January 6 committee hearing highlights: New evidence, Trump subpoena on Day 9

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told The Washington Post in an interview that the committee's report on its investigation of the Capitol riot most likely won't land before the midterm elections.

“I can’t give it to you exactly because I don't think it exists yet,” Raskin said of the committee’s timeline for releasing the report. “I am hoping that we would have it done later in November or early in December.” 

In a post on his social media website Truth Social after the hearing concluded on Thursday, Trump lashed out at the committee and questioned why he had not been asked to testify "months ago."

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich didn't directly mention the subpoena in a statement Thursday, but he did accuse Democrats of "Doubling and tripling down on their partisan theatrics."

"Pres Trump will not be [intimidated] by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions," Budowich said. "Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership & solutions will be restored. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!."

The committee aired previously unseen footage showing congressional leaders pleading for help from nearby governors, the secretary of defense and the acting attorney general on Jan. 6 as the Capitol was under attack.

The video provided a chronological timeline of clips that showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in various undisclosed locations that day on the phone asking for help.

In one clip, when Pelosi was in a room with then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Schumer is heard saying, "I'm gonna call up the 'effin secretary of DOD," referring to the Department of Defense.

In another, Pelosi called Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam asking for his help in deploying his state's National Guard troops to the Capitol. “It’s just horrendous and all at the instigation of the president of the United States,” Pelosi told him.

Sitting next to Schumer on a couch while acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen was on speakerphone, Pelosi said, "They’re breaking windows, going in and obviously ransacking our offices and all the rest of that. That’s nothing."

She and Schumer expressed their concerns about the personal safety of people in the Capitol, including members of Congress.

"The fact is that on any given day they’re breaking the law in many different ways and quite frankly much of it at the instigation of the president of the United State," Pelosi said to Rosen.

"Why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility — a public statement they should all leave," Schumer said.

The video montage included other clips of congressional leaders huddling later on in the day and speaking to Vice President Pence about reconvening that night.

That's a wrap on Thursday's hearing.

The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump.

"It is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony," Thompson said ahead of the vote. "There is precedent in American history for Congress to compel the testimony of a president. There is also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to congressional investigators."

"We also recognize that a subpoena to a former president is a serious and extraordinary action," Thompson continued.

The subpoena will expire at the end of this congressional term. 

NBC News was first to report that the vote would take place. Sources familiar with the committee’s plans told NBC News that members want to put the historic move in the public record, despite multiple members previously acknowledging the slim chances of Trump complying with the subpoena.

The committee expects to issue the subpoena in the coming days and it will have details on the compliance dates, a source familiar told NBC News.

The subpoena comes more than a year since the committee began investigating the Capitol attack.

In his closing statement, Thompson thanked police officers who helped quell the mob of Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Thompson also paid tribute to the “tireless work” by members and investigators.

Thompson then condemned Trump for leading an effort to “upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of Jan. 6.”

“He tried to take away the voice of the American people in choosing their president and replace the will of the voters with his will to remain in power. He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on Jan. 6,” Thompson said.

The video the committee showed of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others on Jan. 6 was shot by her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, a source familiar with the matter told NBC.

The committee played a clip from an interview investigators conducted with Elaine Chao, who served as Trump's transportation secretary and resigned from her Cabinet position after Jan. 6.

"I think the events at the Capitol, however they occurred, were shocking, and it was something that, as I mentioned in my statement, that I could not put aside," she said in video played during the hearing.

Chao, who is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., continued, "And at a particular point, the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy. I came as an immigrant to this country. I believe in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. And so I was — it was a decision that I made on my own."

As the committee played video showing congressional leadership on the day of the riot, people in the back of room were watching with rapt attention. The room was absolutely silent as the video played.

Some people recorded the video with their phones. Some committee members, including Lofgren, appear shaken by the videos of leadership trying to figure out how to regain control of the Capitol. Lofgren put her head in her hand and covered her whole face with her hands

Anika Navaroli, a Twitter employee who testified anonymously in a previous hearing, detailed in a video interview shown today how Trump had "fanned the flames" of violent users' already persistent calls to hang Mike Pence.

