Trump tried to call Jan. 6 committee witness, Cheney says

Tuesday's hearing was the first this month, the seventh so far.

ByLibby Cathey, Alexandra Hutzler, and Tal Axelrod
Last Updated: August 4, 2022, 5:39 PM EDT

The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 used its seventh hearing Tuesday to focus on what it said was then-President Donald Trump "summoning the mob" to the Capitol, including extremist groups.

Here is how the hearing unfolded:

Jul 12, 2022, 12:13 PM EDT

Committee to detail chaotic December 2020 Oval Office meeting

Today's hearing will partly focus on a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020. Sources confirmed the meeting to ABC News at the time.

Powell, Flynn and Byrne argued with White House officials over invoking rarely used presidential powers to declare a national emergency to seize voting machines – a plan that was ultimately rejected. Trump in the meeting also discussed naming Powell a special counsel overseeing an investigation of voter fraud, as first reported by the New York Times at the time.

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl described the meeting in his book "Betrayal" as one "so bizarre, long, and out of control that it may go down in history as the strangest meeting Donald Trump, or any other president, ever had at the White House."

- ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Will Steakin

Jul 12, 2022, 11:17 AM EDT

Reps. Murphy, Raskin to lead questioning

Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will lead Tuesday's questioning, according to committee aides.

One focus of the hearing, aides said, will be the impact of a Twitter post sent by Trump in December 2020, which read: "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"

"Today, we'll show how President Trump's tweet in the early hours of December 19th activated domestic extremist groups, and how some Members of Congress amplified that message, all leading to the attack on January 6th," Murphy said on Twitter.

Jul 12, 2022, 11:01 AM EDT

Who will testify Tuesday?

An Ohio man who accused President Joe Biden, other Democrats, and the mainstream media of "treason" is set to testify in the public hearing this afternoon before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The hearing is expected to focus on the rise of radical extremism in the United States, and the source said one of the key witnesses will be Stephen Ayres of Warren, Ohio, who recently admitted to illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is seen in an updated photo.
U.S. Justice Department

A former spokesman for the Oath Keepers militia group, Jason Van Tatenhove, will also be testifying Tuesday, the source said.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Mike Levine