WASHINGTON – The House Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol plans to use the testimony of former President Donald J. Trump’s own campaign manager against him on Monday, as he presents evidence that Mr. Trump consciously spread the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him in an attempt to undo his defeat.
The committee plans to call Bill Stepien, the last president of the Trump campaign, who is expected to be asked to detail what they knew about the campaign and the former president himself about his fictitious allegations of widespread election fraud. These statements will be the focus of the second in a series of hearings the panel is holding this month to reveal the findings of its extensive investigation.
After an explosive first hearing last week at prime time, the committee’s leaders aim to maintain a steady stream of revelations about the magnitude of Mr’s plot. Trump to cancel the election and how the seeds of the violent siege of the Capitol were sown. by his followers last year.
On Monday, they plan to describe the origin and spread of Mr. Trump’s election lies, including the former president’s refusal to listen to councilors who told him he had lost and that there were no signs of widespread irregularities that could change the result. Then they plan to prove the chaos that these falsehoods caused to various states, which eventually led to the riots.
A committee aide said the panel would focus especially on Mr. Trump on election night declared victory even though he had been told he did not have the numbers to win.
A second panel of witnesses will include Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta who abruptly resigned after refusing to say that widespread election fraud had been found in Georgia.
According to an internal note released as part of a court case, the Trump campaign already knew in November that his strange allegations of fraud were false. Last week, the panel showed videotaped testimony from its top advisers and even then-Attorney General William P. Barr, saying they had told Mr. Trump and senior White House officials.
Stepien was present at the key talks on what the data showed about the possibilities of Mr. Trump to succeed in an effort to win swing states, starting on election night. He was part of a meeting with Mr. Trump on November 7, 2020, just after television stations called the election in favor of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in which he told Mr. Trump of very low odds. of success with their challenges.
Mr. Trump, urged by his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, wanted to move forward anyway.
Mr. Stepien, who rarely speaks in public, appears under subpoena, asking questions about his willingness to be a witness against Trump.
Mr. Stepien currently works as an advisor to Harriet Hageman, a Republican endorsed by Mr. Trump is posing a major challenge to Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and vice president of the panel, setting a potentially adversarial dynamic for her questioning on Monday.
Read more about the January 6 House Committee hearings
The January 6 committee suggested in a letter sent to Mr. Stepien who had evidence that he was aware that the campaign was raising money by making false claims about election fraud.
“As the manager of the Trump 2020 re-election campaign, you oversaw every aspect of the campaign,” the letter said. “Then you oversaw the conversion of Trump’s presidential campaign to an effort focused on ‘Stop the Steal’ messages and related fundraising. This message included the promotion of certain false statements related to voting machines despite a note internal campaign in which campaign staff determined that these statements were false. “
Mr. Stepien will appear alongside Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor who was fired after Fox successfully called the 2020 presidential election in Arizona for Mr. Biden, a move that angered Mr. Trump.
The second part of the hearing will focus on the repercussions of Mr. Trump across the country, especially in competitive states. Along with Mr. Pak, who resigned after learning that Mr. Trump wanted to fire him for rejecting allegations of rampant election fraud in Georgia, the panel plans to hear Al Schmidt, a former Republican commissioner from the city of Georgia. Philadelphia that also faced Mr. Trump’s lies. Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who served as George W. Bush’s national adviser to the presidential campaign and played a central role in the 2000 Florida count, is also scheduled to appear.
Monday’s list of witnesses suggests the committee wants to draw the impact that Mr. Trump had in the conservative media and in various states, as well as contrasting the baseless nature of Mr. Trump’s claims. Trump with the legitimate legal challenges of past Republican campaigns.
A committee aide said the panel will present evidence during the hearing of witnesses who had investigated Mr. Fraud’s allegations. Trump and they found them to be fake.
The panel also plans to show how Mr. Fiction. Trump’s stolen election was used as a fundraising tool, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars between Election Day 2020 and January 6. A fraudulent fundraising effort could be the reason for a possible criminal referral to the Department of Justice against Mr. Trump and his allies.
And some on the committee have long believed that one way to reach out to Trump supporters would be to show them that they had been tricked into giving their money to a false cause.
Collaborators said the committee would also try to show on Monday how the rioters who stormed the Capitol had echoed Mr. Trump and he cited it as motivation to storm the building to try to prevent Congress from formalizing its defeat.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and chair of the House Board of Directors, is scheduled to play a key role in presenting evidence to the audience, attendees said.
Time and time again, top Trump administration officials have told Mr. Trump who had lost the 2020 election. But again and again, Mr. Trump has come forward with his lies of widespread fraud.
Shortly after the election, while the ballots were still being counted, the top data expert on Mr. Trump told him bluntly that he was going to lose.
In the following weeks, while Mr. Trump continued to insist he had won, a senior Justice Department official told him repeatedly that his allegations of widespread voting fraud had no merit, and finally warned him that they would “hurt the country.”
These concerns were echoed by the White House lawyer, who told the president he would enter into a “murder-suicide pact” if he continued with extreme plans to try to invalidate the results of the 2020 elections.
Last week, the Jan. 6 panel played a video of an interview showing Mr. Barr stating that he knew the president’s claims were false and told him three times.
“I told the president it was shit,” Mr. Barr told the committee’s investigators. “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
Committee members previewed some of the evidence they plan to present at Monday’s hearing during Sunday’s television news interviews.
“A lot of people told former President Trump – it should have been very clear – that there was no evidence that the election had been stolen, and he ignored it,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat. and committee member. on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, drew a contrast between those close to Mr. Trump who told him the truth and the “yes people” who encouraged his fantasy of a stolen election to please him.
“If you really think the election was stolen, then if the president really believed it, he’s not mentally capable of being president,” Kinzinger told CBS’s “Face The Nation,” adding: “I don’t think so. “I don’t think the people around him believed it. It was about maintaining power against the will of the American people.”
Michael S. Schmidt contributed to the report.