Jan. 6 hearing makes case Trump at 'center' of 'conspiracy' to overturn election

In a nearly two-hour hearing in prime time, the House select committee placed Trump at the center of an "attempted coup" and "multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election," with the panel's chairs emphasizing how Trump and his allies repeatedly tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Never-before-seen footage and graphic testimony from a Capitol Police officer, who described the crowd as an "absolute war zone," brought some in the hearing room to tears, as the committee laid out how it will explain in subsequent hearings a "sophisticated seven-part plan" by Trump to steal the election.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the 11-month-long investigation with more than 1,000 interviews revealed that Trump was "well aware" of the violence at the Capitol and security risk to Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers but chose to do nothing.

"Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended," she said. "The vice president -- Pence -- did each of those things."

Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after rioters knocked her to the ground, described in detail what she called a "an absolute war zone" as officers struggled to hold the line.

"I can just remember my -- my breath catching in my throat, because I -- what I saw was just -- a war scene," she said. "It was something like I had seen out of the movies.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing ... I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people's blood," she continued.

"I was catching people as they fell ... It was carnage. It was chaos. I can't even describe what I saw," she added. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think as as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle."

The committee aired a video showing the moment Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was knocked out as she tried to hold the line from a crowd of rioters pushing up against barricades and bike racks.

Edwards winced as the video began.

"I felt the bike rack come on top of my head and I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, and my chin hit the handrail," she said. "At that point I blacked out but the back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me."

Edwards returned to duty after regaining consciousness, saying "adrenaline kicked in" as she went to the West Front of the Capitol to protect the Senate steps. There she helped people who had gotten pepper sprayed and others injured before she was hit herself with pepper spray and tear gas.

Documentarian Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, noted in his testimony that the group headed to the Capitol long before Trump spoke on the Ellipse.

"The was a large contingent, more than I would expect, and I was confused to a certain extent while we were walking away from the president's speech, because that's when I felt we were there to cover," Quested said.

Chairman Bennie Thompson emphasized that point to argue the Jan. 6 attack was not purely spontaneous but a "coordinated plan" and the "culmination of a months-long effort spearheaded by President Trump."

"They were not there for President Trump's speech," Thompson said of the hundreds of Proud Boys who descended on Washington. "We know this because they left that area to march toward the Capitol before the speech began."