The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection held its seventh hearing on Tuesday. This one focused on the connection between Former President Trump and far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and their role in organizing the attack on the Capitol. Praveen Fernandes, VP at Constitutional Accountability Center, breaks down key takeaways from the hearing.

Opening Bell

Takeaways From Seventh Jan. 6 Committee Hearing

here to break down all of this and talk a little bit more about what happened and what we saw yesterday from a legal perspective, is Praveen Fernandez VP at constitutional accountability center. Praveen. What were your biggest takeaways from this hearing? Well, you know, one of the biggest takeaways I had was how much intense knowledge this, this close circle of trump advisers had both about the angry mob that was there that day, the weapons that were present. Uh, the plan to take these folks who are gathered at the lips and go to the capitol as well as really the, the level of anger and potential for violence that that quite frankly existed. That was a huge take away. This was not, in any sense, a spontaneous gathering as some have been led misled to believe this was something that seemed to be coordinated, planned and with levels of awareness at the highest levels of the White House. And speaking of it being coordinated, the committee presented new evidence that trump had more extensive plans than previously known. Are the people at least heard about to march to the capitol? You know, a draft that Megan talked about earlier of a tweet that he put out said this, please arrive early, massive crowds expected march to the capital after stop the steal. So what do you make of this? Well, I think again, this shows the level of awareness, the level of planning and the fact that this was not a crowd that just suddenly on its own decided to go to the capital. This is about a plan to weaponize this crowd that had gathered and used that anger, used that frenzy that frankly the top officials and trump had actually whipped up and weaponized them because of course all other plans had failed the pressure campaign on Vice President Pence had failed the pressure campaign on Doj had failed the pressure campaign to get state election officials to overturn the election in a variety of different ways with fake slates of a lectures or finding votes that didn't exist. None of that, none of that worked. And so you see trump and his closest set of advisers turning to it's it's sort of last available thing, which is this violent faction of groups and the crowd that had assembled and weaponizing them. Well, another big take away the two in personal witnesses who marched to the capitol that day lamented over their actions and saying that they were radicalized by right wing groups and trump himself. So what's their testimonies tell you and the public about trump's role as well as these extremist groups rolled and how they encourage others to join the movement. I mean, I'm hoping that this will be a moment of reckoning. These were individuals who testified yesterday that they did something at at what they thought was the behest of the president. Um and what I think they have learned over not just yesterday's hearing, but the series of hearings that preceded is all of this was premised on something that was untrue and that trump himself had been told repeatedly was untrue. So that the the call to action was based on a story. Not only that was false but that trump and his advisors knew was false and had known it was false since early november and had been told at repeated points. I was just not backed up by any evidence. Well, this is one of the final hearings. So let's get to the point that a lot of people want to know what criminal charges can be brought against trump f any, especially in light of the new evidence and what's the likelihood that anything is actually going to happen. So, I mean, I'll start by answering that question saying that the select committee's purpose is not really about that prosecution. The select committee's purpose is presenting the results of its rigorous investigation that's happened for, you know, over you know, over 10 months, almost a year Of a bipartisan committee digging into the information, 100 40,000 documents. Over 100 subpoenas 1000 interviews and depositions. This is about sort of presenting to the American public the results of this meticulous rigorous investigation and then of course a variety of different actors can act upon it. Uh Federal prosecutors can act upon it. That's one bucket of of of of entities who can act upon it. State and local prosecutors can act upon it as you know, the Fulton County D. A. Is looking into the stuff that happened in Georgia. Funny wills is looking into the stuff that happened in Georgia to sort of find more than 11,000 votes that they were encouraged to find. But then there are also the american electorate that can act as powerful agents of accountability as they act upon this information. In terms of the criminal investigation part on the federal level, you know, one of the things that people have pointed to is 18 USC 15 12 which is obstructing an official proceeding. And here there are two official proceedings. The courts have found unanimously that the counting of electoral votes is an official proceeding. So that is one proceeding that there were clear attempts to obstruct. However, yesterday at at yesterday's hearing as well as the preceding one, folks have suggested that there might be witness tampering that occurred. It is also true that a congressional investigation is an official proceeding. So that is an additional place where obstructing an official proceeding could be the basis of criminal liability. So it sounds like this is going to be one that we're just going to have to watch and wait and see what happens. But we appreciate your insight. Praveen Fernandez VP at Constitutional accountability center