Jan. 6: The star witnesses and key testimony from the House committee's public hearings

After a year and a half of work, the House committee investigating the events of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is set to hold its final hearing and issue a report on its findings. Over the course of 10 public hearings, the panel heard from a wide swath of witnesses who showed how former President Donald Trump and his allies helped foment the violence that left at least seven people dead and more than 100 police officers injured.

The panel heard testimony from the officers who battled the crowd of Trump supporters who were attempting to stop the formal counting of the electoral votes that showed Joe Biden was the winner of the 2020 presidential race. Witnesses also included Trump’s attorney general, a key adviser for the vice president, state officials, a rally attendee who said Trump’s rage drove him to the Capitol and an eventual arrest, election workers targeted for harassment, a Twitter employee who said the company didn’t take the danger seriously enough, and a top White House aide who testified that there was a mix of enthusiasm and fear in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

The testimony could help prosecutors, both at the Department of Justice and in Georgia, who are continuing to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, which, according to the witnesses, the then-president fully knew he lost. The House committee is expected to make criminal referrals as one of its last acts.

Capitol and D.C. Police - July 27, 2021

In the committee’s first hearing, members of the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police described the violence they experienced firsthand on Jan. 6.

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell described being crushed by the crowd, saying, “I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die — trampled, defending this entrance.’”

Gonell said the rioters, some of whom were dressed in tactical gear, attacked police with a variety of weapons, such as hammers, rebar, knives and bear spray, as well as officers’ own batons and shields.

“Rioters called me traitor, a disgrace, shouted that I, an Army veteran and police officer, should be executed,” Gonell recalled, comparing his experience on the line to “something from a medieval battle.”

D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone recounted his own experience, saying, “I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm as I heard chants of ‘Kill him with his own gun.’ I can still hear those words in my head today.”

“As I was swarmed by a violent mob, they ripped off my badge, they grabbed and stripped me of my radio, they seized ammunition that was secured to my body. They began to beat me with their fists and what felt like hard metal objects,” Fanone said.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who is Black, said that a group of insurrectionists hurled racial epithets at him when he asked them to leave the Capitol, and in the days after the attack he heard similar stories from other Black officers.

Before Jan. 6, Dunn told the committee, “No one had ever, ever called me a n***** while [I was] wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer.”

Gonell, an Iraq War veteran and naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from the Dominican Republic as a child, said that he too was the target of the mob’s vitriol, telling the panel, “Apparently even through my mask they saw my skin color and said, ‘You’re not even an American.’”

At the hearing’s conclusion, the officers called for a thorough investigation, even if it meant implicating the committee members’ fellow legislators.

“As patrol officers we can only deal with the crimes that happen on the streets, misdemeanors and occasionally the violent felonies, but you guys are the only ones we’ve gotten to deal with crimes that occur above us,” said D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges. “I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this. If anyone in power coordinated or aided or abetted or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack, because we can’t do it. We’re not allowed to, and I think the majority of Americans are really looking forward to that as well.”

Bill Barr – June 13, 2022

In pre-recorded testimony, Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr said that he tried to explain to the president that his claims of fraud were false.

"Before the election, it was possible to talk sense to the president and, while you sometimes had to engage in a big wrestling match with him, it was possible to keep things on track," Barr said. "I felt that after the election he didn't seem to be listening."

Barr resigned in December 2020 after stating in an Associated Press interview that there was no widespread voter fraud, despite false claims to the contrary made by the White House.

“I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit,” Barr said. “And, you know, I didn't want to be a part of it. And that's one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did.”

Barr said he had to tell Trump the Department of Justice “doesn't take sides in elections” and wasn’t “an extension of your legal team.” Barr likened the department’s effort to investigate the “avalanche of fraud allegations” to “playing whack-a-mole,” saying, “There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.”

The former attorney general added that he found false claims made about Dominion voting machines having flipped votes from Trump to Biden to be “among the most disturbing allegations.”

“Disturbing in the sense that I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations,” Barr continued. “But they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people — members of the public — [to believe] that there was this systemic corruption in the system and that their votes didn't count and that these machines controlled by somebody else were actually determining it, which was complete nonsense.”

