According to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, associates of former President Donald Trump tried to bribe one of the people it asked to testify.
The committee has previously said that Trump contacted witnesses before they testified, but at the most recent hearing, Rep. Lofgren said that associates of the former president tried to stop a witness from testifying.
According to Lofgren, a witness was offered a job that would make her financially very comfortable as the date of her testimony approached.
As reports of her testimony spread, the offers were withdrawn or didn't come to fruition. The witness thought that this was an attempt to affect her testimony, and we are concerned that this may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth.
Possible attempts to interfere with witnesses were described by the committee. The co-chair of the committee said in June that witnesses had described efforts to influence their testimony.
They told me that if I continue to be a team player, they will know that I am doing the right thing.
At Monday's hearing, the committee offered a recap of its findings and announced that it would recommend to the Justice Department that Trump be charged with several crimes for starting the riot and trying to overthrow the election. The decision on whether to prosecute will be made by the DOJ.
According to federal law, interference with a witness is a crime.
The committee said in a summary of its final report that the Justice Department should investigate whether Trump's associates committed a crime by interfering with an official proceeding through their contacts with witnesses.
According to the summary, one witness was represented by an attorney who seemed to be giving the witness bad advice. The witness told the committee everything he knew.
Some of the lawyer's actions were detailed by Lofgren.
Lofgren said that the witness could tell the committee that she didn't remember facts when she actually did.
The lawyer didn't tell the client who is paying for his representation. He told her not to tell people where funding is coming from.
More than 30 witnesses avoided testifying by using their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves, according to the report summary. Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a subpoena but he is out of prison pending an appeal.
The committee member said that the refusals to speak probably impeded the investigation more than attempts to manipulate witnesses who did speak.
People refused to comply with subpoenas was the worst obstruction. The fact thatwitness tampering took place is scandalous and criminal, but I don't know how much it interfered with.
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