"It was individuals who were already constructing gallows, who were already willing and able and wanting to execute someone and looking for someone to be killed," Navaroli said.

Twitter employees were nervously monitoring the situation throughout the day on Jan. 6, Raskin said, and the company detected a surge in violent tags like "Execute Mike Pence."

Raskin also read aloud another agent's tweet about the impact of Trump's tweeting criticizing Pence: "POTUS said he lacked courage. Over 24k likes in under 2mins."

Navaroli was unidentified when she testified at a hearing in July. Raskin identified her on Twitter last month.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., noted the committee previously aired a description of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's phone conversation with Trump as the Capitol attack unfolded.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., recalled McCarthy telling her that he attempted to get the then-president to call off his mob of supporters. But Trump insisted that the mob that stormed the Capitol “aren’t my people” and that Trump was basically saying he was “OK with this,” Herrera Beutler recalled McCarthy telling her.

According to Herrera Beutler's testimony, as McCarthy told Trump his staff were "running for their lives," the president responded, "I guess they’re just more upset about the election, you know, theft, than you are."

Raskin said another witness, Mick Mulvaney, former Trump chief of staff, has since corroborated Herrera Beutler’s “shocking account.”

“The president told them something along the lines of, 'Kevin, maybe these people are just more angry about this than you are. Maybe they’re more upset,'” Mulvaney said in an interview.

The Secret Service was "concerned" about Trump's plan to go to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse and noted the facility was already becoming dangerous, emails newly obtained by the committee show.

In a 1:19 p.m. email from Secret Service leadership, Bobby Engel, the lead agent from Trump's detail, was told the Capitol Police were "having serious challenges securing [the Capitol]. Nine priority breach attempts at this time."

It warned an OTR — "off the record" movement — "anywhere near there is not advisable," according to emails displayed by the committee.

That email came just as Trump was returning to the White House after angrily protesting that the Secret Service was blocking him from joining his supporters at the Capitol, other witnesses have testified.

The Secret Service emails show another plan under consideration was for Trump to stay at the White House and then go to the Capitol two hours later and that agents should don their protective gear in preparation for the trip. That plan was set aside a short time later as the violence at the Capitol escalated, the emails show. "We are not doing an OTR," said one.

Aguilar said the panel will be recalling witnesses and “conducting further investigative depositions” in light of its review of additional Secret Service communications from Jan. 5 and 6. Aguilar said the committee will provide “even greater detail” in its final report after that activity.

Aguilar added the committee is reviewing testimony regarding “potential obstruction,” including testimony about “advice given not to tell the committee about this specific topic.”

“We will address this matter in our report,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar said a national security professional told the panel that days after the Capitol attack, they recalled hearing about “how angry the president was” when he was in the limo on the afternoon of Jan. 6.

Aguilar said the professional testified they were informed of Trump’s “irate” behavior in the SUV by Tony Ornato, White House deputy chief of staff for operations, and Bobby Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, in Ornato’s office.

“They had expressed to me that the president was irate, you know, on the drive up. Mr. Engel did not deny the fact that the president was irate,” the national security professional said in an interview with the committee.

Aguilar noted that the professional’s account of Trump’s “irate” behavior in the limo “corresponds closely” with the public testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Sources close to both Engel and Ornato have disputed Hutchinson's account and said that they would be willing to say so under oath. But in September, Schiff told CNN that Ornato had yet to do so.

Aguilar said that when Trump told his supporters to march to the Capitol, he had been told by the Secret Service that members of the crowd were armed.

“And there is no doubt that President Trump knew what he was doing, sending an angry mob, a number of whom were clad in tactical gear and military garb armed with various weapons, to the Capitol,” Aguilar said. “There is no scenario where that action is benign.”

Trump was well aware that some of his supporters trying to get past the magnetometers at his Jan. 6 rally were armed when he urged law enforcement to "let them in" from the stage, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said.

