As Tuesday's Jan. 6 committee hearing drew to a close, vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney revealed that Donald Trump recently tried to contact one of the witnesses—and the Justice Department had been informed. "Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously," Cheney said, per the Washington Post. She said the witness didn't answer or respond to the former president's phone call, but instead informed their lawyer, who contacted the panel, the AP reports. After the previous hearing, Cheney accused Trump allies of trying to intimidate witnesses.
Tuesday's hearing focused largely on what was happening in the White House ahead of the Capitol riot, including what panel members described as "the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency." In his closing statement Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin described Trump's legacy as "American carnage," the Guardian reports. Trump's desire to overturn his election loss interrupted "the counting of electoral college votes for the first time in American history, nearly toppled the constitutional order, and brutalized hundreds and hundreds of people,” Raskin said.
"The Watergate break-in was like a Cub Scout meeting compared to this assault on our people and our institutions," added Raskin, who said that after the hearings conclude, the next step will be to "fortify our democracy" against political violence and coup attempts. The committee's next hearing will focus on Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol attack. In her closing statement Tuesday, Cheney played a clip of Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone's recorded testimony. He said he was among senior officials who urged Trump to call off his supporters. "I felt it was my obligation to continue to push for that," he said. "And others felt it was their obligation as well." (More Jan. 6 hearings stories.)
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