WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will meet privately with Donald Trump on Thursday as the former president, now the party’s presumptive nominee, returns to Capitol Hill for the first time since his supporters stormed the building on 6 January 2021 in an attempt to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.
Trump is already expected to meet with Senate Republicans behind closed doors, and he will now hold a separate session with colleagues in the House of Representatives. House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik advised lawmakers early Tuesday on the upcoming meeting with Trump.
It’s a pivotal moment for the indicted former president, weeks before he is sentenced after being found guilty in the hush money trial and ahead of the Republican National Convention, when he is expected to become the formal Republican nominee for president .
Trump’s campaign has not confirmed the meeting with Republicans in the House of Representatives, but the senior campaign official said the Senate meeting will focus on policy issues – including tax cuts.
Trump’s return to Republican campaign offices across from the Capitol, his first since mobs of supporters rioted at the Capitol in 2021, comes as he faces other legal charges, including the four-count federal indictment filed by special counsel the Department of Justice, Jack Smith. the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results.
Most Republicans have backed Trump in the expected rematch against Biden, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and other leaders critical of him in the wake of the 2021 attack.
Many Republicans in Congress have joined Trump in attacking the US justice system over the cases against him. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson led lawmakers in their fight to defend Trump outside the New York courthouse last month in the hush money trial.
The verdict made Trump the first former US president to be found guilty of misdemeanor crimes when a New York jury convicted him on all charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election with a hush money payment to a porn actor.
