The US House of Representatives committee investigating the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol voted on Thursday to subpoena Donald Trump, an action that could eventually result in the former president's imprisonment if he does not comply.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney asked the panel's Democratic chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, for a committee vote.
The House select committee's seven Democratic and two Republican members voted 9-0 in favour of issuing a subpoena for Mr Trump to provide documents and testimony under oath in connection with the 6 January attack.
The vote came after the committee spent more than two hours making its case — via statements from members, documents, and recorded testimony — that Mr Trump planned to deny his 2020 election defeat in advance, failed to call off the thousands of supporters who stormed the Capitol, and followed through with his false claims the election was stolen even as close advisers told him he had lost.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other politicians urgently rang military officials and White House staff seeking help during the 6 January 2021 assault on the Capitol by Mr Trump's supporters, a video shown on Thursday revealed.
At what is likely its last hearing on the deadly attack, the House of Representatives Select Committee aired the previously unseen video that showed the fear gripping the Capitol as rioters stormed the building.
The video showed Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, and Republican Senator John Thune calling the Department of Defense asking for military backup to help clear the Capitol complex.
This exhibit from a video released by the House Select Committee, shows then-President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on 5 January 2021, with the door open so he could hear supporters at Freedom Plaza. Source: AAP / AP
If the select committee recommends a subpoena that is ignored, the full House must vote on whether to make a referral to the Department of Justice, which has the authority to decide whether to bring charges.
'At the instigation of the President of the United States'
The House select committee has been investigating the attack on the Capitol, which left more than 140 police officers injured and led to several deaths, for more than a year, interviewing over 1,000 witnesses.
Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer also called acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Rioters were breaking windows and ransacking their offices "and all the rest of that — that's nothing," Ms Pelosi said on the call, the footage showed.
"The concerns we have about personal safety just transcend everything. But the fact is on any given day, they're breaking the law in many different ways. And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States."
"Why don't you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility?" Mr Schumer said on the call. "A public statement: they should all leave."
The footage also showed Ms Pelosi and top House Democrats being told that members of the House were pulling on gas masks. Upon hearing this, Ms Pelosi silently looked at House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.
"Can you believe it?" she asked, turning to someone off-screen.
She was also shown talking to Ralph Northam, then governor of Virginia, asking what military aid his state was able to send and whether he was able to send police without permission from the federal government.
In the video, she said she planned to call Larry Hogan, governor of Maryland, about sending the National Guard from his state. Maryland and Virginia border Washington, DC.
The hearing room fell silent while the footage was being shown. Many of those present — including reporters and congressional staff — were in the Capitol during the 6 January attack.
A video of then-President Donald Trump speaking is displayed as the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack. Source: AAP / AP
“I’m literally standing with the Chief of Police of the US Capitol Police,” Mr Pence says over speakerphone as Ms Pelosi holds up her cell phone, standing with Mr Schumer.
“Paul Irving, your Sergeant at Arms will inform you that their best information is that they believe that the House and the Senate will be able to reconvene in roughly an hour,” Pence continues.
“That you very much, Mr Vice-President. Good news,” Ms Pelosi says.
Mr Trump was reportedly enraged by Mr Pence’s decision to participate in the certification of the election, which Trump claimed, without evidence, was fraudulent.
