The Jan. 6 committee argued at its fourth hearing Tuesday that former President Trump and his key allies found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, but tried to pressure GOP election officials to push for it anyway. this false narrative.
Why it matters: The pressure campaign provoked violent threats from election officials and even attempted to deliver physical copies of fake voter votes to Vice President Mike Pence.
The big picture: through a mix of recorded and closed-door testimonies from Justice Department officials and public testimonies from key election officials, the committee revealed the breadth of Trump’s team’s efforts. , former Trump lawyers John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis. to get state officials to modify election results.
- The Trump campaign had a script calling for appeals to lawmakers urging them to support the nomination of pro-Trump fraudulent voters in states where Biden won.
- Meanwhile, state election officials said they repeatedly asked Trump’s attorneys to provide evidence of their fraud claims, but never received them.
- The committee also showed the human cost of the false claims spread by Trump and his team about election officials and election workers, which include death threats and home burglaries.
Leading the news: Deputy Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), The panel’s vice president, opened the hearing by arguing that Trump knew his claims that the 2020 election was full of fraud were “nonsense.”
- “As you listen to these tapes, keep in mind what Donald Trump already knew at the time he was making these calls: he had been told time and time again that his stolen election allegations were nonsense,” Cheney said.
- “Donald Trump didn’t care about the threats of violence. He didn’t condemn them, he didn’t make any effort to stop them; he went ahead with his false allegations anyway.”
The role of Mark Meadow in Georgia
In one of the most important revelations of the hearing, MP Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) Said the committee obtained text messages indicating that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows wanted to send Georgia election investigators “shit POTUS stuff, including coins, autographed MAGA hats, etc.
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s chief of operations, Gabriel Sterling, detailed his efforts to disprove Trump and his team’s false narrative.
- Sterling said he “lost it” in an appearance in December after learning of the violent threats to his employees.
- The Sterling press received harsh criticism from Trump and others.
- Sterling said on Tuesday: “It was frustrating. I often felt that our information was coming out, but there was a reluctance on the part of the people who had to believe it because the president of the United States, whom many admired and respected, I told them. It wasn’t true despite the facts. “
The committee played audio between Trump and Raffensperger, which showed the extent to which the former president pushed him to find fraud cases in Georgia.
- The audio showed Trump making a series of false claims, each of which denied Raffensperger in real time while talking to Trump. Trump could be heard asking Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
- “Numbers are numbers and they don’t lie,” Raffensperger testified. “Every allegation we checked, we ran down the rabbit track to make sure our numbers were accurate.”
Raffensperger also testified that Trump supporters repeatedly threatened his life and his family, and that some broke into his daughter-in-law’s home.
The DOJ rejected allegations of election fraud
Former Trump DOJ officials testified in recorded statements telling Trump that there was no widespread fraud in Georgia, but he pressured state officials to find fraud claims anyway.
- Former Attorney General Bill Barr stated that he told Trump that allegations of election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, “had no merit”: “We saw no evidence of fraud in the Fulton County episode. “, he said.
- Richard Donoghue, a former deputy attorney general in office, told the committee that he told Trump, “I said something like, ‘Sir, we’ve done dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews. The main allegations are not supported by the evidence developed. . ‘”
The Trump campaign put pressure on Laura Cox of Michigan
- Former Michigan GOP President Laura Cox told the Jan. 6 committee that fake Republican voters were thinking of hiding in the Michigan Capitol building overnight to meet the requirement they meet in the House of Representatives. State Senate: “I told him in clear terms. It was crazy and inappropriate.”
- Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel privately stated that the Trump campaign asked her to help provide an alternative list of Michigan voters.
Rusty Bowers’ emotional testimony
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, publicly stated Tuesday that he never told “anyone,” “anywhere,” “at any time,” that the election was rigged.
- Bowers stressed that Trump’s statement on Tuesday earlier stated that he had previously told the then president that he won in Arizona “is also false.”
- Bowers also said he demanded that Giuliani and Ellis provide evidence of allegations of fraud he was collaborating with, but they never did. “We have a lot of theories, but we just don’t have the evidence,” Giuliani said, according to Bowers.
- Bowers said he told Eastman he was being asked to do something illegal, something that had never happened in the country’s history. Eastman’s response, according to Bowers, who said he paraphrased, “Just do it and let the courts decide.”
Inside the room: Cheney hugged Bowers after his in-person testimony. Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) And Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Shook hands.
Election worker “Shaye” Moss explains death threats
Wandrea ‘ArShaye “Shaye” Moss and his mother, Ruby Freeman, election workers in Georgia, “became the target of the nasty lies spread by President Trump,” said committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss .).
- Moss stated in person that he received “many threats to wish me dead, telling me I would be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Glad it’s 2020, not 1920’.”
- Moss said he was still afraid to leave the house: “I’m not going to the grocery store at all. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I just don’t do anything anymore.” I don’t want to go anywhere. “
- Freeman said in a closed-door statement that he had to leave his home as he approached Jan. 6 amid concerns about threats and violence.
- “If the most powerful person in the world can drop the full weight of the presidency on a normal citizen who is just doing his job, with a lie as big and heavy as a mountain, who among us is safe? None of us. None of us, “Schiff said after questioning Moss.
Implications for members of Congress
Separation Line: Cheney made a plea to his Republican colleagues and voters at home who have been skeptical of believing the January 6 committee’s findings.
- “Don’t get distracted by politics. That’s serious. We can’t let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and bullying violence,” he said.
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