Trump had been made aware that many in the crowd that was gathering to see him speak were armed before he took the stage at the Ellipse. The panel replayed testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, in which she recalled Trump telling officials to get rid of the magnetometers.

She said she heard him "say something to the effect of, ‘You know, I don’t f---ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f---ing mags away."

Aguilar noted that Trump made a similar — but less heated — remark once he took the stage.

"I’d love to have — if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed," Trump said during the speech. "I’d love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us."  

The committee returned from its 10-minute recess, with Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., presenting.

Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., gaveled the committee into a 10-minute recess, after which they will continue presenting new evidence.

On Jan. 6, the Secret Service received alerts of online threats targeting Pence, according to communications among the Protective Intelligence Division obtained by the committee.

A chat around 10:39 a.m. ET said, "...alert at 1022 regarding the VP being a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing...," which Schiff highlighted during the hearing.

A few minutes later, another agent reported in an email, "I saw several other alerts saying they will storm the capitol if he doesn't do the right thing etc."

Schiff said the committee obtained a text message that Jason Miller, then-Trump senior communications adviser, sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows less than a week before Jan. 6. In his text to Meadows, Miller wrote “I got the base FIRED UP,” with a link to a page on the website thedonald.win.

The linked webpage contained comments about the joint session of Congress that would convene on Jan. 6, with violent rhetoric musing about the death of lawmakers.

“Gallows don’t require electricity.” “[I]f the filthy commie maggots try to push their fraud through, there will be hell to pay.” "Our 'lawmakers' in Congress can leave one of two ways: 1. in a bodybag. 2. after rightfully certifying Trump the winner," the comments read.

Schiff noted that Miller claimed in his deposition that he was unaware of the violent rhetoric in hundreds of comments in the link he sent to Meadows.

On the morning of Jan. 6, near the White House ellipse where Trump was set to speak at a rally, a Secret Service agent noticed that many rallygoers were assembled outside the security perimeter.

That's based on a Secret Service email from 9:09 a.m. ET that was obtained by the committee and presented at the hearing.

The email said: "Overflows are pretty empty. Line pics are coming but apparently a lot of people are just hanging out on Con and not coming in right now. Possibly bc they have stuff that can’t come through? Would prob be an issue with this crowd, just a thought."

By 9:30 that morning, agents reported that more than 25,000 people were outside the rally site.

"The head of the President’s Secret Service protective detail, Robert Engel, was specifically aware of the large crowds outside the magnetometers," Schiff said. "He passed that information along to Tony Ornato, who worked for Mark Meadows in the Chief of Staff’s office."

Secret Service documents obtained by the committee showed that "the crowd outside the magnetometers was armed and the agents knew it," Schiff said.

A Secret Service report at 7:58 a.m. said, "Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks."

Later that morning, other reports said, "...POSSIBLE ARMED INDIVIDUALS, ONE WITH A GLOCK, ONE WITH A RIFLE..." and "POSSIBLE MAN WITH A GUN REPORTED...CONFIRMED PISTOL ON HIP, LOCATED IN A TREE."

Another report said that one person who had an assault rifle was detained nearby.

The Secret Service was told by the FBI on Jan. 5 that right-wing groups were establishing armed “quick reaction forces” to be at the ready on Jan. 6, Schiff said.

Groups like the Oath Keepers were “standing by at the ready should POTUS request assistance” on Jan. 6 by invoking the Insurrection Act, the Secret Service was told, according to communications obtained by the committee.

"As we all know now, the Oath Keepers did play a specific role on Jan. 6th, and had stashed weapons in Virginia for further violence that evening," Schiff said.    

Secret Service agents circulated intelligence reports on Dec. 31 about Trump supporters proposing a movement to “occupy Capitol Hill,” which included spikes in violent hashtags such as “We Are The Storm," Schiff said.

Schiff said that on Jan. 5, a Secret Service Open Source Unit flagged a social media account on Donald.win that threatened to “bring a sniper rifle” to a rally on Jan. 6.

