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- A January 6 panel member spoke to MSNBC after interviewing Secret Service agent Robert Engel.
- Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said the panel learned how Trump was "incensed" about not being able to "join the mob."
- He said Trump likely thought he would enter "like Mussolini being carried on the shoulders of his supporters."
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House panel investigating the January 6 riot, told MSNBC on Thursday that former President Donald Trump likely thought he would get a hero's welcome from his supporters at the Capitol.
"Everything that we've heard tells me that the former president was incensed," Raskin replied. "He was enraged and there was conflict about whether or not he would go to the Capitol, and he was adamant that he be able to do that."
"I imagine that he thought that he would enter like Mussolini being carried on the shoulders of his supporters and enter the Capitol," Raskin said, likening Trump to the Italian fascist dictator.
Raskin was speaking after Secret Service agent Robert Engel — who was with Trump during the riot — testified to the House panel on Thursday.
The agent's testimony comes after he was mentioned by former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, during her interview with the January 6 panel in June. Hutchinson testified that Trump lunged at Engel and tried to grab the steering wheel of his SUV while demanding to be brought to the Capitol.
Raskin said he could not reveal specific details about Engel's testimony at this juncture. However, he did say that the panel had learned how Trump was "incensed and enraged" about not being allowed to go to Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. Raskin added that Trump was "adamant that he be able to join the mob and approach and enter the Capitol with them."
"Donald Trump really went to bed the night before on the evening of January 5 believing that he was going to be staying in office for another four years," Raskin added. "And he believed that through the day."
The House panel in October unanimously voted to subpoena Trump, following several hearings chock-full of damning testimony about the former president's conduct on January 6, 2021. Trump's refusal to comply with this subpoena could lead to him being held in contempt of Congress and be prosecuted.
In response to the subpoena, Trump sent a 14-page document to the January 6 panel that started with the sentence, "THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!" The document also contained multiple baseless claims of election fraud.
Trump this month also filed a lawsuit against the January 6 committee in an attempt to block its subpoena. Lawyers for the former president are arguing that Congress does not have the authority to subpoena him, a former president.
Trump's lawsuit, however, means that the former president could potentially delay testifying until well after the panel is slated to dissolve along with the 117th Congress on January 3, 2023.
A representative at Trump's post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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