``Standing by 
sir.'' During our investigation, we learned that this comment 
during the Presidential debate actually led to an increase in 
membership in the Proud Boys.
    Mr. Quinn. Would you say that Proud Boys numbers increased 
after the stand back, stand by comment?
    Mr. Bertino. Exponentially. I'd say tripled probably. With 
the potential for a lot more eventually.
    Ms. Phoenix. And did you ever sell any stand back and stand 
by merchandise?
    Mr. Tarrio. Uh, one of the vendors on my page actually beat 
me to it, but I wish I would have--I wish I would have made a 
stand back, stand by shirt.
    Mr. Childress. On December 19th, President Trump tweeted 
about the January 6th rally and told attendees, ``Be there, 
will be wild!'' Many of the witnesses that we interviewed were 
inspired by the President's call and came to DC for January 
6th, but the extremists, they took it a step further. They 
viewed this tweet as a call to arms. A day later, the 
Department of Justice describes how the Proud Boys created a 
chat called the Ministry of Self Defense Leadership Chat. In 
this chat, the Proud Boys established a command structure in 
anticipation of coming back to DC on January 6th. The 
Department of Justice describes Mr. Tarrio coming into 
possession of a document called the ``1776 Returns,'' which 
describes individuals occupying key buildings around the United 
States Capitol. The Oath Keepers are another group that the 
Committee investigated.
    Mr. Jones. You better get your ass to DC folks this 
Saturday.
    Mr. Rhodes. Yeah. If you don't, there's gonna be no more 
Republic. But we're not gonna let that happen. It's not even an 
``if.'' It's either President Trump is encouraged and 
bolstered, strengthened to do what he must do, or we wind up in 
a bloody fight. We all know that. The fight's coming.
    Mr. Childress. The Oath Keepers began planning to block the 
peaceful transfer of power shortly after the November 3rd 
election. And according to the Department of Justice, Stewart 
Rhodes, the Oath Keeper's leader, said to his followers that, 
``We aren't getting through this without a civil war.'' In 
response to the December 19, 2020, tweet by President Trump, 
the Oath Keepers focused on January 6th in Washington, DC. In 
response to the tweet, one member, the president of the Florida 
chapter, put on social media, ``the President called us to the 
Capitol, he wants us to make it wild.'' The goal was for the 
Oath Keepers to be called to duty so that they could keep the 
President in power although President Trump had just lost the 
election. The Committee learned that the Oath Keepers set up 
quick reaction forces outside of the city and in Virginia where 
they stored arms. The goal of these quick reaction forces was 
to be on standby just in case President Trump invoked the 
Insurrection Act.
    Mr. Prasanna. Did the Oath Keepers ever provide weapons to 
members?
    Mr. Rhodes. I'm going to decline to answer that on Fifth 
Amendment grounds--for due process grounds.
    Mr. Childress. In footage obtained by the Committee, we 
learned that on the night of January 5th, Enrique Tarrio and 
Stewart Rhodes met in a parking garage in Washington, DC.
    Mr. Tarrio. There's mutual respect there. I think we're--
we're fighting the same fight, and I think that's what's 
important.
    Mr. Childress. The Committee learned that the Oath Keepers 
went into the Capitol through the east doors in two stack 
formations. The DOJ alleges that one of the stacks went into 
the Capitol looking for Speaker Pelosi, although they never 
found her. As the attack was unfolding, Mr. Tarrio took credit. 
In documents obtained by the Department of Justice, Mr. Tarrio 
said, in an encrypted chat, ``make no mistake'' and ``we did 
this.'' Later on that evening, Mr. Tarrio even posted a video 
which seemed to resemble him in front of the Capitol with a 
black cape. And the title of the video was, ``Premonition.'' 
The evidence developed by the Select Committee and the 
Department of Justice highlights how each group participated on 
the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
    In fact, the investigation revealed that it was individuals 
associated with the Proud Boys who instigated the initial 
breach at the peace circle at 12:53 p.m.
    Crowd. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
    Mr. Childress. Within 10 minutes, rioters had already 
filled the Lower West Plaza. [inaudible] By 2 o'clock, rioters 
had reached the doors on the West and the East Plazas. And by 
2:13, rioters had actually broken through the Senate wing door 
and got into the Capitol building. [inaudible] A series of 
breaches followed. At 
2:25 p.m., rioters breached the east side doors to the rotunda. 
