Jan. 6 committee holds first prime-time hearing

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, Jan. 6 House select committee chair, told CNN's Jake Tapper that in future hearings there will be witnesses that will describe conversations between extremists groups and people who were in former President Donald Trump's orbit.

Thompson explained that the committee made sure that everything that's being presented could be verified and fact-checked.

"Everything that the public heard tonight is factual. We can prove it. Because as you know, the fact checkers will look at everything that was presented, and we made a conscious effort to only put on what we could prove. So, we put the tweets from the President. We put video from the President. We put everything on, but we put in and order that the public could now see that even when the President was told by the chief law enforcement officer, that he appointed, attorney general, that there was no fault in election. Obviously, the people he was listening to were not reputable in terms of looking at the evidence. And so, the President blew him off and started listening to people who had no real ground on the issue," he said.

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Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who attended tonight's hearing, said videos of rioters breaching the Capitol were "rough to watch."

“They warned us that they were going to play some footage,” Dunn said. The committee showed footage of how the violence unfolded during the hearing.

After the hearing concluded for the night, committee members shook hands with witnesses, thanked officers who attended tonight’s hearing and greeted wives and partners of the fallen US Capitol Police.

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards gave a long hug to Sandra Garza, the partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died one day after he confronted rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

During her testimony, Edwards mentioned seeing Sicknick and how he looked white and unwell as the riot unfolded.

In the coming days, expect to see a common refrain from former Trump officials who have tried to maintain their connections to him: that their testimony was "taken out of context."

That's the defense several who testified are planning to use if they come under fire by the former President or his acolytes, they told CNN, given this was often a tried and true strategy when Trump's Cabinet secretaries would testify on Capitol Hill.

But several of former President Trump's former aides knew they were being recorded while testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, multiple people told CNN. 

One official said they were not explicitly told but assumed their testimony was being recorded. Others who testified in person said it was clear there were cameras set up in the room. 

The taken out-of-context defense is one that could come in handy for staying in his good graces. In the first prime-time hearing, Trump's allies, former staffers and even his daughter noted in recorded testimony that he was shown information showing he had lost the election, despite how Trump still maintains he didn't. 

One former senior Trump White House official told CNN he was informed at the outset of his closed-door meeting with the committee that footage of his testimony could potentially air in future public hearings. 

The House Jan. 6 select committee's first prime-time hearing has concluded.

Rep. Benny Thompson, the chair of the committee, and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, laid out their case against former President Donald Trump and his involvement in events that led up to the Jan. 6 riot.

A Capitol Police officer and filmmaker who interacted directly with the Proud Boys testified about what they experienced during the insurrection and in the aftermath of the attack.

The committee will hold its next public hearing on Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

Here are some key takeaways from today's hearing:

Members of Trump's inner circle turned against him in depositions: The committee's first hearing was bolstered with never-before-seen video clips showing members of Trump's White House and campaign — as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner — speaking about how they didn't believe Trump's claims that the election was stolen.Former Attorney General William Barr said that Trump's claims of voter fraud were "bullshit."Ivanka Trump said that she respected Barr and "accepted what he was saying" about the election. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign data person told Trump in "pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose."

And the committee cited testimony from Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon, who testified he told Meadows by "mid-to-late November" that the campaign had come up empty trying to find widespread fraud in key states that Trump lost. Cannon said Meadows responded to his assessment by saying, "So there's no there there."

New visceral footage from riot shown: The committee played a compilation of some of the most disturbing footage from the Jan. 6 attack.

They included some never-before seen material, including birds-eye view footage from security cameras that showed the enormous pro-Trump mob as it started swarming the Capitol grounds.

Trump didn't want the riot to stop: The committee revealed testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former President did not want the US Capitol attack to stop, angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters and thought his own vice president "deserved" to be hanged. It also offers a new window into Trump's demeanor during the riot — something the committee has repeatedly suggested would be a key part of their public hearings.

Cheney described testimony from a witness who said Trump was aware of chants to "Hang Mike Pence" and seemed to approve of them.

"Aware of the rioters' chants to 'hang Mike Pence,' the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] 'Maybe our supporters have the right idea.' Mike Pence [quote] 'deserves' it," she said.

