January 6 hearings Day 9: Stephanie Murphy says Trump was ‘intimately involved’ in planning Capitol Riots

#CapitolHill #CapitolRiots #CapitolRiotsHearing

Stephanie Murphy claimed that Trump was the "central player" of the Capitol Hill riots
She showed text messages where protestors had instructions from POTUS to march on Jan 6
She also said that Trump and his attorney John Eastman asked Ronna McDaniel to arrange fake electors

Written By:Shamik

Updated: October 13 2022 10:27:53 AM ET Washington D.C., DC, USA

The January 6th Select Committee member Stephanie Murphy said at the day 9 of the Capitol Riots hearing on Wednesday that Donald Trump was “intimately involved” in organising protestors who marched into Capitol Hill on January 6, 2020.

She read out text messages from an organiser of the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 4, 2020, to Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow and a close ally of former president Donald Trump.

Also read: January 6 hearings Day 9: Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson opening statement

“This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the ellipse. POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol” the text to Lindell read. The text further added that “POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’“

The Select Committee obtained a text message that one rally organizer sent on January 4th:

"POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol." pic.twitter.com/bg0pmW3r37

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022

Citing the texts, Murphy claimed that Trump had a “personal and substantial role” in the attempt to usurp the election victory from then-president-elect Joe Biden. “He was intimately involved. He was the central player,” she said.

Murphy also said that Trump and his attorney John Eastman phoned Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and asked her to arrange fake Trump electors to replace them with genuine Biden electors.

Ronna McDaniel testified before the Select Committee earlier and according to Murphy, McDaniel said that Trump and Eastman “called her and asked her to arrange for the fake electors to meet and rehearse the process of casting their fake votes.”

Also read: Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House aide says Trump ‘wholly unfit’

A video of McDaniel’s testimony was also played at the hearing on Wednesday. In the video, she said: “When I received the call, again, I don’t remember the exact date, it was — it was from the White House switchboard, and it was President Trump who had contacted me.” She added that Trump introduced her to Eastman in the call.

“I vaguely remember him mentioning that he was a professor, and then essentially he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states,” McDaniel added.