(WASHINGTON) — The focus of the House Jan. 6 committee’s second prime-time hearing will be what it says was then-President Donald Trump’s “187 minutes” of inaction — from the time he left the rally at the Ellipse, then watching the attack on the U.S. Capitol from the White House until he finally called on his violent supporters to go home.
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Jul 21, 7:25 PM EDT
Bannon on trial for defying House select committee subpoena
As the House select committee’s last scheduled session gets underway, Steve Bannon, a former top political adviser in Donald Trump’s White House, is currently on trial for defying a subpoena in connection with its investigation.
Bannon was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony and ultimately charged with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.
His defense attorney, David Schoen, said in court Thursday that Bannon wanted to testify but decided not to based on the advice of his attorney at the time, who reportedly told Bannon that “executive privilege had been invoked and he was not permitted by law to comply with the subpoena.”
The House committee and federal prosecutors have said the executive privilege claims never covered Bannon, since the insurrection occurred long after he left his post as chief White House strategist in 2017.
Ahead of the contempt trial, Bannon had said he would be willing to testify in a live, public hearing.
Closing arguments and jury instructions in the trial are planned for Friday morning.
Jul 21, 7:07 PM EDT
Criminal probe opened into Secret Service’s deleted Jan. 6 messages
A revelation about deleted text messages by the Secret Service is looming large over Thursday’s hearing.
The House committee subpoenaed the agency earlier this month for text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. But the agency said most of those records were lost in a planned data migration.
So far, the Secret Service has provided a single text exchange to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigating the agency’s record-keeping, according to an agency letter to the House Jan. 6 committee obtained by ABC News on Wednesday.
The committee is suggesting the Secret Service broke federal records keeping laws. Hours before the hearing, news broke that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has turned the inquiry into a criminal investigation.
Jul 21, 6:45 PM EDT
Kinzinger: Trump was ‘derelict in his duty’ to try to stop mob
The House select committee plans to focus Thursday night’s hearing on what it says was Trump’s dereliction of duty to act to stop the insurrection.
“It’s obvious the president was derelict in his duty, but for all the details you have to watch,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who is co-leading the hearing, told ABC Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
Jul 21, 6:37 PM EDT
Kinzinger previews testimony about Trump watching Capitol attack on television
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on Thursday morning teased snippets of depositions previewing testimony from Kayleigh McEnany, former press secretary; Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellog, then-national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence; Molly Michael, Trump’s former executive assistant; and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel at the time.
In the montage, the former White House officials recall how Trump was in the private dining room off the Oval Office watching television as the violence unfolded.
“To the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room” McEnany said in her deposition.
Jul 21, 5:53 PM EDT
Former White House staffers to testify about resigning in protest
Two former White House aides are expected to testify before the committee on Thursday, sources previously confirmed to ABC News.
Those ex-staffers are Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary, and Matthew Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser. Both resigned from their positions after the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
At the committee’s June 16 hearing, a clip from Matthews’ prior testimony was played in which she described what it was like on the White House press team as the insurrection unfolded. She said that Trump’s tweet attacking then-Vice President Mike Pence during the attack “felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire.”
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