[inaudible] And then right after 2:40 p.m., rioters breached 
the east side doors near the Ways and Means room. [inaudible] 
Once the rioters infiltrated the Capitol, they moved to the 
crypt, the rotunda, the hallways leading to the House Chamber, 
and even inside the Senate Chamber. [inaudible]

    Chairman Thompson. Individuals associated with two violent 
extremist groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy in 
connection with the January 6th attack.
    One is the Oath Keepers. They are a group of armed, 
antigovernment extremists. The other group is the Proud Boys. 
They promote white supremacist beliefs and have engaged in 
violence with people they view as their political enemies.
    Members of both groups have already pled guilty to crimes 
associated with the January 6th attack.
    Mr. Quested, as part of the documentary you have been 
filming, you gained access to the Proud Boys and their leader, 
Enrique Tarrio. Your crew filmed them in Washington, DC, on the 
evening of January 5th and then on January 6th.
    On January 5th, the night before the attack, you were with 
the head of the Proud Boys, Mr. Tarrio, in Washington, DC. What 
happened?
    Mr. Quested. We picked up Mr. Tarrio from jail. He had been 
arrested for carrying some magazines, some long--some extra-
capacity magazines, and for the--he took responsibility for the 
burning of the Black Lives Matter flag that was stolen from the 
church on December the 12th.
    We were attempting to get an interview with Mr. Tarrio. We 
had no idea of any of the events that were going to 
subsequently happen.
    We drove him to pick up his bags from the property 
department of the police, which is just south of The Mall. We 
picked up his bags and went to get some other bags from the 
Phoenix Hotel, where we encountered Mr. Stewart Rhodes from the 
Oath Keepers.
    By the time I had gone to park the car, my colleague was 
saying--who had got into the car with Mr. Tarrio--that they had 
moved to a location around the corner, the parking garage of 
the Hall of Legends, I believe. So, we quickly drove over 
there. We drove down into the parking garage and filmed the 
scene of Mr. Tarrio and Mr. Rhodes and certain other 
individuals in that garage.
    We then continued to follow Mr. Tarrio. There was some 
discussion about where he was going to go. He ended up going 
toward a hotel in Baltimore, and we conducted an interview with 
him in the hotel room.
    Then we returned to DC for that night in a--and what was 
interesting that night, actually, was, that was the first 
indication that DC was much more busy than it had been any 
other time we had been here, because we couldn't get into the 
hotels we wanted to, and we ended up at a hotel that, you know, 
was not as satisfactory as we would have hoped.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. So, what you are saying is, 
you filmed the meeting between Mr. Tarrio and Oath Keepers 
leader Stewart Rhodes, right?
    Mr. Quested. Indeed.
    Chairman Thompson. You couldn't hear what was said, but, 
according to the Justice Department indictment of Mr. Tarrio, a 
participant referenced the Capitol.
    Now, on the morning of January 6th, you learned the Proud 
Boys would gather near the rally scheduled to take place near 
the White House. What time did you meet up with the Proud Boys, 
and what was happening when they met?
    Mr. Quested. We met up with the Proud Boys somewhere around 
10:30 a.m., and they were starting to walk down The Mall in an 
easterly direction toward the Capitol.
    There was a large contingent, more than I had expected. I 
was confused, to a certain extent, why we were walking away 
from the President's speech, because that is what I felt we 
were there to cover.
    Chairman Thompson. So, at 10:30 a.m., that is early in the 
day. That is even before President Trump had started speaking. 
Am I correct?
    Mr. Quested. Yes, sir.
    Chairman Thompson. So, how many Proud Boys would you 
estimate were marching together to the Capitol?
    Mr. Quested. A couple of hundred, potentially. Yes, I would 
say a couple of hundred Proud Boys were marching toward the 
Capitol at that point.
    Chairman Thompson. At the time, was the area heavily 
guarded?
    Mr. Quested. No. That was--I remember we walked past the--
we walked down The Mall, we walked to the right of the 
Reflecting Pool and then north along the road that leads to the 
Peace Circle. As we were walking past the Peace Circle, I 
framed the Proud Boys to the right of my shot, with the Capitol 
behind, and we see one sole police officer at the barriers, 
which are subsequently breached.
    We then walk up and past a tactical unit preparing. You see 
that in the film, where the man questions their duty and their 
honor, and you see maybe a dozen Capitol Police putting on 
their riot gear.
