Highlights from the latest release of January 6 transcripts

The new release is part of a steady stream of transcript drops from the House select committee in recent days, complementing the release of its sweeping 845-page report.

The latest transcript drop comes as the panel winds down its work with the House majority set to change hands from Democrats to Republicans on Tuesday at the start of the new Congress.

The transcripts released so far have shed new light on how the House committee conducted its investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol -- and new details about what key witnesses told the panel.

Here are some of the highlights from the latest disclosures:

Transcripts of no-show depositions with Meadows, others reveal committee's line of inquiry and communications it obtained

Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, provided the select committee with 6,600 pages of email records and approximately 2,000 text messages, according to a transcript of a deposition for which Meadows did not appear in December 2021.

Investigators ran through some of the items they had hoped to ask Meadows about if he had appeared, including a December 2020 email from Meadows stating, "Rudy was put in charge. That was the President's decision," according to the committee transcript.

The committee also hoped to ask Meadows about certain passages in his book, specific text message exchanges and his outreach to the Justice Department "encouraging investigations of suspected voter fraud." The committee also planned to ask Meadows about his communications regarding deploying the National Guard on January 6, "including a January 5th email from Mr. Meadows in which he indicates that the Guard would be present at the Capitol to, quote, 'protect 153 pro-Trump people,' end quote."

The committee similarly convened no-show deposition meetings for former Trump aide Dan Scavino, former Trump administration official Peter Navarro and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon, who previously worked in the Trump White House. The brief transcripts of those meetings document the failure of the witnesses to appear and communications the committee had with the witnesses or their representatives.

In a transcript with Alexandra Preate, who worked as a spokeswoman for Bannon, the committee asked about their text exchanges. In one, the two appeared to be discussing -- days after the Capitol was attacked -- 1 million people surrounding the Capitol after Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021.

The committee interviewer quotes Bannon's text as saying, "I'd surround the Capitol in total silence."

When asked if she and Bannon talked about bringing people back to Washington, DC, even after January 6, Preate said, "I don't recall that" and it was "not my deal." Preate also said she believes Trump lost the election.

RNC chair reveals Trump called her about Pence, later told her the vice president had authority to reject electors

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told the committee that the former president called her on January 1, 2021, and asked her about her relationship with then-Vice President Mike Pence.

"I do have a recollection of him asking me what my relationship was with the Vice President, and I said I didn't know him very well," McDaniel told the select committee, according to a transcript.

McDaniel said she could not recall if they specifically discussed the role Pence would play in certifying the Electoral College vote five days after that call. But McDaniel said that later on, after the US Capitol attack, Trump conveyed to her privately "in one way or another that, you know, the Vice President had the authority to -- I don't know the correct legal term, but he had the authority to not accept the electors."

She also said Trump called her on January 7 but they did not talk about the attack.

The panel revealed during its hearings over the summer that Trump called McDaniel directly in December to tell her about the plan for a group of states to submit alternate slates of electors and connected her to his elections lawyer John Eastman, but her full transcript reveals more details about what was shared between the RNC, Trump White House and the Trump campaign at the time.

In the lead-up to January 6, McDaniel testified that she did not know that the alternate slates of electors were being considered for anything other than contingent electors in case legal challenges changed state election results. She added she was not privy to a lot of those discussions and that she was going through ankle surgery around the time of the Capitol attack.

McDaniel told committee investigators that after that December call, she called the Trump campaign's counsel Justin Clark, who gave her the impression that the campaign was aware of the so-called alternate elector plan and was working on it. She also testified that on December 14, when she was informed that false electors met, she sent a note to former Trump White House aide Molly Michael.

As for fundraising emails from the RNC about the 2020 election, McDaniel said the RNC worked closely with Clark but that once Giuliani took over Trump's legal efforts, he "was doing his own thing and didn't really reach out to the RNC."

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