House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to ‘punch out’ Donald Trump during the US Capitol riot

Unseen video has emerged of Nancy Pelosi threatening to knock out Donald Trump during the January 6 US Capitol riot.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was ready to rumble with then-president Donald Trump during the US Capitol riot.

New video recorded during the January 6 riot showed an enraged Pelosi boast she would happily go to jail for delivering a knockout blow to her political rival.

The footage was filmed by Alexandra Pelosi, the Speaker’s daughter, and held from public viewing after the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Trump to testify two years after the attack in 2020.

In the film, provided to CNN, Pelosi’s chief of staff Terry McCullough says the Secret Service convinced Trump from coming to Capitol Hill, where he could not be fully protected.

“That could change,” the 82-year-old replies. “If he comes, I’m gonna punch him out,” she added. “I’ve been waiting for this, for trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, and I’m gonna go to jail and I’m gonna be happy.”

Nancy Pelosi was ready to rumble with Donald Trump during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol in 2020. Picture: AFP

Trump fired back at the “Unselect Committee” after being issued with the subpoena to testify, asking why it wasn’t delivered months ago to instead wait until weeks from the US midterm elections.

“Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting?” Mr Trump asked on Truth Social.

“Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country,” he continued.

Trump was accused by the congressional committee of a “staggering betrayal of his oath” for encouraging his followers to walk down to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically” during his “Stop the Steal” rally, where he vowed not to concede the election.

Video on screen shows Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the US House Select Committee. Picture: AFP

“It’s very dangerous what he’s doing,” Pelosi said in the new video, before jokingly telling her aides to tell Trump: “If he comes here, we’re going to the White House.”

In another clip from the footage, Pelosi is on a call with the governor of Virginia that the mob marching on the Capitol was “Breaking the law in many different ways.”

“And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States.”

Pelosi, who was evacuated with others to Fort McNair, talks about the urgent need to continue the certification process for the transfer of power to Joe Biden.

“We have got to finish the proceedings, or else they will have a complete victory,” the speaker declares.

TRUMP SUFFERS MAJOR SETBACKS

The wild video came after a panel investigating the 2021 attack on the US Capitol voted to subpoena former president Donald Trump to testify on his involvement in the violence.

“This committee will demand a full accounting to every American person of the events of January 6,” said Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the investigating House Committee on Thursday local time.

“So it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony.”

It comes as the US Supreme Court rejected a request by Mr Trump that it intervene in the legal tussle over classified documents seized in the FBI raid of his Florida home.

Mr Trump had urged the conservative-dominated court to stay a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that restored the Justice Department’s access to the classified documents.

US President Donald Trump could be forced to answer to a panel probing the US Capitol riots. Picture: AFP

In a one-sentence order on Thursday local time, the Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment.

The FBI, in the affidavit used to justify the August 8 raid on Mr Trump’s home, said it was conducting a criminal investigation into “improper removal and storage of classified information” and “unlawful concealment of government records.”

The search warrant said the probe was also related to “wilful retention of national defence information,” an offence that falls under the Espionage Act, and potential “obstruction of a federal investigation.”

A “special master” has been appointed by a District Court judge in Florida to screen the seized files for materials potentially subject to lawyer-client privilege.

A three-judge appellate panel ruled that while the special master, a senior New York judge, conducts his review, the government should be able to continue using documents marked as classified for its criminal investigation.

Mr Trump, in his October 4 emergency request to the Supreme Court, appealed that unanimous ruling by the appellate panel – made up of two judges appointed by Mr Trump and one by Barack Obama.

Mr Trump nominated three of the justices on the nine-member Supreme Court but it has delivered him several defeats in high-profile cases, most notably by refusing to hear his claims alleging fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.

Originally published as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to ‘punch out’ Donald Trump during the US Capitol riot