Jan. 6 committee holds sixth hearing

The Jan. 6 select committee's latest public hearing last Thursday shed considerable new light on former President Donald Trump's attempts to weaponize the Justice Department in the final months of his term as part of his plot to overturn the 2020 election and stay in power.

The hearing kicked off mere hours after federal investigators raided the home of Jeffrey Clark, who was one of the key Justice Department figures who was involved in Trump's schemes. He has denied any wrongdoing related to Jan. 6.

Three Trump appointees testified in-person on Thursday, joining a growing list of Republicans who have gone under oath to provide damning information about Trump's post-election shenanigans. The witnesses were former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue, and Steven Engel, who led the department's Office of Legal Counsel.

If you missed last Thursday's hearing, catch up on key takeaways from the event:

Select committee has the goods on GOP congressional pardons

Thursday's hearing underscored the role that Trump's Republican allies in Congress played in furthering his efforts to try to overturn the election — and how many of them sought pardons after Jan. 6.

The House select committee particular zeroed in on the efforts of Rep. Scott Perry, the Pennsylvania Republican who connected Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to the White House in December 2020.

CNN has previously reported on the role that Perry played, and the committee in court filings released text messages Perry exchanged with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about Clark.

The committee also unveiled new details about Republican members of Congress seeking pardons after Jan. 6, including Perry and Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Matt Gaetz of Florida.

"President Trump asked me to send you this letter. This letter is also pursuant to a request from Matt Gaetz," said an email Brooks sent to the White House in January 2021, according to the committee. "As such, I recommend that president give general (all purpose) pardons to the following groups of people."

The email included a group of the names of "every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania."

Thursday's hearing was led by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has largely been ostracized by the Republican conference for his role on the Jan. 6 committee.

"My colleagues up here also take an oath. Some of them failed to uphold theirs and instead chose to spread the big lie," Kinzinger said before discussing pardons.

Kinzinger is retiring at the end of his term.

Inside a December 2020 Oval Office meeting

The hearing brought to life a high-stakes Oval Office meeting in December 2020, where Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and installing Clark, who was willing to use the powers of federal law enforcement to encourage state lawmakers to overturn Trump's loss.

Going into these summer hearings, we already knew a lot about the meeting. But on Thursday, for the first time, we heard live testimony from some of the Justice Department officials who were in the room, including Rosen, the then-acting attorney general. (He survived the meeting, after Trump was told that there would be mass resignations at the Justice Department if he replaced Rosen with Clark.)

Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said Clark was repeatedly "clobbered over the head" during the meeting. He told the committee that he called Clark a "f---ing a--hole" and said his plans would've been illegal. He also said Clark's plan to send letters to battleground states was "nuts."

In videotaped testimony that was played Thursday, Donoghue said he eviscerated Clark's credentials during the meeting, explaining that Clark was woefully under-qualified to serve as attorney general.

Donoghue said then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone called Clark's plan a "murder-suicide pact."

Donoghue himself described Clark's plan as "impossible" and "absurd."

"It's never going to happen," Donoghue said of the plan. "And it's going to fail."

Thanks to the pushback from Rosen, Donoghue, Herschmann, Cipollone, and perhaps others, Trump didn't follow through with his plan, which would've put the country in uncharted waters, and would have increased the chances of Trump successfully pulling off his coup attempt.

Keep reading here.

Former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who is expected to testify publicly on Tuesday, has answered the Jan. 6 House select committee’s questions during three separate sessions and went over “new ground” with the panel last month, though it was not immediately clear what was discussed during that deposition.

During one hearing last week, the committee played a video clip of Hutchinson testifying that Meadows and former President Donald Trump’s onetime attorney Rudy Giuliani were involved in early conversations about putting forward fake slates of electors – a core tenet of the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The panel has also played video of Hutchinson testifying that Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, wanted then-Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark to take over the department – connecting another key part of Trump’s effort to upend Joe Biden’s election win.

Hutchinson also named several Republican members of Congress who, she said, had inquired about pardons, either for themselves or others, in the lead-up to Jan. 6, according to other video played by the committee during its hearings, including: Perry and Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Louie Gohmert of Texas.

