Capitol riot inquiry to investigate whether Trump’s White House was involved in
Congressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, is preparing an expanded inquiry into Donald Trump that will scrutinize whether the White House helped plan or had advance knowledge of the insurrection.
The move amounts to an escalation for the committee as they embark on an inquiry into the events around the 6 January assault that could ensnare the former US president and some top allies in the White House and on Capitol Hill, portending an aggressive inquiry with far-reaching ramifications.
House select committee investigators in July started examining the events that left five dead and nearly 140 injured as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.
But for the first time in a congressional inquiry, the committee will also scrutinize whether the White House was involved in efforts to precipitate the Capitol attack – and what Trump knew of such efforts ahead of time, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The committee’s intentions to examine potential White House involvement were telegraphed in part when Thompson last week issued sweeping requests for Trump executive branch records related to the insurrection, the source said.
In letters to the National Archives and seven other agencies including the justice department and FBI, Thompson said House select committee investigators were seeking documents and communications from the previous administration related to 6 January.
But in a notable additional request, Thompson also demanded communications of White House personnel and members of Congress that referred to attacks on the Capitol – on both the day of the insurrection as well as key dates before.
“Our constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned,” Thompson said in the letters.
The expansion of the dragnet to include 5 January is significant, the source said, since it raises the specter of the committee prying open a window into what Trump and his top allies were thinking and doing the day before the Capitol attack.
White House aides and members of Congress were among those who huddled that evening to pressure more Republicans to object to the electoral college results and push then-Vice-president Mike Pence to reject Biden’s certification, according to one Trump administration official.
The meetings alarmed some White House aides, the official said, because they feared it could leave White House aides vulnerable to charges that the administration was involved in plans to violently intimidate federal officials from carrying out the transition of power, a potential crime.
House select committee investigators are poised to examine whether Trump – who Republican senator Ben Sasse was told was “delighted” at images showing rioters storming the Capitol – contributed to such deliberations, the source said.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on the direction of the investigation. But taken together, the committee’s moves mark a politically treacherous turning point for…
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