The same user also posted a photo of a handgun and rifle, displayed by the committee, with the caption “Sunday Gun Day Providing Overwatch January 6th Will be Wild!”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., presented an email alert that was received by the Secret Service on Dec. 24, 2020, that said, "Armed and Ready, Mr. President."

"According to the intelligence, '[m]ultiple users' online were targeting Members of Congress, instructing others to 'march into the chambers' on January 6th and 'make sure they know who to fear,'" Schiff said about the alert received by the Secret Service.

On Dec. 26, a Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI, Schiff said. The source of the tip said the Proud Boys planned to march, armed, into D.C.

"They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped," a Secret Service email shown during the hearing said.

"Their plan is to literally kill people," the source added in the email. "Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further.” The source also made clear that “[t]he proud boys [had] detailed their plans on multiple websites” like "http://thedonald.win/..."

Murphy read out loud a text message that an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” rally sent on Jan. 4, two days before the Capitol attack, to Trump ally and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.

The text reads: “POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol,” and “POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’”

Murphy said the text was one of many examples of Trump’s “personal and substantial role” in efforts to overturn the election.

“He was intimately involved. He was the central player,” Murphy said.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel testified before the committee that Trump and his attorney John Eastman called her about their fake elector scheme.

McDaniel said the two men "called her and asked her to arrange for the fake electors to meet and rehearse the process of casting their fake votes," Stephanie said during the hearing.

"When I received the call, again, I don’t remember the exact date, it was — it was from the White House switchboard, and it was President Trump who had contacted me," McDaniel told the committee in video played during the hearing. "He introduced me to a gentleman named John Eastman."

"I vaguely remember him mentioning that he was a professor, and then essentially he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states," McDaniel said.

Murphy noted that the fake electors were part of Trump's plan to "to replace genuine Biden electors with Trump electors on January 6th."

The Jan. 6 committee plans to vote to subpoena Trump during today’s hearing, sources familiar with the committee’s plans told NBC News.

Members want to put the historic move in the public record, the sources said, even though multiple members have previously acknowledged how difficult, or even unlikely, it would be for Trump to comply.

A Trump subpoena had been an active topic of discussion by committee members. On his way into the hearing, Thompson told reporters the committee had not yet ruled out a subpoena for Trump. He said at the start of the hearing that the panel had assembled as a "formal committee business meeting" — meaning that they could "potentially" hold a vote based on new evidence. 

Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. 

The committee is not officially commenting to NBC News when asked about this expected move. Read more here.

Trump ignored information from his own officials that his stolen election claims were wrong and continued to tout the false claims, Luria said.

The committee played video from former top officials, including Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy AG Richard Donoghue, saying they had informed Trump that some of his specific claims about Dominion voting machines and vote counting were wrong — only to have him tout the same claims anyway.

"This happened over and over again," Luria said. "Purposeful lies, made in public, directly at odds with what Donald Trump knew from unassailable sources."

Trump, she said, "maliciously repeated this nonsense to a wide audience, over and over again. His intent was to deceive."

Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said Trump in mid-December of 2020 deliberately chose to ignore the courts and his advisers to push efforts to overturn the election.

Luria stressed that Trump’s efforts were “not random or disconnected,” but part of a “coordinated multi-part plan” to steal a second term in office.

“Donald Trump was the driver behind each part of this plan. He was personally and directly involved,” Luria said.

Luria added that a “key element” of Trump’s plan was his boost of false claims of election fraud to “convince tens of millions of Americans that he did not, in fact, lose.”

Kinzinger presented a newly obtained Secret Service email message from Dec. 11, 2020, after the Supreme Court denied Trump's election lawsuit.

"Just FYI. POTUS is pissed—breaking news—Supreme Court denied his lawsuit. He is livid now," the email said.

It's unclear who wrote the email and who it was addressed to. Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the time, confirmed Trump's mindset to the committee.