CNN has reported that during one of her interviews with the committee, Hutchinson said Trump had suggested to Meadows that he approved of the “hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters who stormed the US Capitol.

She also testified that Trump had complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety while Trump supporters breached the Capitol, the sources previously told CNN.

CNN previously reported that Hutchinson was likely to testify in person during one of the committee’s upcoming hearings after she replaced her lawyer who had significant links to Trump, according to a source familiar with the matter.

She was not willing to risk getting a contempt of Congress charge in order to impede the probe, the source familiar said, and the change in representation was a sign that she was more willing to cooperate with the committee.

FBI seized the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman last week, according to a new court filing from the conservative lawyer.

Eastman disclosed the search and seizure in federal court in a lawsuit that he filed in New Mexico on Monday, calling it improper.

The revelation highlights the aggressive steps the Justice Department has taken in recent weeks as part of its ongoing criminal probe.

Federal agents from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General, which is coordinating with the wider FBI and US attorney investigation into January 6, 2021, last week raided the home of former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, a source familiar previously told CNN. That search — during which the Justice Department inspector general's participation had not been previously reported — came the same day as Eastman's.

The inspector general investigates accusations of legal violations by Justice Department employees and has the ability to conduct searches and seizures. After investigating, the inspector general can refer possible criminal matters to prosecutors.

Eastman's lawyers cited a reference in the warrant to the inspector general's office potentially analyzing the phone's contents, though it remains unclear to what extent the watchdog may be involved in his case.

Neither Eastman nor Clark have been charged with any crime.

Attorneys for Clark haven't responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the DOJ inspector general's office declined to comment on Monday.

Last Wednesday, about six federal investigators approached Eastman in New Mexico when he was exiting a restaurant after dinner with his wife and a friend, according to the court filings. He was patted down, and "forced to provide [facial] biometric data to open" the phone, Eastman's court filing said.

Agents were able to get access to Eastman's email accounts on his iPhone 12 Pro, the filings said.

Eastman is the latest person whose communications have become part of extensive Justice Department investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Eastman contends the agents "forced" him to unlock his phone.

In court, he is asking a federal judge to force the Justice Department to return his property, destroy records they've obtained and put on hold investigators' access to the phone.

Read more here.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a witness to many critical events and conversations, is expected to testify publicly on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

Her planned appearance was first reported by Punchbowl News. 

Hutchinson has already been interviewed by the committee behind closed doors and video clips from her deposition have been featured by the panel during earlier hearings. But her live testimony marks a significant moment in the committee’s series of hearings as Hutchinson has long been considered one of its most consequential witnesses due to her proximity to former President Donald Trump’s then-White House chief of staff. 

The appearance was hastily arranged on a week where no public activity was anticipated and announced by the committee just 24 hours before it commenced.

The committee investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, added a previously unexpected public hearing for Tuesday afternoon, the committee announced Monday.

The panel did not reveal the hearing's topic when it announced the schedule.

The announcement came as a surprise to many as the committee had said it was not going to resume its hearings until mid-July. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee's chairman, told reporters last week that the panel needed more time to go through the new documentary footage it received from documentarian Alex Holder, who possesses never-before-seen footage of Trump and his family, new information from the National Archives, and new tips coming in through the panel's tip line since the hearings started in order to move forward with its hearings

The committee said it would "present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony."

Tuesday's hearing starts at 1 p.m. ET. It will be the panel's sixth hearing this month.

In its first five hearings, the committee laid out how former President Donald Trump knew he lost the 2020 presidential election but pressured former Vice President Mike Pence, state officials, and the Department of Justice to work to keep him in office anyway.

Members on the committee previously laid out that its final two hearings would focus on the role domestic extremist groups played in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and would fill in the gaps of what Trump was doing as the violence at the Capitol unfolded.

Holder's "Unprecedented" three-part docuseries about the 2020 election will be released on Discovery Plus, which is owned by CNN's parent company, later this summer. The documentary includes never-before-seen footage of the Trump family on the campaign trail and their reactions to the outcome of the election.