Schiff, for an opening
statement.
>> In our past hearing, you have
seen direct evidence that
president trump sent a crowd of
his supporters to the capitol
on January 6, knowing they were
armed and a Greek.
This was the most desperate and
dangerous prong to prevent the
orderly transition of power.
On the morning of the six, the
secret service was at the area,
screening members of the crowd
as they entered the site.
And they noticed something
significant about the crowd.
Tens of thousands of people were
outside the rally site but did
not want to go through the
magnetometers, the metal
detectors that were used to
screen for dangerous weapons.
Since our last hearings, the
select committee has received
greater cooperation from the
secret service.
Nevertheless, the secret service
text messages from this period
were erased in the days and
months following the attack on
the capitol.
Even the documents and materials
related to January 6 had already
been requested by the department
of justice and congress.
But we were able to obtain
nearly one million emails
, recordings and other
electronic records from the
secret service.
The select committee began its
review of hundreds of thousands
of pages and multiple hours of
that material, providing
substantial new evidence about
what happened on January 6 and
the days leading up to it.
That review continues.
What you are about to hear is
just a sample of the new and
relevant evidence that we have
received.
Mounting evidence before January
6 predictive violence,
directed at the capitol.
Intelligence about this risk was
directly available to the U.S.
Secret service and others in the
white house in advance of the
speech, in advance of the March
to the capitol.
The committee has shown evidence
that president trump was aware
of the risk of violence.
The FBI, U.S. Capitol police,
metropolitan police, and other
agencies all gathered and
disseminated intelligence
suggesting the possibility of
violence at the capitol prior to
the riot.
We are now going to show you
just a sample of the evidence we
have received.
Days before January 6, the
president's senior advisers at
the department of justice and
FBI received an intelligence
summary that included material
indicating that certain people
traveling to Washington were
making plans to attack the
capitol.
This summary noted online calls
to occupy federal buildings,
rhetoric about invading the
capitol building, and plans to
arm themselves, and to engage in
political violence at the event.
Other agencies were also healing
predictions suggesting possible
violence at the capitol.
In early January, 20 21, deputy
secretary of defense David
Norquist had warned about the
potential that the capitol would
be the target of the attack.
Here is general mark Milley, who
was also present for this call,
describing Norquist's warning.
General Milley: During these
calls, I only remember in
hindsight because he was almost
clairvoyant.
Norquist says during one of
these calls, the greatest threat
is a direct assault on the
capitol.
I will never forget.
Mr. Schiff: This email, for
example, was an alert that the
secret service received on
December 24 with the heading
"Armed and ready, Mr.
President."
According to the intelligence,
multiple users online were
targeting members of congress,
instructing others to March into
the chambers on January 6 and
make sure they know who to fear.
This report, received on
December 26, a tip had been
received by the FBI.
According to the source of the
tip, the proud boys planned for
March armed into D.C.
They think they will have a long
enough -- big enough group
to March armed and will
outnumber the police so they
cannot be stopped.
The source went on to say their
plan is to literally kill people
.
Please, please take this tip
seriously and investigate
further.
The source also made clear that
the proud boys had detailed
their plans on multiple websites
like thedonald.win.
The secret service had advanced
information more than 10 days
beforehand regarding the proud
boys planning for January 6.
We know now, of course, that the
proud boys and others did lead
the assault on our capitol
building.
On December 31, agents
circulated intelligence reports
that president trump's
supporters had proposed a
movement to occupy capitol hill.
In particular, they flagged
spikes in violent hashtags, like
we are the storm, 1776 rebel,
and occupy capitols.
On January 5, the secret service
open-source unit flagged a
social media account on
thedonald.win that threatened to
bring a sniper rifle to
the rally on junri six and they
posted a picture with the
caption "Sunday, gun day.
It will be wild."
On the evening of January 5, the
secret service learned during an
FBI briefing that right-wing
groups were establishing armed
qrf's, or quick reaction forces,
readying to deploy on January 6.
Groups like the oath keepers
were standing by at the ready,
should POTUS request assistance,
by invoking the insurrection act
.
Agents were informed.
As we all know now, the oath
keepers did play a specific role
on January 6 and had stashed
weapons enriching for further
violence that evening.
Also on that day, the secret
service was readying its
security precautions for the
president's speech the next day.
The secret service deputy chief
instructed agents to add certain
objects of the list of items
that would be prohibited out the
rally site.
Including ballistic vests,
tactical vests, armored or not,
and ballistic helmets.
Was on the mall, watching, but
not in line.
The head of the protective
detail, rubber angle, was
specifically aware of the large
crowds outside the
magnetometers.
