Most senior-level people in Washington depend on a lot of young associates and subordinates to get anything done, so we are definitely taking advantage of that.
The select committee has been aided by aides like Cassidy Hutchinson, a close adviser to former Trump chief of staff MarkMeadows, and Ken Klukowski, who advised Jeffrey Clark.
The interviews have given committee members confidence that they will be able to tell the full story of Trump's attempt to stop the transition of power, even though some of his advisers have declined.
Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee, said the panel has spent a lot of time on figures who are not household names. We appreciate that they came forward with it.
The beauty of emails and meetings is that not many of them are important. Many of them have staff.
The select committee has helped reconstruct a minute-by-minute account of what happened in the White House on the day of the riot, as well as providing evidence of what Trump's key allies were doing. Even in instances where those staffers weren't providing direct testimony about their own bosses, they were witnesses to important encounters and caught a glimpse of Trump or other communications that have proven valuable.
For example, some aides have told the committee who they saw in and around the Oval Office that day and when, which has helped establish new lines of inquiry.
Hutchinson, who was the assistant to the president during the chaotic final months of the presidency, is a major source of that information. Hutchinson's testimony, which spans hundreds of pages across two interviews in February and March, figured prominently in recent court filings.
In his testimony, Hutchinson gave details about numerous meetings and phone calls that were held to discuss options for preventing Joe Biden from taking office. Several of the Republican members of Congress who participated in those meetings have refused to cooperate with the investigation.
She was able to identify when many key figures met with Trump himself after she described the White House counsel's office pushback to legal theories pushed by lawmakers and Trump allies.
Hutchinson told the committee that he had insight on almost all of the meetings Mr. Trump had.
In excerpts of her testimony released by the committee, Hutchinson also described a post- election trip to Georgia where he met with aides to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. She described his movements on January 6th, when he tried to get in touch with Jim Jordan and Rudy Giuliani.
When I got to the West Wing, he was in the Oval dining room.
In her February interview, committee investigator Dan George asked how she knew that.
Hutchinson said that he heard it announced on his radio.
She's not the only one who gave information about the actions that day. The committee has previously released an excerpt of testimony from Ben Williamson, a long time aide to the congressman. When the White House was aware of the violence at the Capitol, investigators sought to piece together when.
During a January interview, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel's vice chair, asked Mr.
"Yes, on the TV, correct, congresswoman, I talked to him after that breach," he replied.
The select committee's stance in its legal battle to force the former chief of staff to testify has changed because of cooperation from aides. Doug Letter, the House's top lawyer, told a judge last week that the January panel had been helped by the cooperation of associates.
Letter said during the hearing that they know more than they did before.
George Terwilliger III said that his client is likely to appeal a potential ruling forcing him to testify, raising the possibility that the legal fight could last longer than the select panel's probe.
Ter williger didn't respond to a request for comment.
There are other select committee holdout whose movements aides or internal adversaries have decoded.
The committee has obtained testimony from a press assistant for Steve Bannon, who is being prosecuted by the DOJ for contempt of Congress because she refused to show up in response to a subpoena. Committee sources said that Preate gave useful information about Bannon's activities. In July, he is due to stand trial.
Clark refused to testify about Trump's attempt to install him atop DOJ, but Klukowski was interviewed by the panel. He appeared along with three Trump DOJ officials, acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and Office of Legal Counsel chief Steven Engel, who described their tense encounters with Clark as they sought to avert Trump's shake-up.
Like Clark, he pleaded the Fifth. The committee was told in detail about the effort to promote a last-ditch theory to overturn the 2020 election.
Washington is a place where decision-makers will make decisions but it takes a staff to execute and implement them.
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