Greg Jacob – June 16, 2022

Testimony from Greg Jacob, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief counsel, focused on an attempt by lawyer John Eastman to have Pence reject electoral votes cast by states won by Biden and insert Trump as the winner instead. Despite Trump and his allies pushing this strategy as a possibility, Jacob testified that Eastman acknowledged that Pence did not have the legal authority to reject certified electors.

Jacob told the committee that during a Jan. 4 meeting, Eastman acknowledged, in front of Trump, that his proposal would “violate several provisions of the Electoral Count Act,” but he rationalized that it could still be carried out because “in his view, the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional.”

Jacob said that Eastman conceded that if Pence were to try and unilaterally change the election results that they’d lose the eventual Supreme Court ruling seven-to-two, but “after some further discussion acknowledged, 'Well, yeah, you're right, we would lose nine-nothing.'”

When discussing Pence’s ability to alter the electoral votes, Jacob said Eastman acknowledged that he did not think vice presidents in the past or future did or should have that power — only Pence at that moment in history.

“He had come into that meeting trying to persuade us that there was some validity to his theory,” Jacob said. “I viewed it as my objective to persuade him to acknowledge he was just wrong. And I thought this had to be one of the most powerful arguments: 'I mean, John, back in 2000, you weren't jumping up and saying Al Gore had this authority to do that. You would not want Kamala Harris to be able to exercise that kind of authority in 2024, when I hope Republicans will win the election. And I know you hope that too, John.'”

“And he said, 'Absolutely. Al Gore did not have a basis to do it in 2000; Kamala Harris shouldn't be able to do it in 2024, but I think you should do it today.'”

Rusty Bowers – June 21, 2022

The Republican speaker of Arizona’s state Legislature, Rusty Bowers, testified that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani phoned him shortly after the November 2020 election and asked him to start the process of swapping out electors for Biden — who won the state — for those loyal to Trump.

“We have heard by an official high up in the Republican Legislature that there is a legal theory or a legal ability in Arizona that you can remove the electors of President Biden and replace them. And we would like to have the legitimate opportunity for the committee to come to that end and remove that,” Bowers said Trump and Giuliani told him.

Trump's team pushed the theory that they had lost Arizona due to fraudulent votes, with Giuliani alleging that hundreds of thousands of ballots were cast by undocumented immigrants and dead people. When Bowers pressed for details, he said that Giuliani replied, “We’ve got lots of theories, but we don’t have the evidence.”

“I didn’t feel the evidence merited a hearing, and I didn't want to be used as a pawn,” Bowers said, adding that he told Trump and Giuliani, “You’re asking me to do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath.”

Bowers grew emotional as he read from his personal diary for the month of December 2020, saying, “It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor. I may in the eyes of men not hold correct opinions or act according to their vision or convictions, but I do not take this current situation in a light manner, a fearful manner, or a vengeful manner. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to. With any contrived desire towards deflection of my deep foundational desire to follow God's will as I believe He led my conscience to embrace. How else will I ever approach [God] in the wilderness of life?”

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and “Lady” Ruby Freeman – June 21, 2022

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former election worker in Fulton County, Ga., said that false claims made about her by Trump and Giuliani led to death threats and harassment against her and her mother, "Lady" Ruby Freeman.

“I don’t want anyone knowing my name,” Moss said. “I don’t wanna go anywhere with my mom ’cause she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. I don’t go to the grocery store at all. I haven’t been anywhere.”

“I second-guess everything that I do,” she continued. “It’s affected my life in a major way, in every way, all because of lies for me doing my job, same thing I’ve been doing forever.”

Trump and Giuliani claimed that Moss and Freeman used a suitcase to sneak ballots into Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on election night, and that Freeman passed Moss a flash drive as the votes were being tallied. Moss said the alleged flash drive was actually a ginger mint.

Moss said her Facebook messages contained “a lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’ … A lot of them were racist; a lot of them were just hateful.” She said that at one point, people went to her grandmother’s house and tried to make a “citizen’s arrest.”

The committee also played pre-recorded testimony from Freeman, who sat behind her daughter. Freeman said that she lost her reputation and a sense of security because Trump and Giuliani “decided to scapegoat me and my daughter to push their own lies about the election being stolen.”

“There is nowhere I feel safe, nowhere,” Freeman said. “Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American — not to target one. But he targeted me — Lady Ruby, a small-business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.”

