quote, irrelevant to the contempt of congress case against him. that is set to begin next week. the doj wrote, quote, the defendant s sudden wish to testify is not a genuine effort to meet obl gigations, but a last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability. bannon s reversal comes after he received a letter from former trump that waives executive privilege, but new court documents show that an attorney for former president trump actually spoke to the fbi weeks ago and contradicted bannon s claim that the former president had invoked executive privilege over particular information or materials, so who is telling the truth and who is not? more on that in a moment. also, in the january 6th public hearing that is tomorrow, this is the next one, the panel is expected to focus on how the violent mob came together, the rule of extremist groups in the deadly insurrection, and any connections of those groups to trump s inner circle. a former spokesman for the oath keepers, a far right
government circles, to overturn the election. one witness we are expecting to hear from is a former spokesman for the oathkeepers. that is the group that we now know brought explosives to the dc area ahead of january 6th, according to the justice department. one person we won t hear from tomorrow, trump allies steve bannon. days before he goes on trial for stonewalling the select committee, bannon now says he will testify. prosecutors say this last minute 180 won t get him out of next week s trial. we will have the latest on that case in just a moment. first, let s go to ryan nobles on capitol hill. how is the committee planning to show links between trans allies and the 60 myst groups tomorrow? that is a great bastion. it will probably come through closed-door witness testimony which we have already seen the committee display over the past few weeks in these public hearings. we know the committee has spoken to a lot of people inside and outside the white house who knew a
teachers at the end of may. and new details about what the 77 minutes of school hallway surveillance video shows. plus, a new covid variant spreading at an alarming rate throughout the united states, and this one is not deterred even by recent infections. so how do the vaccines hold up against it? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and members of the january 6th select house committee now publicly suggesting they will use tomorrow s hearing to draw direct links between the extremist groups who stormed the u.s. capitol and have been charged with seditious conspiracy and people inside donald trump s orbit. 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. what we heard cassidy hutchinson testify along the lines of trump telling mark meadows, the chief of staff, to talk to roger stone and others, mike flynn, and stone and flynn ha
to leave on a major middle east trip including a controversial visit to saudi arabia. can he reset relations with the country he had vowed to make a pariah? and new efforts are now underway to free americans britney greiner and paul whalen from captivity in russia. the better and hostage negotiator former governor bill richardson is now expected to travel to moscow in hopes of winning the release. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. on this the eve of the next january six hearing, select committee aides are sharing new details on what to expect as the panel zeros in on the far right extremists at the forefront of the insurrection. cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles has our report from capitol hill. the justice department says they were among the writers causing the most trouble on january sixth. right wing extremist groups many of which came to washington intent on disrupting
texas state senator and get his reaction. it s sunday, july 10th. thank you for waking up with us. president biden is defending his decision to visit saudi arabia when he travels to the middle east this week against criticism and controversy surrounding that trip. the president will meet with saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman but, remember, as a candidate for president biden vowed to make saudi arabia a pariah. now, as president, he says his visit to the country is critical to u.s. security. in his op-ed in the washington post the president also touched on saudi arabia s role in dealing with a spike in energy prices. he writes, quote, today saudi arabia has helped to restore unity among the six countries of gulf cooperation council, has fully supported the truce in yemen and is working with my experts to help stabilize markets with other opec producers. the president s trip has come under criticism because of saudi arabia s role in the killing of journalist jamal k