First transcripts from Jan. 6 committee reveal key witnesses refusing to testify

The Home choose committee investigating the January 6, 2021, rebellion launched greater than 30 witness interview transcripts Wednesday from key figures who aided former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, together with the likes of conservative legal professional John Eastman and one-time nationwide safety adviser Michael Flynn.

Whereas the transcripts largely verify that almost all of those people invoked their Fifth Modification protections towards self-incrimination throughout their interviews with the committee, a assessment of their full testimony sheds some new mild on the panel’s closed-door depositions.

A number of of the witnesses whose transcripts had been launched in full Wednesday appeared within the committee’s report abstract that was produced this week, which famous they largely refused to offer substantive solutions to the panel’s questions. However on the identical time, the transcripts present how witnesses like Eastman and Flynn – each of whom pushed baseless claims about widespread election fraud – failed to offer the committee with any proof to validate their assertions.

The transcripts obscure the names of Home investigators conducting the interviews however do notice when members of the panel ask a query.

Here’s what we discovered from the newly launched transcripts:

Flynn asserted his Fifth Modification protections towards self-incrimination to almost each query.

Flynn did reply a sequence of preliminary questions on his background and navy profession, acknowledging for instance that he joined a gaggle referred to as “The America Mission,” which was based by former Overstock CEO and recognized election denier Patrick Byrne.

He additionally answered when the committee requested if he knew the explanation Trump pardoned him.

“As a result of I feel he noticed my entire case as a travesty of justice,” Flynn stated, in keeping with the transcript.

However when requested why he failed to provide any paperwork pursuant to the committee’s subpoena, Flynn invoked the Fifth Modification, finally doing so for each different query in the course of the course of his March deposition.

Conservative lawyer Eastman – whose position in efforts to overturn the 2020 election has come underneath scrutiny by the January 6 committee, Division of Justice and state prosecutors in Georgia – invoked the Fifth Modification to each query requested by the panel, the transcript of his testimony confirms.

Eastman was requested about his position in efforts to overturn the election, together with a sequence of authorized memos he authored, conferences with former Vice President Mike Pence’s workers, and communications with lawmakers at each degree, the transcript reveals.

He was additionally requested about his communications with Trump himself, however in each occasion declined to reply.

Roger Stone’s interview with the choose committee lasted 51 minutes and he took the Fifth Modification with each query the panel requested him.

Stone didn’t touch upon something the panel put in entrance of him together with pictures, public statements, video clips of interviews and textual content messages.

The choose committee reveals textual content exchanges between Stone and “Cease the Steal” rally organizer Ali Alexander, who additionally was interviewed by the panel, from January 6 the place the pair talk about logistics in regards to the rallies that day.

Regardless of these messages, Stone wouldn’t reveal who paid for his personal flight from Florida to Washington, DC, within the days earlier than January 6 or who paid for his lodge room on the Willard InterContinental, which is the place Stone and different Trump allies arrange what has been thought-about a warfare room on January 6. He additionally wouldn’t verify which occasions he was invited to talk at on January 5 and 6, by whom, or if he even attended them in any respect.

Former Justice Division official Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump needed to put in as legal professional normal, stonewalled the committee over the course of two interviews.

When Clark appeared for testimony the primary time in November 2021, his lawyer introduced to the committee a 12 web page letter of objections, which, in keeping with the transcript, included issues about presidential communications privilege, legislation enforcement investigation privilege, deliberative course of privilege and attorney-client privilege.

Included with the letter was a obscure letter from a Trump lawyer elevating obscure issues about government privilege.

Members of the committee and its workers sparred at size with Clark’s lawyer Harry MacDougald about not simply the scope of the objections letter and whether or not the privilege issues had been reliable, but in addition the way to even deal with the following steps. Clark sometimes chimed in on the authorized debate, however answered solely a single query of truth on a technical query a couple of Justice Division e-mail handle.

When a committee staffer stated the panel was going to take a recess to go over the objections letter extra carefully, Clark and his legal professional stated they had been going to depart the deposition as a substitute. They did so, regardless of being instructed by the committee to keep whereas the recess was taken.