    Chairman Thompson. So, how would you describe the 
atmosphere at that time?
    Mr. Quested. The atmosphere was--it seemed to be much 
darker. I make efforts to create familiarity between myself and 
my subjects to, you know, make them feel comfortable, and the 
atmosphere was much darker this day than it had been in these 
other days.
    There was also a contingent of Proud Boys that I hadn't met 
before from Arizona who appeared to wear these orange hats and 
had orange armbands.
    Chairman Thompson. So, when the Proud Boys went back down 
the hill to the Peace Circle, did a larger crowd start to 
gather?
    Mr. Quested. Well, no, first of all, we went around to the 
back and down the steps, and we took some photographs on the 
east side of the Capitol. Then we went for lunch. We went for 
tacos.
    Chairman Thompson. So, Mr. Quested, you are a journalist, 
so you are careful to stick to things that you have observed, 
but what you have told us is highly relevant.
    Let me highlight a few key facts that you and others have 
provided the Committee.
    First, there was a large group of Proud Boys present at the 
Capitol. We know that from multiple sources. You now estimate 
that there were around 250 to 300 individuals, you have 
testified. They weren't there for President Trump's speech. We 
know this because they left that area to march toward the 
Capitol before the speech began.
    They walked around the Capitol that morning. I am concerned 
this allowed them to see what defenses were in place and where 
weaknesses might be. They decided to launch their attack at the 
Peace Circle, which is a front door of the Capitol complex.
    It is the first security perimeter that those marching from 
the Ellipse would have to come to as they move toward the 
Capitol. The Peace Circle walkway was always where the 
thousands of angry Trump supporters would arrive after 
President Trump sent them from the Ellipse.
    The Proud Boys timed their attack to the moments before the 
start of the joint session in the Capitol, which is also where 
President Trump directed the angry mob. ``We fight like hell,'' 
he told them before sending them down Pennsylvania Avenue right 
to where the Proud Boys gathered and where you were filming.
    Now, a central question is whether the attack on the 
Capitol was coordinated and planned. What you witnessed is what 
a coordinated and planned effort would look like. It was the 
culmination of a months-long effort spearheaded by President 
Trump.
    Mr. Quested, thank you for your eyewitness account of the 
lead-up to the breach of the Peace Circle.
    This brings us to a point in time where you and Officer 
Edwards were in close proximity.
    At this point, I reserve the balance of my time.
    Pursuant to section 5(c)(8) of House Resolution 503, the 
Chair recognizes gentlewoman from Wyoming, Ms. Cheney, for 
questioning.
    Vice Chair Cheney. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    Officer Edwards, I want to start by thanking you for your 
service and thank you for your courage. Thank you for being 
here this evening.
    I know that it is not easy to relive what happened, for you 
and for the officers behind you and for the family members of 
the officers in the audience this evening, but it is really 
important for the country to have a full accounting and 
understand what happened.
    I want to start, Officer Edwards, with a short clip that 
shows the horrible moment when you were injured as the Peace 
Circle was breached.
    [Video of the attack on Officer Edwards shown.]
    Vice Chair Cheney. Officer Edwards, can you describe the 
crowd that had assembled at the Peace Circle as you and your 
fellow officers stood behind and guarded the bike racks at the 
Peace Circle?
    Officer Edwards. Yes.
    So, there were about, I want to say, about five of us on 
that line. There were, so there was our bike rack, and then at 
the bottom of the Pennsylvania Avenue walkway or right by Peace 
Circle, there was another bike rack. So, the crowd had kind-of 
gathered there. It was the crowd led by Joseph Biggs.
    They were mostly in civilian clothes. There were some who 
had military fatigues on. We could see people with bullet-proof 
vests on, you know, things like that. They didn't seem, you 
know, extremely cohesive, but they had gathered there in their 
outfits.
    But they had gathered there together, and Joseph Biggs 
started, he had a megaphone, and he started talking about, you 
know, first it was things kind-of relating to Congress. Then 
the table started turning once the, what is now the Arizona 
group, is what you said, the crowd with the orange hats, they 
came up chanting, ``F-u-c-k Antifa,'' and they joined that 
group.
    Once they joined that group, Joseph Biggs's rhetoric turned 
to the Capitol Police. He started asking us questions like, 
``You didn't miss a paycheck during the pandemic,'' mentioning 
stuff about--our pay scale was mentioned--and, you know, 
started turning the tables on us.
