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New reporting from ABC News offers new insight into testimony from Donald Trump aides Dan Scavino and Nick Luna and the details they can pro

#Donald Trump #Jan. 6 #Dan Scavino #Nick Luna #News

Special counsel Jack Smith has uncovered previously undisclosed details about former President Trump's refusal to help stop the Jan. 6 attac

Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, Alexander Mallin, and Will Steakin at ABC News:

Special counsel Jack Smith's team has uncovered previously undisclosed details about former President Donald Trump's refusal to help stop the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago as he sat watching TV inside the White House, according to sources familiar with what Smith's team has learned during its Jan. 6 probe. Many of the exclusive details come from the questioning of Trump's former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, who first started working for Trump as a teenager three decades ago and is now a paid senior adviser to Trump's reelection campaign. Scavino wouldn't speak with the House select committee that conducted its own probe related to Jan. 6, but -- after a judge overruled claims of executive privilege last year -- he did speak with Smith's team, and key portions of what he said were described to ABC News. New details also come from the Smith team's interviews with other White House advisers and top lawyers who -- despite being deposed in the congressional probe -- previously declined to answer questions about Trump's own statements and demeanor on Jan. 6, 2021, according to publicly released transcripts of their interviews in that probe.

Sources said Scavino told Smith's investigators that as the violence began to escalate that day, Trump "was just not interested" in doing more to stop it. Sources also said former Trump aide Nick Luna told federal investigators that when Trump was informed that then-Vice President Mike Pence had to be rushed to a secure location, Trump responded, "So what?" -- which sources said Luna saw as an unexpected willingness by Trump to let potential harm come to a longtime loyalist. House Democrats and other critics have openly accused Trump of failing to do enough that day, with the Democrat-led House select committee accusing Trump of committing "an utter moral failure" and "a clear dereliction of duty." But what sources now describe to ABC News are the assessments and first-hand accounts of several of Trump's own advisers who stood by him for years -- and were among the few to directly engage with him throughout that day. Along with Scavino and Luna, that small group included then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and Cipollone's former deputy, Pat Philbin. According to sources, when speaking with Smith's team, Scavino recalled telling Trump in a phone call the night of Jan. 6: "This is all your legacy here, and there's smoke coming out of the Capitol."

Scavino hoped Trump would finally help facilitate a peaceful transfer of power, sources said. [...] But, as also previously recounted in public reports, when Scavino and other White House officials learned that rioters had violently stormed the Capitol, they rushed into the dining room to urge Trump to help calm the situation. Still, Trump didn't do anything.

According to what sources said Scavino told Smith's team, Trump was "very angry" that day -- not angry at what his supporters were doing to a pillar of American democracy, but steaming that the election was allegedly stolen from him and his supporters, who were "angry on his behalf." Scavino described it all as "very unsettling," sources said. At times, Trump just sat silently at the head of the table, with his arms folded and his eyes locked on the TV, Scavino recounted, sources said. After unsuccessfully trying for up to 20 minutes to persuade Trump to release some sort of calming statement, Scavino and others walked out of the dining room, leaving Trump alone, sources said. That's when, according to sources, Trump posted a message on his Twitter account saying that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done." Trump's aides told investigators they were shocked by the post. Aside from Trump, Scavino was the only other person with access to Trump's Twitter account, and he was often the one actually posting messages to it, so when the message about Pence popped up, Cipollone and another White House attorney raced to find Scavino, demanding to know why he would post that in the midst of such a precarious situation, sources said. Scavino said he was as blindsided by the post as they were, insisting to them, "I didn't do it," according to the sources. Some of Trump's aides then returned to the dining room to explain to Trump that a public attack on Pence was "not what we need," as Scavino put it to Smith's team. "But it's true," Trump responded, sources told ABC News. Trump has publicly echoed that sentiment since then.

[...] Instead of taking action at that point, Trump allegedly continued to watch Fox News on TV. "During this time, law enforcement agents were attacked and seriously injured, the Capitol was invaded, the electoral count was halted and the lives of those in the Capitol were put at risk," the House committee said in its report. 'Doesn't justify this' Sources said that eventually, at the urging of Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, Trump agreed to record a video for release. The video, more than a minute long, was posted to Twitter at about 4:15 p.m. "This was a fraudulent election," Trump said. "[But] we have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special."

ABC News broke this story today that Jack Smith's Special Counsel investigation revealed details that basically confirmed what the House Select Committee stated: Donald Trump was not interested in stopping the violent terrorists he helped incite with his lies about the 2020 elections.