Warning: This video uses strong language.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., spoke on Oct. 13 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public.
Aguilar said that intelligence officials, including the U.S. Secret Service, had information that some in the pro-Trump mob were contemplating violence, adding that the White House “had more than enough warning to warrant stopping any plan for an Ellipse rally and certainly a plan for stopping any march for the Capitol.”
Former President Donald Trump, too, was aware of this potential for violence as well as the known weapons among the crowd, Aguilar said. However, the Ellipse rally moved forward as planned, and Trump instructed the crowd to march to the Capitol.
An anonymous security professional said in recorded testimony that when they heard of Trump’s plan to lead the mob “that meant that this was no longer a rally, that this was going to move to something else if he physically walked to the Capitol. I don’t know if you want to use the word ‘insurrection,’ ‘coup,’ whatever.”
The committee returned to its public-facing work after nearly three months, having rescheduled the current hearing two weeks ago in light of Hurricane Ian.
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