January 6 committee questions Kellyanne Conway

Kellyanne Conway, a former top aide to Donald Trump, appeared before the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection on Monday.

‘I’m here voluntarily,’ she told reporters on Capitol Hill during a break. 

She also said she spoke with Donald Trump last week.

Conway worked for Trump as his campaign manager in the 2016 election. She followed him to the White House, where she served as a senior counselor until August 2020 when she left to spend more time with her family.

She did not work in the White House on January 6th, 2021 but the Washington Post reported she called an aide who was with Trump that day and said she was joining others in urging the former president to tell his MAGA supporters to stand down. 

Former top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway appeared before the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection

Kellyanne Conway served as a senior counselor to Donald Trump (see above with him in November 2016) but did not work in the White House on January 6th, 2021

She also told the aide that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office called her, wanting her help in getting Trump to call up the National Guard to help subdue the rioters.

In her book on working in the Trump White House, Conway acknowledged he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and said he was ill-served by the aides around him during that post-election chaos. 

Her interview comes as the committee is working to complete its report before this session of Congress ends in early January. 

When Republicans take control of the House on January 3rd, 2022, the panel is expected to be dismantled. GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has been critical of its work.

Trump also has slammed the committee, calling it a witch hunt. He sued the panel after it subpoenaed him. 

The committee’s final report is expected to focus on efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election results and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

It’s expected to be unveiled before the end of the year. 

‘I would like to see our report be as broad and inclusive as possible,’ committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. 

‘We are discussing as a committee among the members what belongs in the body of the report, what belongs in the appendices of the report, what is beyond the scope of our investigation, and we’ll reach those decisions in a collaborative manner,’ he said.

In its investigation, the committee conducted about 1,000 witness interviews and analyzed tens of thousands of documents.

It also held nine public hearings that featured witness testimony from many present on January 6th, including police officers on Capitol Hill and former White House staff.

The hearings showed new footage from Capitol on that day, when Trump’s MAGA supporters rushed the building, and featured new details on what was happening in the Oval Office as Congress prepared to certify the 2020 election results.

Its final report will serve as a summary of the year and a half investigation.

It could include a criminal referral to the Justice Department of Trump and his allies.

MAGA supporters swarm the Capitol on January 6th 

The final report also is expected to include recommendations on legislation that Congress could pass to solidify the process of certifying an election after Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to return some electors to their home states.

The vice president has only a ceremonial role in overseeing the final certification of the electoral college conducted by Congress. 

The panel is expected to hold a final hearing around the time of the release of the report.