By Ashok Nilakantan

New York, Jul 13 (IANS): The US Congressional committee probing the January 6 Capitol Hill "Insurrection" virtually dropped a bombshell on former president Donald Trump claiming evidence that he planned to lead a march of his supporters to the US Capitol as Congress was voting to certify the 2020 election, but did not want anybody outside of a few in his inner circle to know.

This was the bombshell revelation from the 7th hearing of the House January 6 Committee, which detailed how Trump wanted the mob descending on the Capitol to look spontaneous. The hearing also saw star witness white counsel Pat Cipollone recording testifying that he did his best to dissuade Trump from his "unconstitutional acts" besides corroborating all evidence before the committee on Trump's action including the explosive statement of top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and not denying at all any of the testimonies of the witnesses earlier on.

The committee disclosed an email from Katrina Pierson, a rally organizer, who informed fellow organizers after a January 2 phone call with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that Trump was planning to "call on everyone to march to the Capitol", news reports from major US media outlets revealed.

Another rally organizer, Kylie Jane Kremer, wrote in a January 4 text message that it was important to keep the plan secret to avoid alerting the National Park Service. "This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the ellipse," Kremer wrote.

"POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol. It cannot get out about the second stage because people will try and set up another and sabotage it. It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it 'unexpectedly'."

Not only would keeping the planned mob march on the Capitol a secret prevent a counter-demonstration, the secrecy would also, critically, keep the US Capitol Police in the dark as to what to expect in terms of its planning for security needs.

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was privy to what was going on. Bannon predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that "all hell will break loose" the next day, and it was revealed by the committee Tuesday that Bannon had talked twice that day with Trump.

"It's all converging," Bannon said on the podcast, "and now we're on, as they say, the point of attack, right, the point of attack tomorrow. I'll tell you this, it's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen. It's going to be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is, strap in."

Bannon, who is facing contempt charges for refusing to testify before the January 6 committee, agreed over the weekend to finally appear before the committee. He stands trial on July 18 but the senate committee made it clear that his testimony does not absolve him of any charges that will be pressed against him during the trial as he was not part of the January 6 people in white house or entitled to any executive privilege one enjoys in relationship with the president.

The judge in his pending trial ruled on Monday that the trial will go on as scheduled next week nonetheless.