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Benjamin Pollard
Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 3:57 PM

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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol held the seventh in its series of hearings. The hearing focused on the role of militant groups—such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers—in the Capitol attack and their possible connections to former President Trump and his associates. The panel concentrated on Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020, tweet in which he said there would be a “wild” protest on Jan. 6. The committee heard testimony from Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers, and Stephan Ayres, an Ohio man who participated in the attack.

Officials in the Justice Department are speaking more openly about Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, following Cassidy Hutchinson’s recent public testimony. Hutchinson’s testimony provided new information to department officials, which reportedly prompted further discussion of the former president’s actions before the attack, reports the New York Times. 

A federal judge ruled that he would not delay the upcoming trial of Steve Bannon. The former Trump adviser is currently facing charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The decision comes after Bannon told the committee on Saturday that he had changed his mind and agreed to testify before the panel.

Iran is planning to send hundreds of drones to Russia for use in the country’s invasion of Ukraine, according to White House officials. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that Iran is also “preparing to train Russian forces” to use the drones in the near future. 

Forty-three people were killed in a rocket attack on an apartment building in the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk. In the days following the attack, rescue teams saved nine people from the rubble of the collapsed building. Moscow maintains that Russian forces target Ukrainian infrastructure, and not civilians.

The United Nations Security Council voted to extend aid to northern Syria for six months after an earlier 12-month extension proposed in a Western-backed resolution was vetoed by Russia. The U.S., Britain, and France abstained from the vote, which received support from the 12 other members of the council.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Adam Chan discussed the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Torres v. Texas Dep’t of Public Safety on congressional war powers.

Tia Sewell shared a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Majid S. Khan, a Pakistani detainee at Guantanamo Bay whose sentence ended on March 1.

Daphne Keller and Max Levy discussed the steps Congress should take going forward in setting policy guidance for platform transparency regulations.

Bob Bauer and Benjamin Wittes argued that Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the House select committee revealed that Trump, through his lawyers, lied during the impeachment process.

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Benjamin Pollard is a student at Brown University studying history and political science. He is a former intern at Lawfare.

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