The Jan. 6 committee has established that former President Donald Trump reached out to two close associates who had direct links to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups, and its next hearing is expected to further examine those links.
Cassidy Hutchinson testified last week that Trump directed his chief of staff Mark Meadows to call Mike Flynn and Roger Stone on the night before Jan. 6, 2021, and the former White House aide said she had to talk her boss out of going to the Willard Hotel, where Flynn and Stone were staying.
According to Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell, these revelations tie the former president closer to the insurrection plot.
"Trump seeking to contact Stone and Flynn on Jan. 5 is also notable since it was Trump himself who initiated the outreach," Lowell tweeted. "This was Trump seeking their input, not them freelancing to him things like strategies to overturn the 2020 election results."
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Lowell went into further detail about his latest report on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" about those Trump links to militia groups whose leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy, and how the House Select Committee will examine those ties at their upcoming hearing set for Tuesday.
"I think the connection is the clearest we have had today," Lowell said. "It is really significant. We spent a lot of time focusing on Trump's connections to John Eastman and Mark Meadows and this political plan to stop the certification on Jan. 6, but if you step back and look at what was happening on Jan. 5, Trump knew by then that his vice president was not going to play ball and stop the certification. You can get an insight into what his frame of mind was. He was trying to get his chief of staff to call around and see what the plans were for Jan. 6, Cassidy Hutchinson filled in the blank."
"He was ordering Meadows to call Stone and Mike Flynn," Lowell continued. "These are two figures with extensive ties to extremist groups. Roger Stone has close ties to the Proud Boys way before the election was called for Joe Biden. They worked very closely together, they were personal friends. Mike Flynn, meanwhile, has his own protective detail all the way back through December with the Oath Keepers. These are people you would go to if you wanted to know what the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were planning to do on Jan. 6. The committee now has this through-line from Trump and the White House to the extremist groups."
Watch the video below or at this link.