He passed the information along
to Tony, who worked for mark
meadows in the chief of staff's
office.
The documents we obtained from
the secret service makes clear
that the crowd outside the
magnetometers was armed and the
agents knew it.
Takeooth
Ng
one report from the rally site
at 7:58
+++
federal protective service, an
agency tasked with protecting
federal buildings, were alerted
about an arrest of a protester
with a gun on his waistband.
During the speech, the
weapons-related arrests
continued.
At 12:00 P.M., United States
park police arrested a man with
a rifle in front of the world
War II memorial.
These agents remarked on the
number of weapons that had
seized that day, speculating
that the situation could get
worse.
With so many weapons found, so
far, you wonder how many are
unknown?
One agent wrote at 12:36 P.M.,
could be sporty after dark.
At 12:40 7 P.M., another agent
responded, no doubt.
The people said they are moving
to the capitol after the POTUS
speech.
As the documents we received
make clear, the secret service
was aware weapons possessed by
those gathered at rallies in
which details multiple arrests
in the crowds demonstrating on
January 5.
Those arrests were for weapons
offenses, handguns,
high-capacity feeding devices,
ammunition.
What the secret service saw on
the sixth was entirely
consistent with the violent
rhetoric circulating in the days
before the joint session on
pro-trump websites, at times
amplified by the president's own
advisors.
On one of these sites, as you
have heard, one of those was
called thedonald.win.
The committee has obtained a
text message that Jason Miller,
the senior communicati
advisor, sent to mark meadows
less than a week before January
6.
"I got the base fired up," he
wrote in all caps.
He sent a link to this page on
thedonald.win.
The linked webpage had comments
about the joint session of
congress on January 6.
Take a look at some of those
comments.
"Gallows don't require
electricity."
"If the filthy commie maggots
try to push their fraud through,
there will be held to pay."
"They can leave one of two ways,
one in a body bag, two after
rightfully certifying trump the
winner."
Mr. Miller claimed he had no
idea about the hundreds of
comments like these in the link
that he sent to mark meadows.
>> If I had seen something like
that, I probably would have
looked into -- if I had seen
something of that nature, I
would have said we have to
flagged this for secret service
or something of that nature.
>> The trump administration was
aware of this type of violent
rhetoric prior to January 6.
In fact, as we have seen, the
secret service and other
agencies of the prospect of
violence well in advance of the
president's speech.
Despite this, certain white
house and secret service
witnesses previously testified
that they had received no
intelligence about violence that
could have potentially
threatened any of the protect
ees on January 6, including
the vice president.
Evidence strongly suggests that
this testimony is not credible.
And the committee is reviewing
additional material from the
secret service and other
sources.
The secret service was
monitoring this kind of online
activity and was sharing and
receiving the results of that
effort.
They worked closely with other
agencies, sharing intelligence
about the joint session of
congress derived from social
media and other sources.
The same day Jason Miller sent
his text message, agents
received reports about a spike
in activity on another platform
called Parler.
This was December 30.
In this e-mail and agent
received a report noting a lot
of rhetoric on Parler directed
at government people and
entities, including secret
service protectees.
One of these was vice president
pence, perhaps the primary
target of president trump's
pressure campaign in the days
leading up to January 6.
The day before the joint session
on January 5, secret service was
aware of increased chatter
focused on vice president pence.
In particular, whether he would
do what president trump wanted
him to do, reverse the results
of the election in the joint
session the next day, January 6.
On that morning, agents received
reports of online threats that
vice president pence would be "A
dead man walking if he doesn't
do the right thing."
Another agent reported "I saw
several other alerts saying they
will storm the capitol if he
doesn't do the right thing."
The anger reflected in these
postings was obvious to the man
at the center of the storm on
January 6, president trump.
On the evening of January 5,
president trump gathered a few
of his communications staffers
in the oval office.
The door was open, allowing the
president and others assembled
there to hear the sounds of the
crowd gathered at freedom plaza
just a few blocks from the white
house.
President trump could tell that
his supporters were riled up.
Here again is a deputy white
house press secretary describing
the president's reaction.
>> He fairly quickly moved to
how fired up the crowd is or was
going to be.
>> What did he say?
>> Um, just that they were fired
up, they were angry.
They feel like the election had
been stolen, that the election
was rigged.
He went on and on about that.
>> Yes, the president knew the
crowd was angry because he had
stoked that anger.
He knew that they believed that
the election had been rigged and
stolen because he had told them
falsely that it had
been rigged and stolen.
By the time he incited that
angry mob to March on the
capitol, he knew they were armed
and dangerous.