Throughout the second deposition, held in February 2022, Clark invoked the Fifth Modification greater than 120 instances – together with when requested if he had labored on the Justice Division on January 6, 2021. On the outset, his lawyer criticized committee members for suggesting an invocation of the Fifth was an request for forgiveness.

In a deposition with former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, committee investigators used public-sourced photos and movies in addition to personal telephone information and prison court docket filings towards different members of the Proud Boys, to ask about Tarrio’s connections to different extremist teams, the previous president and his allies.

Investigators pushed Tarrio to clarify who invited him to the White Home in December (he stated Latinos for Trump president Bianca Gracia) and the way properly he knew Stone (they had been pleasant).

The committee investigators additionally used tweets and different quotes from Trump that referenced the January 6 rally and the Proud Boys, together with his notorious “stand again and stand by” remark.

“I took it to be, like ‘Hey, the election’s developing. Stand by,’” Tarrio stated of the remark. “I additionally imagine that he meant it, like, ‘Stand by me because the President,’ like, I’ve by no means failed – I feel he was extra telling that to, like, the American folks too. Like I haven’t failed you but, so simply stand behind me.”

Investigators additionally appeared notably centered on who paid for Proud Boys to journey to and keep Washington, DC. Tarrio didn’t present the committee any details about Proud Boys donors or funds.

The committee’s interview with Mike Roman – a senior adviser to Trump’s reelection marketing campaign and tasked with Election Day operations – helps make clear a little-known marketing campaign determine who has since come underneath scrutiny by the Justice Division.

Roman invoked his Fifth Modification proper towards self-incrimination for the committee’s questions on his efforts after the 2020 election. Nevertheless, he did reply a number of the committee’s questions on his actions forward of Election Day.

Roman instructed investigators that when it got here to former Trump legal professional Rudy Giuliani, “I don’t imagine I had any interplay with him earlier than the election.”

However when requested about his interactions with Giuliani after Election Day, Roman stated, “On the recommendation of counsel, I assert my constitutional privilege underneath the Fifth Modification and respectfully decline to reply the query.”

When investigators requested Roman what his understanding was – earlier than Election Day – of the position state legislatures play in selecting electoral faculty electors, Roman stated, “I used to be not centered on that.”

Proof congressional investigators used to query Roman means that he later turned concerned in efforts to push faux slates of electors to assist Trump win.

Investigators requested Roman about one explicit e-mail wherein Josh Findlay – who labored with the Trump marketing campaign and went on to turn out to be the Republican Nationwide Committee’s nationwide director for election integrity – instructed a gaggle of people who Roman had been designated to verify the faux elector voting happened December 14.

When investigators requested Roman about his position, Roman once more pleaded the Fifth. He additionally invoked the Fifth Modification when it got here to questions on how the Trump marketing campaign investigated allegations of voter fraud, efforts to grab voting machines, imposing martial legislation, and various different issues, in keeping with his transcript.

Throughout Alexander Bruesewitz’s deposition with the committee earlier this yr, the political strategist declined to reply to questions from an investigator a couple of textual content GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona despatched to a “Cease the Steal DM chat” the day of the rebellion.

“So we’re nonetheless on January 6, and it seems to be like at 5:15 p.m. ET. Once more, Consultant Gosar sends the group a direct message that claims, ‘We’re nonetheless on lockdown within the congressional workplace,’” the investigator stated, in keeping with a transcript from the deposition. “And he sends it to the complete Cease the Steal group. So had been you in communications with Rep. Gosar all through January 6?”

“I respectfully plead the Fifth,” Bruesewitz replied. He went on to invoke the Fifth once more in response to a observe up query about why Gosar was “sharing that his workplace was on lockdown with this Cease the Steal group.”

CNN beforehand reported that “Cease the Steal” chief Alexander had handed over to the committee 1000’s of textual content messages and communication information that embody his interactions with members of Congress and Trump’s inside circle main as much as the riot, together with ones with Gosar.