The Democrats and Republicans who led the congressional hearing about that were exactly where the US Capitol attack last year came from. that’s all . In the first task, the experts said afterwards, they succeeded. Using a disastrous mix of videos, recordings and live testimonials, the committee showed how far-right groups planned and staged an uprising to stop Joe Biden’s certification as president. They also showed that Trump encouraged them from his Twitter flow and from a step outside the White House and then watched the violence on television, angry with advisers urging him to withdraw his supporters. Their second project, however, based on the data of Thursday night, is likely to prove more difficult. While Cheney claimed that Trump had “called the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack”, the commission has not yet proven that it communicated directly with the insurgents. Thompson said after the hearing there would be further evidence of contact between the troublemakers and Trump’s inner circle. Legal experts say this could be crucial for any criminal case. “What this commission has done in such a short time is historically unprecedented,” said Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor. “But what you also saw last night was how much the reluctance of those around Trump has prevented them from being honest and courageous.” However, Thursday’s hearing was not without some sincerity from the former president’s inner circle. In a recorded testimony, William Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, called the former president’s allegations that the election was rigged “nonsense.” Jason Miller, one of Trump’s closest associates, acknowledged that the former president’s own data experts told him he had lost. Even Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, said she “accepted” Bar’s conclusions. The committee also provided the most comprehensive and comprehensive description of what happened on 6 January. With the help of James Goldstone, the former president of ABC News, the committee made a terrifying video of protesters marching on the Capitol, invading it and raging inside. The presentation used footage from TV crews, protesters and the documentary Nick Quested and combined them with recordings from officers working that day. “It was declared a riot,” an officer said at 2:39 p.m. “I need more support,” shouted another as he was overwhelmed by the crowd. “We lost the line. We lost the line. “ And as the crowd screamed profanity and fired missiles at the officers in front of them, the committee overlapped a now-famous recording of Trump talking about the attack later in the year. “They were peaceful people,” he said. “Love in the air, I have never seen anything like it.” The members also showed footage of contacts between the two far-right groups at the center of the violence: the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the latter of whom were moving into battle formation as they invaded the Capitol. But despite the commission’s ingenuity, the question of the possible consequences for Trump remains unclear. One of the most prominent members of the audience for Thursday night’s show was Merrick Garland, the Biden-appointed attorney general who has come under pressure from progressives to press charges against Trump. Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were key figures in the uprising, have been accused of insurgency, while Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, two former Trump aides, have been accused of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify. However, charging the former president would be more difficult, legally and politically, experts say. Trump supporters already claim the commission is witch-hunts. Their grievances will only intensify if the Ministry of Justice charges the former president, but does not prove in court either that he had conspired with rioters or that he intended to break into the Capitol. A major gap in the commission’s narrative was what Trump did in the 187 minutes between the start of the attack and the call for his supporters to “go home.” The members made some tempting remarks, drawing a picture of him “shouting” at advisers who tried to get him to issue a statement, and even suggested that he agreed with the protesters demanding the execution of Vice President Mike Pence. However, so far they have shown no contact between the president or his inner circle and the rioters themselves, which would prove vital if prosecuted. The commission also hinted that some of Trump’s close associates knew what was going to happen before it happened. “Hell will be ruined tomorrow,” Bannon said the day before. However, members have not yet provided definitive evidence that Trump himself directed the violence or intended it to happen. Even if he is not ousted, Democrats hope these hearings could erode his public and congressional support, just as Watergate’s hearings of Richard Nixon did 50 years ago.

“One of [the committee’s] “It was my job to make a difference at the ballot box,” said Norman Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador to the US Congress who advised the congressional committee that ousted Trump. “They needed to show that the 2022 and 2024 elections will be referendums on whether we want our country to follow the path of democracy or trump card – and they did.” Part of the problem for committee members, however, is that unlike Nixon, Trump has always done the things he has been publicly criticized for. He once claimed: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I would not lose a single voter.” Indeed, the most compelling evidence that he had orchestrated the coup attempt came from his own Twitter feed. “Large protest in DC on January 6,” he wrote on December 19. “Be there, it will be wild!” Some lawyers believe that these hearings will differ from Watergate hearings in how much they were conducted in secret as opposed to open ones. But they warn that even if there was no cover-up, Trump could face criminal prosecution if he is found to have deliberately instigated or helped stage an uprising. “You can shoot people in the middle of Fifth Avenue so many times before someone arrests you and puts you in jail,” Eisen said.