On that day, after the Supreme Court rejected the president's case, Hutchinson said she and Meadows ran into Trump in the Rose Garden colonnade.

"The President is just raging about the decision and how it’s wrong, and why didn’t we make more calls, and, you know, just his typical anger outburst at this decision," Hutchinson said to committee investigators in video testimony played during the hearing.

She added that Trump "said something to the effect of, 'I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost.'"

Committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said the Trump campaign recognized they had likely lost shortly after the election and informed Trump of that fact.

"Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said.

The committee aired testimony from former Trump aide Jason Miller, who said that after networks called the election, he and others "sat down with the president and communicated that the odds of us prevailing in legal challenges were very small."

“At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. Although he publicly claimed that he had won the election, privately, he admitted that Joe Biden would take over as President,” Kinzinger said.

In testimonies aired by the committee, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, recounted Trump saying "words to the effect of, 'Yeah, we lost, we need to let that issue go to the next guy.' Meaning President Biden."

And Trump White House aide Alyssa Farah recounted that Trump had said, “Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?” as he watched TV in the Oval Office a week after the election.

Stone took the Fifth when he was questioned by the House committee about his involvement with Jan. 6th, but boasted publicly about talking to Trump in the days before the rally.

The panel pointed to a social media post on Parler on Dec. 28, 2020, where Stone said he'd met Trump to thank him for pardoning him after he was convicted of making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Stone said in the same post he'd also urged Trump to "appoint a special counsel with full subpoena power to ensure those who are attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud are charged and convicted and to ensure Donald Trump continues as our president.”  

The panel also noted that Stone was staying at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5 and 6, and that Trump had directed his chief of staff to speak with Stone.

They added that Stone had "maintained extensive direct connections to two groups responsible for violently attacking the Capitol, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys," including in the days before the riot. Members of both groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the attack.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the committee recently obtained footage from a Danish filmmaker, as the result of a subpoena, of Trump ally Roger Stone before and after the 2020 election.

In a clip from Nov. 1, 2020, days before the election, which the panel aired during the hearing, Stone said, "Let’s just hope we are celebrating."

"I suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens the key thing to do is claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. No, we won. F--- you. Sorry. Over. We won. You’re wrong. F--- you," he said.

In a second clip taken the following day, Stone is seen riding in his car at night and heard saying, "F--- the voting, go right to the violence."

Lofgren said the committee called Stone as a witness but he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. She then presented a screenshot of a post Stone shared on the website Parler about meeting with Trump in person on Dec. 27, 2020.

"I also told the president exactly how he can appoint a special counsel with full subpoena power to ensure those who are attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud are charged and convicted and to ensure Donald Trump continues as our president," Stone wrote.

Lofgren said Trump consulted with one of his outside advisers, conservative activist Tom Fitton, about the strategy for election night a few days before the election. 

An email from Fitton, sent on Oct. 31, 2020, prematurely declares Trump the winner of the election — a statement that went further in declaring victory than what Trump said publicly the night of the election.

“We had an election today—and I won,” Fitton’s memo read, and indicates a plan that only the votes “counted by the Election Day deadline” would matter.

Trump planned "well in advance" to declare victory on election night — regardless of the vote count, Rep. Zoe Lofgren said at the hearing.

The then-president had a "premeditated plan" to "declare victory no matter what the actual result was," Lofgren said, citing evidence gathered by the committee.

Aides to Vice President Mike Pence were on guard for such a declaration. Pence's counsel, Greg Jacob, said Pence chief of staff Marc Short was trying to "figure out a way of avoiding" having Pence "opine" on the election results when they weren't clear.

Jacob then wrote a memo to Short on Election Day saying it was "essential" that Pence not be seen as having "decided questions concerning disputed electoral votes prior to the full development of all relevant facts.”

There are not as many lawmakers attending Thursday's hearing as in the past. NBC reporters only spotted Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., in back. The usual police officers who’ve attended past hearings are here, too.

But the room is packed: There's not a single empty seat in the four rows behind the press area.

