January 6 hearing draws attention to links between extremist groups and Trump’s inner circle (includes video story)

Tuesday, members of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack held their seventh hearing. This time, they highlighted some of the extremist groups allegedly involved in the attack and their potential links to people in former president Trump’s inner circle. 

They also presented a lot of evidence on how President Donald Trump allegedly planned and schemed the attack by influencing groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys through Twitter. In these constant messages he tried to make these groups believe that there was electoral fraud. 

 “Trump had mobilized these groups around a common goal,” Jamie Raskin, Maryland Representative (D) said. 

Stephen Ayres was not a member of any militia group, but he tracked President Trump’s comments on various websites.

“He basically put out [the message] ‘come to stop the steal rally,’” he said.

At the end, the panel also showed clips of closed door testimony by former White House counsel Pat Cipollone. These videos gave more insight into the White House conversations after the electoral college vote on December 14, 2020. Members of the House committee said they will go in depth about these details at the next public hearing. 

Nicole Castañeda is a psychologist and designer double major at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá and has a master degree in Clinical Psychology and Logo-therapy. She is currently doing her masters in Spanish Journalism at Florida International University. She is passionate about fashion and journalism and her goal is to be able to work as a reporter in a Latin American channel.