Mr Chairman, President Trump's tweet drew tens of thousands of Americans
to Washington to form the angry crowd that would be transformed on
January, the sixth and to a violent mob.
Dr. Daniel Harvin, who was the chief of homeland security and intelligence
for DC told the committee how his team saw Trump's December 19th
tweet unite violent groups.
Across the spectrum on the far right.
We? We got derogatory information from ocean suggesting that some
very, very violent individuals were organizing to come to D. C. And
not only were they organized committees, but they were these groups.
These nonaligned of groups were aligning.
Um And so the rest all the red flags went up at that point. You know
when you have our militia, Um uh, you know, collaborating with white
supremacy groups.
Collaborating with, um, uh, conspiracy theory groups online for the
common goal. You start seeing what we call in in, you know, terrorism
of blended I e ology, and that's a very, very bad sign when they
were clearly across.
Not just across one platform across multiple platforms with these
groups coordinating, not just like chatting. Hey, how's it going?
You know, what's the weather like where you're at, But like, what
are you bringing? What are you wearing? You know where do we meet
up?
Do you have plans for the capital? That operational? That's like
pre operational intelligence, right? Um, and that that is something
that clearly alarming.
The proud boys and the oath keepers are two key groups.
That responded immediately to President Trump's call. The proud boys
are far right Street fighting group that glorifies violence and white
supremacy
keepers are extremists who promote a wide range of conspiracy theories.
And sought to act as a private paramilitary force for Donald Trump.
The Department of Justice has charged leaders of both groups with
seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States
on January the sixth
Trump's December 19th tweet motivated these two extremist groups,
which have historically not worked together to coordinate their activities.
December. 19th at 10 22 am just hours after President Trump's tweet
Kelly Meg's the head of the Florida Oath, Keepers declared in alliance
among the oath keepers, the proud boys in the Florida three Percenters,
another militia group.
He wrote. We have decided to work together and shut this ship down.
Phone records obtained by the Select Committee show that later that
afternoon, Mr Meggs called Proud Boys leader Enrique Terrio, and
they spoke for several minutes. The very next day, the proud boys
got to work.
The proud boys launched an encrypted chat called the Ministry of
Self Defense. The committee obtained hundreds of these messages,
which show strategic and tactical planning about January the sixth,
including
Maps of Washington, DC, that pinpoint the location of police in the
weeks leading up to the attack leaders in both the proud boys and
the oath keepers worked with Trump allies.
One such ally was Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Trump's former
national security adviser and one of the participants in the unhinged
meeting at the White House on December 18th.
He also had connections to the oath keepers.
This photo from December. 12th shows Flynn and Patrick Byrne, another
Trump ally, who was present at that December 18th meeting, guarded
by indicted oath keeper
Roberto menu to
Another view of this scene shows oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes
in the picture as well Another central figure with ties to this network
of extremist groups.
Was Roger Stone
consultant and longtime confidante of President Trump.
He pardoned both Flynn and Stone in the weeks between the election
on November 3rd and January 6th.
In the same timeframe. Stone communicated with both the proud boys
and the oath keepers regularly. The committee obtained encrypted
content from a group travel from a group chat called Friends of Stone
Fos, which included stone roads Torrio and Olly Alexander. The chat
focused on various pro trump events in November and December of 2020.
As well as January 6th.
As you can see here, Stewart Rhodes himself urged the friends of
Stone to have people go to their state capitals if they cannot make
it to Washington for the first million mega March.
On November 14th. These friends of Roger Stone had a significant
presence at multiple pro trump events after the election, including
in Washington on December the 12th On that day, Stewart Rhodes called
for Donald Trump to invoke martial law promising bloodshed.
If he did not.
Pennies and no from you that you are with him that he does not do
it now, While he is commander in chief, we're going to have to do
it ourselves later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war.
Let's get it on now. While he is still the commander in chief, who
are
That night. The proud boys engaged in violence on the streets of
Washington and hurled aggressive insults at the police.
Breakers.
Do your fucking job. Give us one hour, one hour.
Just the previous night, the co host of info Wars, issued an ominous
warning at a rally alongside Roger Stone and proud Boys leader Enrique
Terrio.
Encrypted chats obtained by the Select Committee show that Kelly
Meg's The indicted leader of the Florida oath Keepers, spoke directly
with Roger Stone about security on January 5th and sixth
In fact,
On January, 6th Stone was guarded by two Oth keepers who have since
been criminally indicted for seditious conspiracy. One of them later
pleaded guilty and, according to the Department of Justice, admitted
that the oath keepers were ready to use quote.
Lethal force, if necessary against anyone who tried to remove President
Trump from the White House, including the National Guard.
As we've seen the proud boys were also part of the friends of Stone
Network. Stone's ties to the proud boys go back many years. He's
even taken their so called fraternity creed required for the first
level of initiation to the group.
Hi. I'm Roger. Still, Western Children
refused to apologize. Thank you.
Kelly Sorrell, a lawyer who assists the oath keepers and a volunteer
lawyer for the Trump campaign, explained to the committee How Roger
Stone and other figures brought extremists of different stripes and
views together.
You mentioned that Mr Stone wanted to start the staff, the steel
series of rallies. Who did you consider the leader of these rallies?
It sounds like
How much you just said It was Mr Stone, Mr Jones and Mr Ali Alexander
is that correct? Those are the ones that became like the the center
point for everything.
We'll learn more from his Murphy about these individuals and their
involvement in the days leading up to the violent attack on January
6th. We'll also hear how they were allowed to speak at a rally for
President Trump the night before January 6th even though organizers
had expressed serious concerns.
About their violent and extremist rhetoric directly to Mark Meadows,
and you'll hear testimony from White House aides who were with the
president as he watched the crowd from the Oval Office and will testify
about how excited he was for the following day.
Let me note now that our investigation continues on these critical
issues, we have only shown a small fraction of what we have found.
I look forward to the public release of more of our findings Later,