    I have worked, I can, you know, conservatively say, 
probably hundreds of civil disturbance events. I know when I am 
being turned into a villain. That is when I turned to my 
sergeant, and I stated the understatement of the century. I 
said, ``Sarge, I think we are going to need a few more people 
down here.''
    So, after that, you know, I think they started conferring. 
They went a little silent; they started conferring among each 
other. I saw the person now identified as Ryan Samsel. He put 
his arm around Joseph Biggs, and they were talking. Then they 
started approaching the first barricade. They ripped the first 
barricade down, and they approached our bike racks.
    You know, at that time, we started holding on, grabbing the 
bike racks. You know, there weren't many of us, so I grabbed 
the middle between two different bike racks. You know, I wasn't 
under any pretense that I could hold it for very long, but I 
just wanted to, you know, make sure that we could get more 
people down and get our CDU units time to answer the call.
    So, we started grappling over the bike racks. I felt the 
bike rack come on top of my head, and I was pushed backward. My 
foot caught the stair behind me, and my chin hit the handrail. 
Then I--at that point I had blacked out, but the back of my 
head clipped the concrete stairs behind me.
    Vice Chair Cheney. You were knocked unconscious; is that 
right, Officer Edwards?
    Officer Edwards. Yes, ma'am.
    Vice Chair Cheney. But then, when you regained 
consciousness, even with the injuries, you returned to duty. Is 
that right?
    Officer Edwards. Yes, ma'am. You know, at that time, 
adrenaline kicked in. I ran toward the West Front, and I tried 
to hold the line at the Senate steps at the Lower West Terrace.
    More people kept coming at us. It just seemed like, you 
know, more and more people started, you know, coming onto the 
West Front. They started overpowering us.
    That was right about when MPD's officers showed up. Their 
bike officers pushed the crowd back and allowed our CDU units, 
as well as theirs, to form that line that you see, that very 
thin line between us and the protesters, or the rioters, you 
know, at that time.
    I fell behind that line. For a while, I started 
decontaminating people who had gotten sprayed and treating 
people medically who needed it.
    Vice Chair Cheney. Then you were injured again, there on 
the West Terrace. Is that right, Officer Edwards?
    Officer Edwards. Yes, ma'am.
    So, after a while, I got back on the line. It was on the 
House side of the Lower West Terrace, and I was holding that 
line for a while. There weren't many of us over there. Officer 
Sicknick was behind me for most of the time, for about 30 to 45 
minutes that I was down there. We were just--as the best we 
could, we were just, you know, grappling over bike racks and 
trying to hold them as quick as possible.
    All of a sudden, I see movement to the left of me, and I 
turned, and it was Officer Sicknick with his head in his hands. 
He was ghostly pale, which--I figured at that point that he had 
been sprayed, and I was concerned. My, you know, cop alarm 
bells went off. Because if you get sprayed with pepper spray, 
you are going to turn red. He turned just about as pale as this 
sheet of paper.
    So, I looked back to see what had hit him, what had 
happened, and that is when I got sprayed in the eyes as well. I 
was taken to be decontaminated by another officer, but we 
didn't get the chance because we were then tear-gassed.
    Vice Chair Cheney. We are going to play just a brief clip 
of that moment that you have just described, Officer Edwards.
    [Video of the moment Officer Edwards was tear-gassed 
shown.]
    Vice Chair Cheney. Officer Edwards, I just want to thank 
you for being here. I know, again, how difficult it is. I know 
the family of Officer Sicknick, as well, is here tonight.
    One of the things one of the Capitol Police officers said 
to me recently was to ask me whether or not, as Members of 
Congress, all of us understood that on that day, on January 
6th, when we were evacuated from the Chamber, were led to a 
safe, undisclosed location, whether we knew that so many of you 
had rushed out of the building and into the fight. I can assure 
you that we do know that and that we understand how important 
your service is.
    Thank you for your continued work with our Committee and 
the interviews.
    Thank you very much, for both of you, for being here this 
evening.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Edwards, can you give us one memory of that awful day 
that stands out most vividly in your mind?
    Officer Edwards. I can.
