WASHINGTON, July 12, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The House committee investigating the

2021 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump will examine
links between associates of the former president and right-wing extremist
groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.

"We'll give the American public a more complete understanding of the final
phase of president Trump and his supporters' use of radical measures to
prevent the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the 2020 election," a
committee aide said.

The session will focus on ties between members of Trump's inner circle and
two militia groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the aide said.

"We are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these
groups and those who were trying -- in government circles -- to overturn the
election," Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California said.

Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers stormed Congress on January 6,
2021 along with thousands of Trump loyalists in an attempt to prevent the
certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

Jason Van Tatenhove, a former member of the Oath Keepers, is expected to
testify at Tuesday's televised hearing, which begins at 1:00 pm (1700 GMT)
and is expected to last at least two hours.

Stephen Ayres, an Ohio man who drove to Washington and joined the mob which
stormed the Capitol, is also expected to appear as a witness.

Five members of the Proud Boys were indicted in June on seditious conspiracy
charges and 11 members of the Oath Keepers face the same charges. Three of
the Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty.

More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the storming of
Congress by Trump supporters, but only those 16 face seditious conspiracy
charges, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

The committee is trying to determine whether Trump or his associates had a
role in planning or encouraging the violent insurrection and has subpoenaed
numerous advisors and aides to the former president.

Excerpts may be played on Tuesday from an eight-hour interview the committee
held Friday with former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

- 'Pivotal moment' -

The assault on the Capitol left at least five people dead and 140 police
officers injured, and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his
supporters near the White House.

Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House of
Representatives after the riot -- he was charged with inciting an
insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Senate.

In a statement Tuesday on the Truth Social platform, Trump denounced the
committee as "Political Hacks and Thugs."

"Have you seen them before?" he asked. "Yes, they are essentially the same
lunatics that drove the Country 'crazy' with their lies and made up stories,
like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, and all of the others."

Tuesday's hearing will be the first since blockbuster testimony by Cassidy
Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson testified late last month that she was told Trump had angrily
lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed at the steering wheel of his
limousine in a bid to join the crowd marching on Congress.

The select committee aide said Tuesday's hearing will focus on a tweet Trump
sent in December telling his supporters to come to Washington on January 6
and promising it will be "wild."

"They immediately started answering his call by zeroing in on that date," the
aide said. "We'll talk about how that was a pivotal moment that spurred a
chain of events."

The tweet was sent a little more than an hour after Trump met at the White
House with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former general Mike Flynn, and Sidney
Powell, another attorney, the aide said.

The hearing will also look at attempts by some Republican members of Congress
to pressure vice president Mike Pence into blocking certification of the
election results.