Cassidy Hutchinson – June 28, 2022

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s appearance came during a surprise hearing and included both pre-recorded and in-person testimony. Hutchinson said that Trump wanted the Secret Service to let armed supporters through the magnetometers into the audience for his speech at the Ellipse that preceded the riot. “I overheard the president say something to the effect of, 'I don’t care that they have weapons, they’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away, let my people in. … They can march to the Capitol from here,” she testified.

Hutchinson said that her boss, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, did not act on concerns of potential violence on Jan. 6 that were raised by deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato.

She said she was “scared” by the initial plans for Trump to go to the Capitol and recounted a Jan. 2 meeting with Giuliani in which she alleged the president’s lawyer said “something to the effect of, ‘We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president is going to be there, he’s going to look powerful. He’s going to be with the members. He’s going to be with the senators. Talk to the chief about it, talk to the chief about it. He knows about it.’”

Hutchinson continued her testimony, saying she then returned to the West Wing and asked Meadows about Giuliani’s comments.

“I just had an interesting conversation with Rudy, Mark. Sounds like we’re going to go to the Capitol,” she said she told Meadows. “He didn’t look up from his phone and said something to the effect of, ‘There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know, things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”

Hutchinson testified that then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone had expressed concern about Trump’s desire to join his supporters in marching to the Capitol. Hutchinson said Cipollone approached her on Jan. 3 about the possibility of Trump going to the Capitol and said, “We need to make sure this doesn’t happen. … We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.”

“He was concerned it was going to look like we were obstructing justice or obstructing the electoral count,” she added, noting that Cipollone was “worried that it was going to look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot … at the Capitol.”

Stephen Ayres – July 12, 2022

Stephen Ayres, an Ohio resident who went to Washington, D.C., for the rally and entered the Capitol, pleaded guilty in federal court in June to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. The following month, he testified that Trump’s social media posts were a large driver of the anger that led him there.

“I was pretty hardcore into the social media,” Ayres said. “I followed President Trump on all of the websites. He basically put out, ‘Come to the Stop the Steal rally,’ and I felt like I needed to be down here.”

Ayres said his original plan was just to attend Trump’s speech, but "the president got everybody riled up and told everybody to head on down [to the Capitol]. So we basically were just following what he said."

“I was, you know, I'm angry,” said Ayres, who was not affiliated with any of the various extremist groups in attendance at the rally. “After everything that was basically said in the speech. You know, a lot of the stuff he said he already put out in tweets. I've already seen it and heard it before. So, I mean, I was already worked up and so were most of the people there.”

Ayres said he left the Capitol grounds after Trump’s tweet calling on rioters to stand down, saying, “to me, if he would have done that earlier in the day … maybe we wouldn't be in this bad of a situation.” Sentenced to two years of probation and fined $500 in September, Ayres said that he lost his job and “pretty much sold my house” as a result of his involvement. He said he no longer believed Trump’s election lies and that it made him angry that the former president was still promoting them.

“The biggest thing is, I consider myself a family man, and I love my country,” Ayres said to conclude his testimony. “I don't think any one man is bigger than either one of those. People dive into the politics, and for me, I felt like I had, you know, like, horse blinders on. I was locked in the whole time. Biggest thing for me is take the blinders off, make sure you step back and see what's going on before it's too late.”

Anonymous Twitter Employee – July 12, 2022

In pre-recorded testimony, a former Twitter employee said that Trump received special treatment from the company, saying the social media platform “relished the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most-used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem.”

“If Donald Trump were any other Twitter user, he would have been suspended a very long time ago,” the anonymous employee added.

The former staffer worked on the company's content moderation team throughout 2020 and 2021 and testified that Twitter considered adopting a stricter policy after Trump told far-right militia group the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate on Sept. 29, 2020, but that the company chose not to.

“My concern was that the former president, for seemingly the first time, was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives,” the ex-employee said. “We had not seen that sort of direct communication before.”

The committee showed how, following a series of Trump tweets promoting the rally and march, right-wing commentators threw their support behind it. After Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020, tweet calling for a “wild” protest, the Twitter employee said, “It felt as if a mob was being organized, and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight. ... It became clear that not only were these individuals ready and willing, but the leader of this cause was asking them to join him in fighting for this cause in D.C. on Jan. 6 as well.”