According to one lawmaker, former US President Donald Trump spoke positively about efforts to hang his Vice President Mike Pence during the storming of the Capitol. This was stated by the committee’s vice chair, Republican Liz Cheney.

Trump was aware of his supporters’ threats against Pence. “The President responded with that assessment, I quote, ‘maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence, I quote, ‘deserves it,'” Cheney said, citing the committee’s investigative findings.

Pence chaired the January 6, 2021 session that confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the victor in Congress. This session is actually a purely formal act. However, incited by Trump, his supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent this confirmation. They also searched the building for Pence, whom they called a traitor and threatened to hang him for failing to prevent Biden’s confirmation.

The investigative committee questioned hundreds of witnesses behind closed doors for more than ten months. Excerpts from the surveys were shown for the first time in the public session.

Former US Attorney General William Barr has called Trump’s vote fraud allegations “bullshit”. At the first public hearing of the investigative committee into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a video recording of an interview with Barr was shown Thursday evening.

In it, the ex-Attorney General said he had had several conversations with Trump on the subject after the presidential election in November 2020. “I have made it clear that I do not agree with the claims that the election was stolen and the spreading of this stuff that I told the President was bullshit.”

Barr said he had repeatedly told the president in no uncertain terms that he saw no evidence of voter fraud. Even a year and a half later, he sees nothing that would change his mind. He called claims of this kind “crazy”.

The committee also showed the video recording of an interview with Trump’s daughter Ivanka. When asked about Barr’s statements, she said his assessment certainly had an impact on her perspective. You respect Barr. “So I accepted what he said.”

To this day, Trump claims without evidence that he was deprived of victory in the 2020 presidential election by electoral fraud. For weeks he tried to use the most questionable methods to subsequently overturn the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden. Opposition to the outcome of the election culminated in the attack on the Capitol.

On January 6, 2021, supporters of the president who had been voted out violently stormed the seat of parliament in the capital Washington. Five people died during the riots, including a police officer. Trump had recently incited his supporters at a rally that his election victory had been stolen. The Congressional Committee of Inquiry was set up to investigate the background to the attack on the Capitol.

Just before the public hearings began, former US President Donald Trump described the riots as “the greatest movement” in US history. “January 6 was not just a protest, it represented the largest movement in our country’s history to make America great again,” Trump said Thursday on his new online platform Truth Social.

“It was about an election that was rigged and stolen and a country that was about to go to hell,” Trump repeated his many-disproved claims.

Also shortly before the public hearings began, the FBI arrested Michigan’s top Republican candidate for governor. According to the Justice Department, politician Ryan Kelley has been accused of taking part in the riots by Trump supporters.

According to the FBI, Kelley was arrested Thursday morning at his home in Allendale, Michigan. The founder of the far-right American Patriot Council is accused of illegally entering the Capitol and intentionally damaging someone else’s property.

According to court documents, his participation in the storming of the Capitol can be evidenced by videos, photos and other contributions to online networks, as well as sound recordings. He then asked the crowd to enter the Capitol. In a video released by news site Michigan Tea, Kelley reportedly shows him yelling, “C’mon, let’s go! That’s it! This is war baby!”

Kelley, who became known through protests against the Corona measures in Michigan, is one of several Republican politicians running for the governor’s election in Michigan. According to a survey in May, he has had the best chances so far. It is not yet clear how his arrest will affect his candidacy. On his Facebook page on Thursday: “Political prisoner”.