Rep. Raskin says Jan. 6th panel has found evidence of a ‘lot more than incitement’ against Trump

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Monday that the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot has found evidence that former President Trump committed “a lot more than incitement.”

The announcement came during an interview with Washington Post Live. The panel, Raskin said, will be “laying out the evidence about all of the actors who were pivotal to what took place on January 6th” at upcoming televised hearings which are set to begin on Thursday.

“The select committee has found evidence about a lot more than incitement here, and we’re gonna be laying out the evidence about all of the actors who were pivotal to what took place on Jan. 6,” Raskin said. He told the Post that the panel “has found evidence of concerted planning and premeditated activity.”

“The idea that all of this was just a rowdy demonstration that spontaneously got a little bit out of control is absurd. You don’t almost knock over the U.S. government by accident,” he added.

The select committee says Thursday’s hearing will feature new material and witness testimony from the nearly yearlong investigation, which has largely been hidden from the public.

Raskin told the Post that this week’s hearing will “tell the story of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power.” Asked if Trump is at the center of that conspiracy, Raskin said: “I think that Donald Trump and the White House were at the center of these events,” adding, “That’s the only way really of making sense of them all.”

He added that “people are going to have to make judgments themselves about the relative role that different people played.”

The Maryland Democrat then pointed to Trump’s second impeachment, in which Raskin was the lead manager of the Senate trial. “Of course the House and the Senate in bicameral and bipartisan fashion have already determined that the former president, Donald Trump, incited an insurrection by majority votes in the House and the Senate,” Raskin said.

“Although, Donald Trump wasn’t convicted by the requisite two-thirds majority, but commanding majority found that he had in fact incited this insurrection,” he added.