Post-election rally organizer spoke to January 6 select committee for up to eight hours
One of the witnesses cooperating with the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol says he regrets the day's deadly violence.
Conservative activist Dustin Stockton helped organize post-election events across the country supporting former President Donald Trump's baseless election fraud claims, including the rally held at the Ellipse on January 6. However, Stockton maintains he was largely cut out of the planning for the January 6 rally and was nowhere near the violence when it occurred.
"If I look back, are there things that I would have said differently? Absolutely. But do I think that that contributed to violence? I don't think so," Stockton told CBS News.
He thinks the lack of security planning at the rally may have contributed to the storming of the Capitol and the violent confrontations that left five people dead.
"For me, when the president said, 'Now we're going to go walk to the Capitol,' it was a devastating moment because I knew that they weren't prepared," Stockton said.
Stockton is cooperating with the select panel investigating the assault on the Capitol. On Tuesday, he was deposed by investigators for roughly seven to eight hours, in compliance with a subpoena issued to him and his fiancee, Jennifer Lawrence, in November. Lawrence was scheduled for a deposition Wednesday.
Among the records Stockton and his attorney say they shared with the committee are communications that show Stockton was concerned, leading up to January 6, that the rally at the Ellipse could grow chaotic. They say that they escalated those concerns to the White House and the Trump campaign through another organizer.
Stockton told CBS News he and Lawrence initially had reservations about the "partisan nature" of the committee and "whether they really were on a fact finding mission or they were trying to use as a political cudgel against their opposition."
"Unfortunately, we put a lot of that blame squarely on Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans," Stockton said. "They were given the opportunity to put together a true 911 style bipartisan commission that would investigate this and turn that down. And unfortunately, this has left us in this position where this is what we've got. And we can either make sure that our side of the story, the side of all of those people who showed up and didn't do anything wrong, is represented."
Stockton is one of more than 300 witnesses who have been interviewed by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"We are making swift progress and before too long, our findings will be out in the open," Chairman Bennie Thompson said.
This week, the panel heard from a range of individuals, including Keith Kellogg, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence's national security adviser and was near former President Trump on January 6.
Several other key witnesses were granted "short postponements," according to a select committee aide. That includes Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark. The committee granted Clark a delay due to a medical condition, for the second time this month. His appearance has not yet been rescheduled.
The committee had moved to hold Clark in contempt but granted him a reprieve after he indicated he would appear for a deposition and invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Tuesday night the House voted to refer criminal contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The Justice Department received the referral Wednesday afternoon.
"As with all criminal referrals, we will evaluate the matter based on the facts and the law, and the Principles of Federal Prosecution," U.S. attorney's office spokesman Bill Miller said in a statement.
