that president trump kept mentioning an otr, off the record movement. could you tell us first of all, who it is in the text, who was furious? the he in that text that i was referring to was the president. and why was he furious? he was furious because he wanted the arena that we had on the ellipse to be maxed out at capacity for all attendees. the advanced team relayed to him the mags were free flowing. everybody who wanted to come in had already come in, but he still was angry about the extra space and wanted more people to come in. and did you go to the rally in the presidential motorcade? i was there, yes. in the motorcade. and were you backstage with the president and other members of his staff and family? i was. and you told us about particular comments that you
? we understand mr. giuliani talked to you about january 6th. as we were walking to his vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of cass, are you excited for the sixth? it s going to be a great day. i remember looking at him and saying rudy, could you explain what s happening on the sixth? and he responded something to the effect of we re going to the capitol. it s going to be great. the president is going to be there. he s going to look powerful. he s going to be with the members. he s going to be with the senators. talk to the chief about it. talk to the chief about it. he knows about it. and did you go back up to the west wing and tell mr. meadows about your conversation with mr. giuliani? i did after giuliani left the campus that evening, i went back up to our office, and i found mr. meadows in his office on the couch. he was scrolling through his phone. i remember leaning against the doorway and saying, i just had an interesting conversation
don t f ing care that they have weapons. they re not here to hurt me. take the mags away. let the people in, they can march the capitol from here. let the people in, take the mags away. just to be clear, is it your understanding that the president wanted to take the mags away and said that the armed individuals were not there to hurt him? that s a fair assessment. the issue wasn t with the amount of space available in the official rally area only, but instead, that people did not want to have to go through the mags. let s listen to a portion of what you told us about that. and in this particular instance, it wasn t the capacity of our space. it was the mags and the people that didn t want to come through, and that s what tony had been trying to relay to him that morning, you know, it s not the issue that we encounter on the campaign. we have enough space, sir. they don t want to come in right now. they have weapons that they
for short. the select committee has learned that people who willingly entered the enclosed area for president trump s speech were screened so they could attend the rally at the ellipse. they had weapons and other items that were confiscated. weaponer spray, knives, brass knuckles, tasers, body armor, gas masks, batons, blunt weapons. and those were just from the people who chose to go through the security for the president s event. not the several thousand members of the crowd who refused to go through the mags and watched from the lawn near the washington monument. the select committee has learned about reports from outside the mags and has obtained police radio transmissions identifying individuals with firearms, including ar-15s near the ellipse on the morning of january 6th. let s listen.
schedule. it s notified to the press and to a wide range of staff that will be traveling with him. it s known to the public, known to the secret service and they re able to coordinate the movement days in advance. an off the record movement is confined to the knowledge of a very, very small group of advisers and staff. typically a very small group of staff would travel with him. mostly that are just included in the national security package. you can pull an off the record movement together in less than an hour. it s a way to kind of circumvent having to release it to the press if that s the goal of it, or to not have to have as many security parameters put in place ahead of time to make the movement happen. thank you. and let s turn back now to the president s plans to travel to the capitol on january 6th. we know that white house counsel pat cipollone was concerned about the legal implications of