Jan. 6 committee’s bombshells hiding in plain sight

— Trump sat on his hands amid the worst of the Jan. 6 violence: Trump’s refusal to publicly call off the violent mob that attacked the Capitol in his name formed the basis of his impeachment for “incitement of insurrection” just a week before his term ended. But call logs obtained via the National Archives show that Trump spent all day calling allies in his effort to overturn the election. Other calls that don’t appear on the logs include conversations with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Pence. Notably missing from the logs or any of the reported accounts since then: Any calls between Trump and national security aides or Secret Service officials to attempt to quell the violence. Meanwhile, the committee has obtained evidence that Trump resisted entreaties to quickly call for an end to the violence, instead inflaming the crowd by angrily tweeting about Pence and waiting more than three hours after the Capitol breach to call on the mob to go home.

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— The Trump White House became a haven for conspiracy theories: Trump considered naming Sidney Powell a special counsel to investigate election fraud, and brought Powell into the Oval Office in mid-December, along with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had been pushing calls for “martial law” and extreme measures like seizing voting machines. Trump never effectuated their proposals, but investigators believe the episode is emblematic of the way the gatekeeping guardrails completely collapsed in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency.

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