    That time when I talked about falling behind MPD's line, I 
remember--because I had been kind-of shielded away, because I 
was holding those stairs, so I wasn't able to really see what 
was going on over here. When I fell behind that line and I saw, 
I can just remember my breath catching in my throat, because 
what I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had 
seen out of the movies. I couldn't believe my eyes.
    There were officers on the ground. You know, they were 
bleeding, they were throwing up, they were, you know, they had, 
I mean, I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was 
slipping in people's blood. You know, I was catching people as 
they fell.
    It was carnage. It was chaos. I can't even describe what I 
saw.
    Never in my wildest dreams did I think that, as a police 
officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in 
the middle of a battle. You know, I am trained to detain, you 
know, a couple of subjects and, you know, handle a crowd, but I 
am not combat trained. That day, it was just hours of hand-to-
hand combat, hours of dealing with things that were way beyond 
what any law enforcement officer has ever trained for.
    I just remember, I just remember that moment of stepping 
behind the line and just seeing the absolute war zone that the 
West Front had become.
    Chairman Thompson. Let me thank you for your service and 
obviously your bravery that you have told the world about 
tonight. It is unfortunate that you had to defend the Capitol 
from fellow Americans. None of us would ever think that that 
would have to happen, but it did.
    So let me thank our witnesses for joining us tonight and 
sharing their experiences with America.
    Throughout my chairmanship of this Committee, I have 
continuously vowed that this Committee will ensure a 
comprehensive account of the heroic acts on January 6th and 
that we will follow the facts wherever they lead. Your 
testimony is an essential part of that record and helps us do 
our job.
    Mr. Quested, thank you for sharing your footage and your 
account of the day's events with us. The images you recorded 
and have shared with the Committee do a better job than any of 
our words in reinforcing the violence of January 6th. We hope 
that the power of your footage helps encourage all Americans to 
consider how citizens with so much in common could viciously 
brawl at the seat of their democratic government.
    Officer Edwards, thank you for your brave service, as I 
indicated, on January 6th and all you did to protect us and, 
most importantly, our democracy. If you and your fellow 
officers hadn't held the line against those violent 
insurrectionists, we can only imagine the disaster that would 
have ensued.
    Your heroism in the face of danger is admirable, and your 
will to continue to protect and serve, despite your serious 
injuries, should be an inspiration to all of us. We wish you a 
continued recovery and look forward to seeing you back in 
uniform sometime soon.
    The Members of the Select Committee may have additional 
questions for tonight's witnesses, and we ask that you respond 
expeditiously in writing to those questions.
    Without objection, Members will be permitted 10 business 
days to submit statements for the record, including opening 
remarks and additional questions for the witnesses.
    The witnesses have just told us what they heard the rioters 
saying, why they stormed the Capitol on that day. Now we are 
going to hear it from the rioters themselves.
    Without objection, I include in the record a video 
presentation.

    Voice. We were invited by the President of the United States.
    Mr. Schornack. What really made me want to come was the fact that, 
you know, I had supported Trump all that time. I did believe, you know, 
that the election was being stolen. And Trump asked us to come.
    Mr. Barber. He personally asked for us to come to DC that day. And 
I thought, for everything he's done for us, if this is the only thing 
he's going to ask of me, I'll do it.
    President Trump. We're going to walk down to the Capitol.
    Mr. Childress. Do you recall President Trump mentioning going to 
the Capitol during his speech?
    Mr. Barber. Oh, yeah. So, that's one of my disappointments. He said 
he was going to go, go with us, that he was going to be there.
    Mr. Wright. I know why I was there, and that's because he called me 
there, and he laid out what is happening in our government. He laid it 
out.
    Mr. Meza. But I remember Donald Trump telling people to be there, 
I--I mean, to support.
    Mr. Sasso. So, you mentioned that the President--that the President 
asked you. Do you remember a specific message?
    Mr. Herendeen. Basically, yeah--yes, for us to come to DC, that big 
things are going to happen.
    Mr. Walter. What got me interested, he said I have something very 
important to say on January 6th, or something like that is what got--
what got me interested to be there.
    Mr. Schornack. You know, Trump has only asked me for two things. He 
asked me for my vote, and he asked me to come on January 6th.

    Chairman Thompson. When the Committee reconvenes next week, 
we are going to examine the lies that convinced those men and 
others to storm the Capitol to try to stop the transfer of 
power. We are going to take a close look at the first part of 
Trump's attack on the rule of law, when he lit the fuse that 
ultimately resulted in the violence of January 6th.
