US Panel probing Jan 6 Capitol riot reveals texts sent to Donald Trump; Details here

Former US President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and several Fox News anchors, at the time of the January 6 riots incident, had urged the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get ex-President Trump to act quickly to prevent his supporters from breaking into The Capitol. The series of texts have been provided by Mark Meadows as he cooperated with the committee, according to AP. The House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol riots has voted to suggest contempt charges against Mark Meadows. 

The committee has emails and texts that Meadows had provided to the committee including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.

The series of texts released have stated that the former President’s son Donald Trump Jr. had texted, “We need an Oval address.” He sent this message to Meadows while his father’s supporters were trying to enter the Capitol, as per AP.

Trump's inner circle urged him to intervene during Jan 6 incident

Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s vice chairwoman, on Monday, December 13, read the texts from Trump Jr. and a series of Fox News anchors reported to be in Trump’s inner circle who tried to contact the President through his chief of staff and make him act against the violence happening at the Capitol. According to the committee, Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham contacted Meadows and told him to call on the President to take action against the violence.

Laura Ingraham's text to Meadows reads, “Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home ... this is hurting all of us... he is destroying his legacy,” as per AP. 

Donald Trump Jr. further sent a message to White House Chief of Staff Meadows to urge the then President Donald Trump to “lead now” as the situation was getting out of control. He texted, “He has to lead now. It has gotten out of hand,” as per AP. Trump Jr. added that he has to “condemn” the action. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney explained that the texts given to the committee show Trump’s “supreme dereliction” as he refused to condemn the violence of his supporters. 

(With Inputs from AP)

Image: AP