Cheney said in her opening statement that people should consider three points during the hearing that are critical to understanding Jan. 6.

First, she said that Trump "had a premeditated plan to declare that the election was fraudulent and stolen before election day, before he knew the election results."

Second, Cheney said Trump was in a "unique position" because he was "fully informed about the absence of widespread election fraud than almost another other American." Trump's own campaign experts, own Justice Department appointees and senior advisers all told him that there was no evidence to support his claims and to concede the election, she said, noting that he "still made the conscious choice" to claim victory and attempt to overturn the election.

Lastly, Cheney said that people should consider all of the people who pushed back against Trump and stopped his effort to overturn the election from becoming reality. She mentioned former Vice President Mike Pence, former Attorney General Bill Barr, others at the DOJ and White House staff.

She warned, "We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time."

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in her opening statement that the panel "may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice" based on its investigation into Jan. 6.

"But we recognize that our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution," Cheney added.

The panel's vice chair emphasized that the Capitol riot happened because of one man: Donald Trump. "None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it," Cheney said.

This hearing will focus on Trump's "state of mind, his intent, his motivations, and how he spurred others to do his bidding," she said, "And how another January 6th could happen again if we do not take necessary action to prevent it."

Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in his opening statement that the panel will present new evidence in today's hearing, including testimony from additional Republicans who served in the Trump administration as well as materials produced to the committee by the Secret Service.

"When you look back at what has come out through this committee’s work, the most striking fact is that all this evidence comes almost entirely from Republicans," he said.

The committee will air "never-before-seen footage of congressional leaders on Jan. 6th working to coordinate the response to the violence and ensure the people’s business went forward," he said.

This hearing, Thompson said, will delve into the evidence in a broader context, including facts surrounding Trump's "state of mind," "motivations" and "intent."

“What did President Trump know? What was he told? What was his personal and substantial role in the multipart plan to overturn the election?” he added.

Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., gaveled in the hearing at 1:02 p.m. ET.

A member of the Oath Keepers who took an AR-15 to a Virginia hotel on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot described during a seditious conspiracy trial Wednesday entering a room filled with a large stash of weapons.

The Oath Keepers member, Terry Cummings, testified that “a lot of firearms cases” were in the hotel room when he dropped off his weapon at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 5, 2021.

“I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” Cummings said.

Prosecutors allege that the stockpile — which they have called a “quick reaction force,” or “QRF” — had been staged as part of a plan to oppose the peaceful transfer of power.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is on trial accused of seditious conspiracy alongside four other Oath Keepers associates: Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell. Other members alleged to be part of the conspiracy will go on trial in November.

Read more here.

A week after the Jan. 6 attack, a person familiar with FBI operations informed a top bureau manager that “there is, at best, a sizeable percentage of the employee population that felt sympathetic to the group that stormed the Capitol,” according to an email just released under the Freedom of Information Act.  

In a message with the subject line “internal concerns,” the unnamed emailer said many FBI agents believed Jan. 6 “was no different than (Black Lives Matter) protests of last summer. Several also lamented that the only reason this violent activity is getting more attention is because of ‘political correctness.’”

The writer of the email, who is not identified, said they were in touch with FBI agents across the country in the days after Jan. 6. The message is marked “external email,” suggesting either that the emailer may not have been an FBI employee at the time it was sent or that they were using a private email account.

The FBI did not immediately respond when asked to comment on the email.

The Secret Service has handed congressional investigators more than 1 million electronic communications sent by agents in the lead-up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

While the communications do not include text messages, they do include emails and other electronic messages, according to a Secret Service spokesperson.

The communications may shed light on lingering questions, including contact agents may have had with rioters, their efforts to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence and what occurred inside then-President Donald Trump’s car when Trump allegedly ordered Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol. 

Read more here.

Members of the Jan. 6 committee are actively turning their attention now to the final report, the most concrete and lasting documentation of their work — and one that would endure regardless of who holds control of the House.

The final report is expected to come sometime in December, and sources told NBC News that there could be an additional hearing around then presenting its findings and recommendations.

