That House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will hold its latest hearing on Tuesday with plans to present evidence that former President Donald Trump attempted to pressure state officials into reversing the 2020 election.
Updated 2:05 p.m. CST — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was asked about Trump's claims that nearly 4,000 dead people had voted in the state's election.
After reviewing the submitted ballots, Raffensperger said that he had found four votes cast by someone deceased, nowhere near the number Trump claimed.
However, when it came to Trump's other allegations about felons, underage, and other unlawful voters, Raffensperger said they were all proven false by him and his team.
A phone call between Trump and Raffensperger was also played in which Raffensperger said he felt that he was threatened.
After Raffensperger was called out online by Trump and those in his camp, he, his wife, and his daughter all faced threats, including his daughter's home being broken into.
Updated 1:45 p.m. CST — Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Gabe Sterling shared when questioned by Rep. Schiff that the claim from President Trump and his lawyer Giuliani that poll workers were taking ballots out of suitcases was wrong.
Sterling shared that what had actually happened, and occurred on the full video footage that Giuliani and Trump's team had, showed workers packing up for the night and returning to work after being told to continue to work.
Schiff then showed Trump showing only part of the video during a speech, even though Sterling said they had the full video.
Updated 1:15 p.m. CST — While Trump and his team continued their efforts in the days after the election to overturn the results, several members representing Trump met with government officials in swing states.
But those meetings didn't go as expected, with Bowers sharing that Giuliani shared during their meeting that they "have a lot of theories, but no evidence" while Arizona lawmakers pressed him for proof of fraud.
Schiff then moved on to discuss the scheme to push fake electors who would vote for Trump, even though they had no legal ability to do so.
Several depositions showed different members or aides of "team normal" — members of Trump's team that did not support his claims — who said that the claims just didn't add up.
The scheme went as far as seeing the groups of fake electors meet and sign documents in their states that certified Trump, despite the documents not looking anything like the real papers signed by the real electors.
When asked if he knew that fake electors had met in Arizona, Bowers shared that he did not.
Schiff then asked Bowers how he was treated during the days after the election when he did not act as Trump wanted him to. Fighting back tears, he shared that he was not only threatened but also his family and neighbors.
Updated 12:40 p.m. CST — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) led the questioning of the committee's first panel where he argued that anyone who got in the way of Donald Trump's continued hold on power fell victim to pressure from the former president and his supporters.
This included protests outside officials' and government workers' homes and attacks via phone calls, emails, and messages on social media.
Trump's team also began calling lawmakers like Pennsylvania legislator Bryan Cutler, who said in a deposition that opponents put all of his information online, including his home phone number and address. Cutler noted that protests at his house first began when his child was home alone.
Arizona state House Speaker Russell Bowers was the first to speak on the panel and shared what was said when he met with Trump and his team about fraud in the 2020 election.
Bowers started his testimony by confirming that while he wanted Trump to win in 2020, President Joe Biden won the election.
Before the hearing, Trump got in his own jabs by releasing a statement calling Bowers a RINO and claiming that Bowers had told the president he won the election and that it was rigged.
"Anywhere. any time that someone has said that I said the election was rigged, that would not be true," Bowers countered in his testimony.
Bowers shared that the White House called him and a colleague, a call on which Trump and his lawyer Rudi Giuliani told him there was fraud in his state. Bowers shared that when he asked them for their evidence, they said they would. However, he said he never received it.
Trump continued to tell Bowers that there was a legal theory that would allow him to produce a new slate of electors, which he said he had never heard of and wouldn't do until he had received legal consultation.
Updated 12:20 p.m. CST — Tuesday’s hearing was headlined by three GOP politicians, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling, and Arizona state House Speaker Russell Bowers, who all faced pressure from Trump to turn the election in his favor.
Congressman and committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) gave the hearings opening remarks, saying that “our democracy endured a mighty test on Jan. 6 and the days before.”
Thompson explained that the actions taken by Trump are still having repercussions today, calling out a New Mexico primary that was stopped from being ratified due to claims of Dominion voting machines being fraudulent with no proof.
Updated 11:40 p.m. CST — The committee will focus on showing how the former president worked to turn the election in his favor, which included a scheme of offering fake slates of electors in seven battleground states which were won by Joe Biden.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. CST, and the committee will hear from state and local officials who resisted pressure from Trump and his team.
This includes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), Raffensperger’s deputy Gabe Sterling, Georgia election worker Shaye Moss, and Arizona state House Speaker Russell Bowers (R).
Last week, the committee’s third hearing touched on the pressure that Trump put on his former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election. Trump had claimed Pence had the power to do so because of a theory that law professor John Eastman proposed.
During the hearing, former counsel to Pence, Greg Jacob, spoke and shared his interactions with Eastman, who he said had admitted the theory would not have held up if challenged in court.
Almost a year and a half after the events of Jan. 6, the House select committee continues to break down what led to Trump supporters storming the Capitol.
Related
Related
