The Jan. 6 select panel plans to vote on issuing a subpoena to former President Trump, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the matter. The vote is expected to take place at the end of the hearing Thursday.
“This big lie, President Trump’s effort to convince Americans that he had won the 2020 election, began before the election results even came in. It was premeditated. It was not based on … results or any fraud, if there was any actual problems with voting. It was a plan concocted in advance to convince his supporters that he won, and the people who seemingly knew about the plan in advance would ultimately play a significant role in the events of January,” Lofgren said.
Committee leaders described the hearing’s goal as a step back to look at the entire plan to keep Trump in power, and said it will cover the span of time from before the 2020 election until after the Jan. 6 insurrection.of Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. Committee members will provide new information relevant to the topics of each of the previous hearings, and will also touch on ongoing threats to democracy, but the main focus will be on Trump’s state of mind and role in the event.
Thursday is the committee’s first public hearing in nearly three months. In the interim, public attention has been seized by news of the Justice Department’s accelerating investigation into the insurrection and the scheme to use false electors to cast doubt on the election results and keep Trump in office, and on the FBI’s efforts to recover classified materials that were improperly — and possibly illegally — stored at Trump’s Florida estate after he left office.
In one clip, Stone said before the election, “F— the voting. Let’s get straight to the violence.” The committee also played footage of another advisor, Steve Bannon, saying before the election that Trump would claim victory regardless of the results.