    Without objection, and with that, the Committee stands 
adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 9:54 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]



                            A P P E N D I X

                              ----------                              

 Prepared Statement of Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol Police, 
                             Washington, DC
                              June 9, 2022
    I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days 
thereafter. I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called incompetent, called 
a hero and a villain. I was called a traitor to my country, my oath, 
and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things.
    I was an American standing face-to-face with other Americans asking 
myself many times how we had gotten here. I had been called names 
before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question. 
I, who got up every day, no matter how early the hour or how late I got 
in the night before, to put on my uniform and protect America's symbol 
of democracy. I, who spent countless hours in the baking sun and 
freezing snow to make sure America's elected officials were able to do 
their job. I, whose literal blood, sweat, and tears were shed that day 
defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends 
working in.
    I am the proud granddaughter of a Marine that battled in the Chosin 
reservoir in the Korean War. I think of my Papa often in these days, 
how he was so young and thrown into a battle he never saw coming, and 
answered the call at great personal cost. How he lived the rest of his 
days with bullets and shrapnel in his legs, but never once complained 
about his sacrifice. I would like to think that he would be proud of 
me, proud that his granddaughter stood her ground that day and 
continued fighting even though she was wounded, like he did many years 
ago. I am my grandfather's granddaughter, proud to put on a uniform and 
serve my country.
    They dared to question my honor. They dared to question my loyalty. 
They dared to question my duty. I am a proud American, and I will 
gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my 
grandfather defended is here for many years to come.
    Thank you.
                                 ______
                                 
Prepared Statement of Nick Quested, Documentary Filmmaker, New York, NY
    I am a British-born legal resident of the United States. I received 
my Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University in 1992. I am an 
artist and an independent filmmaker. I have directed hundreds of music 
videos and have produced upwards of 40 documentaries. I have won an 
Emmy and a Dupont Columbia Award, and I have produced an Oscar-
nominated film.
    Much of my work in the last 20 years has revolved around conflict. 
I have filmed documentaries dealing with war and areas in conflict such 
as Restrepo, Korengal, The Last Patrol, Hell on Earth: The Fall of 
Syria and the Rise of ISIS, and most recently, Blood on the Wall.
    I testified before this Committee on June 9, 2022, because in 
December 2020 and January 2021, I was filming a documentary in 
Washington, DC about ``why Americans are so divided when Americans have 
so much in common.'' I had started working on this film in the summer 
of 2020 when I observed what America was experiencing. As part of that 
documentary, I interviewed and spoke with groups such as Antifa and the 
Proud Boys. I filmed several rallies in Washington, DC on December 11 
and December 12, 2020, and began filming several of the groups 
spearheading those rallies such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
    I learned there would be a rally on the National Mall on January 6, 
2021, and three colleagues and I came to document the rally. We 
traveled from New York to Washington, DC on January 5, 2021, and we 
started filming when we were invited to document a Proud Boy, Enrique 
Tarrio's release from Government custody. On January 5, 2022, we 
documented Mr. Tarrio as he retrieved his property from the 
Metropolitan Police Department, retrieved his luggage from a 
Washington, DC Hotel, participated in a meeting in an underground 
parking garage, and traveled to a hotel in Baltimore. After documenting 
those events, we returned to Washington, DC.
    On January 6, 2021, my colleagues and I headed to the Mall for the 
rally. According to the permit for the event, there was to be a rally 
at the Ellipse. I arrived as a group was heading west on the Mall. I 
observed a large contingent of Proud Boys marching toward the Capitol. 
I filmed the crowd walking toward Capitol Hill. Almost immediately, I 
was separated from my colleagues. I documented the crowd turn from 
protesters to insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the 
group, the anger, and the profanity. I experienced pepper spray, 
violent surging, and acts of violence, and I heard aggressive chanting.
    My goal as an independent journalist is always to prioritize truth 
and to let people speak for themselves rather than to interpret events 
for my audience. The clips of my footage that were shown to the world 
on June 9, 2022, were a snapshot of what we saw occur on January 6, 
2021. I hope my footage and the subsequent documentary will help people 
understand and visualize what occurred on that date. It is important 
for Americans to see the unvarnished truth of what happened for 
themselves. The events I captured on film leading up to January 6, and 
the January 6 attacks themselves, shook me.

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