House January 6 panel's next hearing expected to link Trump even more closely to the Capitol attack

• The January 6 committee is expected to hold another hearing next Tuesday.
• The hearing will focus on the violence that occurred on January 6 at the US Capitol building.

From its very first hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a point of connecting former President Donald Trump to the violence of that day.

A month later, the House panel is poised to delve even deeper. At its next public hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the House January 6 committee is expected to focus on how the violent pro-Trump mob coalesced on January 6 and the involvement of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Committee aides said Monday during a background call with reporters that the panel's seventh hearing would underscore how a single tweet from Trump mobilized his supporters, proving a "pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including pre-planning by Proud Boys."

"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. "Be there, will be wild!"

The committee plans to show that Trump tweeted that message shortly after a White House meeting in which he weighed seizing voting machines and appointing Sidney Powell, a conservative lawyer known for spreading conspiracy theories, as special counsel to investigate election fraud.

While several aides saw the December 14, 2020, meeting of the Electoral College as the end of the election, Trump looked to another date for hope, committee aides said Monday. The hearing will show, they said, how Trump grew increasingly desperate to cling to power and summoned supporters to Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, the day Congress was set to certify the 2020 election results.

Two Democratic members of the committee, Reps. Jamie Raskin and Stephanie Murphy, are expected to lead the hearing. The committee plans to play video footage from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone's recent closed-door testimony.

For the House January 6 committee, the upcoming hearing will revisit a theme the panel teased in early June. At that first committee hearing, on June 9, the panel played footage of Trump being asked during the September 2020 presidential debate to disavow white supremacist groups.

"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," Trump said at the time.

The House committee went on to display how that remark emboldened the Proud Boys, with one member attributing the debate-stage comment to a three-fold rise in membership.

At another point in the hearing, the House committee showed how Enrique Tarrio — a former Proud Boys leader now charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol attack — responded on social media to Trump's remark.

"Standing by sir," Tarrio wrote.

The committee aides said that the upcoming hearing will showcase the links between these extremist groups and those close to Trump. They added that they are not going to announce any witness names ahead of tomorrow's hearing due to security concerns for the witnesses.