Cheney has previously characterized Trump's inaction on Jan. 6 during those 187 minutes as a "dereliction of duty."

Read more takeaways here.

To close out the first prime-time hearing, the House select committee played a video testimony of six people who were at the Jan. 6 riot claiming that they came to Washington, DC, because then-President Donald Trump called them to.

Walter was identified by the committee as a member of the Proud Boys, and said that Trump’s comments were “what got me interested” in going to DC.

Eric Barber, who pleaded guilty in December to theft and illegally entering the Capitol, said that Trump “personally asked for us to come to DC that day, and I thought for everything he's done for us, that this is the only thing he's gonna ask of me, I'll do it.”

“That's one of my disappointments,” Barber said. “He said he was gonna go, go with us, that he was gonna be there.”

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was asked by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson if she could describe a memory that stands out "most vividly" from the Jan. 6 attack.

Edwards went on to describe what she likened to "a war scene," saying she witnessed "carnage" and chaos."

She went on to say, "I'm trained to detain a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I'm not combat trained."

Edwards said there were "hours of hand-to-hand combat." She added that there were "hours of dealing with things that were way beyond what any law enforcement officer has ever trained for."

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Findings of the panel, presented in a video by investigative counsel of the Jan. 6 committee Marcus Childress, show that the leaders of two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — met in a Washington, DC, parking garage on Jan. 5, 2021.

The meeting between Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, was caught on video obtained by the committee.

Before the meeting: On Dec. 19, 2020, President Trump tweeted about a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, saying, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

That tweet “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said. 

"Many of the witnesses we interviewed were inspired by the President's call and came to D.C. for January 6th," Childress said in the presentation.

"But the extremists, they took it a step further. They viewed this tweet as a call to arms," he added.

Childress referred to a Department of Justice indictment that described how the Proud Boys created a chat called "the Ministry of Self Defense leadership chat" where they established a command structure with the intention of coming back to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021.

The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boys leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.

Meanwhile, leading up to the insurrection, the Oath Keepers were also making preparations.

The committee learned that the group established "quick reaction forces" where they stored weapons in Virginia, Childress said.

"The goal of these quick reaction forces was to be on standby just in case President Trump ever invoked the Insurrection Act," Childress said in the video.

"Individuals associated with two violent extremist groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6th attack," Thompson said following the video presenting the evidence.

Watch here:

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described her experience confronting rioters and Proud Boy members on Jan. 6, 2021 and the injuries she suffered after an altercation while defending the US Capitol.

"They started approaching the first barricade. They ripped the first barricade down, and they approached our bike racks. At that time, we started holding on, grabbing the bike racks. There were not many of us, so I grabbed the middle between two different bike racks, and I was not under any pretense that I could hold it for very long. But I wanted to make sure that we could get more people down and get our [Civil Disturbance] units time to answer the call," Edwards said.

She said that while trying to hold the line with fellow officers, "we started grappling over the bike racks. I felt the bike rack come on top of my head. I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, my chin hit the handle, and at that point, I had blacked out. The back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me."

Edwards said that she was knocked unconscious, but when she regained consciousness she returned to duty, where she was sprayed in the eyes by rioters and tear-gassed.

The House select committee has obtained “substantial evidence” showing that former President Donald Trump’s tweet on December 19, 2020, “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said.

The tweet said: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

The Justice Department also has cited that tweet in many of the Jan. 6-related criminal cases, and has argued that it was an important moment in the run-up to Jan. 6 that many of the rioters paid attention to – and were inspired by. This includes members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who have been charged with seditious conspiracy.

For instance, prosecutors said Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs texted the group’s president Enrique Tarrio after the tweet, saying, “Let’s get radical and recruit real men.” Prosecutors have said that the Proud Boys assembled a national leadership team one day later, as they started planning for their trip to DC for the Jan. 6 rally.

Prosecutors also said alleged Oath Keeper Roberto Minuta sent a text after Trump’s tweet, saying that he spoke with the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, and that Rhodes “feels like it's go time” and that “the time for peaceful protest is over.”

On Thursday, the committee featured a social media post from alleged Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs in which he echoed Trump’s tweet about the plans for “wild” protests in DC.

All of these defendants have pleaded not guilty to and maintain their innocence.

The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boy leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “Stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.

CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting to this post.