Former White House aide said Trump knew his supporters at “Stop the Steal” rally were armed

Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified at a public hearing in June that Trump was told that some of his supporters refused to come through metal detectors because they were armed.

“I don’t f---ing care that they have weapons,” Trump railed, according to Hutchinson’s testimony. “They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f---ing mags away."

Witnesses testified about a “heated exchange” between Trump and Secret Service

Hutchinson recalled in testimony before the House committee that she was told by a top White House staffer that Trump desperately wanted to join his supporters at the Capitol and became irate when his security detail declined his request due to safety concerns.

Trump “said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the f-ing president, take me up to the Capitol now,’” Hutchinson said, relaying a conversation she said she had with Tony Ornato, White House deputy chief of staff for operations, and Bobby Engel, the head of Trump's security detail. She said Ornato told her Trump reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel and then lunged toward Engel.

A source close to Ornato disputed the account and said he would be willing to do so under oath, but committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told CNN in September that he had yet to do so.

Pence was only 40 feet away from rioters who endangered his life

Then-Vice President Mike Pence remained in an underground secure location inside the Capitol for more than four hours on Jan. 6, the committee revealed during a hearing in June. Committee member Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Pence’s location in the bunker was a mere 40 feet away from rioters who stormed the Capitol and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”

Former top Trump campaign aide testified that Giuliani was 'definitely intoxicated' at an election night party

Jason Miller, a former top campaign aide to Trump, testified to the Jan. 6 committee in June that Rudy Giuliani was “definitely intoxicated” at the White House’s election night party and advised Trump to just declare victory. Giuliani was “definitely intoxicated, but I did not know his level of intoxication when he talked” with Trump, Miller said. (Giuliani at the time denied that he was intoxicated through his attorney.)

GOP lawmakers sought Trump pardons after Jan. 6

The Jan. 6 committee revealed that multiple Republican lawmakers had asked Trump for pardons for their roles in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. The list included several of Trump’s closest congressional allies: Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday shed light on the future of the investigation and left open the door to the possibility of more hearings.

The investigation "has its own life," she said, "and we keep finding new information."

"This hearing allows us to go a little deeper into what people knew, when they knew it, and what decisions they made based on that information," she said about the planned presentation Thursday.

Murphy said that the committee is "still processing all of the data" surrounding Trump and Jan. 6, and the panel hasn't "yet called some of the original witnesses back in to talk to them — but we will do that in time."

After a long hiatus, the House Jan. 6 committee appears to be winding down an investigation that made and broke political careers among the nine members while providing the fullest account yet of what happened the day the peaceful transfer of power was nearly subverted.

Members haven’t explicitly said Thursday's hearing will be their last. They still need to produce a written report on their findings over the past 14 months. But with the Justice Department now ramping up its criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, the committee’s relevance has begun to fade, one of its members acknowledged.

“We’re really transitioning here into, ‘We need to get this report written,’” the member said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the panel’s thinking. “I see it as, look, we did a great job and at some point, it’s like, take the victory and now it’s in DOJ’s hands.”

The Jan. 6 committee’s ninth and likely final investigative hearing Thursday will feature new testimony and evidence, including Secret Service records and surveillance video.

The hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET, will not include any live witnesses, a committee aide said. And unlike earlier hearings that focused on a specific aspect of the GOP plot to overturn the 2020 election and keep then-President Donald Trump in power, Thursday’s presentation will take a more sweeping view of what happened before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack.

“Tomorrow, what we’re going to be doing is taking a step back and we’re going to be looking at that entire plan, the entire multipart plan to overturn the election. We’re going to be looking at it in a broader context and in a broader timeline as well,” a committee aide said on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

“We’re going to bring a particular focus on the former president’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded,” the aide added. “What you’re going to see is a synthesis of some evidence we’ve already presented with that new, never-before-seen information to illustrate Donald Trump’s centrality to the scheme from the time prior to the election.”

Read more about what to expect here.