| | | BOMBSHELL: Trump pushed ‘big lie’ despite being told election fraud claims were false, aides testify
washingtonpost.com
By Amy B Wang, John Wagner, Eugene Scott and Mariana Alfaro
Updated June 13, 2022 at 1:40 p.m. EDT|Published June 13, 2022 at 6:31 a.m. EDT
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection asserted in its second hearing Monday that the Capitol attack was the direct result of Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Trump continued pursuing ever-outlandish claims of election fraud — then fundraised off of those false claims — despite being told repeatedly that Joe Biden had won the race fairly, according to testimony from those who had been close to the former president.
The committee played video of its deposition with former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, in which Stepien said he advised Trump on election night that it was too early to call the race and that they needed to wait until early and mail-in ballots were counted. Trump objected to that advice, Stepien said, and claimed that night that he had won, baselessly calling the race a “fraud” and an “embarrassment.”
Stepien told the committee that Trump’s orbit had cleaved into “Team Crazy” vs. “Team Normal” and that he was glad to be on the latter. However, Trump was increasingly listening only to allies who pushed conspiracy theories about the election.
“I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, boy … he has become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” former Trump attorney general William P. Barr said, according to video testimony the committee played Monday. “When I went into this and would tell them how crazy some of these allegations were, there was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.”
Here’s what to know
Monday’s hearing follows a prime-time hearing Thursday in which the panel began making its case that the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol was the violent culmination of a coup attempt. In the second hearing, panel members also addressed how Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud drove Republican fundraising appeals after Biden won the election.
Chris Stirewalt, a former political editor for Fox News, testified that he was proud of his team’s decision to call Arizona for Biden before other networks did on election night. He also said his team had taken “pains” to caution viewers about a “red mirage” — showing a Republican ahead on election night — noting that the results were likely to change after early votes were counted. “The Trump campaign and the president had made it clear that they were going to try to exploit this anomaly … When you put together a jigsaw puzzle, it doesn’t matter which piece you put in first. It ends up with the same image,” Stirewalt testified.
The committee had to scramble Monday morning after Stepien canceled his planned in-person testimony because his wife had gone into labor, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chairman, said. Others who testified in person Monday were Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer; former U.S. attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak; and Al Schmidt, a former Philadelphia city commissioner.
Analysis: Discomfort wasn’t made public
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By Jacqueline Alemany1:40 p.m.
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The committee just played a string of clips of interviews with some of the highest profile lawyers and advisers to former president Trump who described the professional discomfort they felt in being associated with Trump’s claims of election fraud and the lack of evidence to support those claims. While most of those figures testified they communicated those facts to the president directly, many failed to correct the public record on the issue or speak out against Trump’s false claims. The quiet distancing from people on what former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien called “Team Normal,” in part allowed people such as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell gain even more influence and reach.
Key update
Analysis: Making the case that Trump knew election-fraud claims were false
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By Devlin Barrett1:39 p.m.
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While the committee has emphatically argued that Donald Trump “knew” the 2020 election was not stolen from him, much of the evidence offered Monday suggests that Trump angrily refused to listen to aides who told him that such election fraud claims were bunk. “Before the election, it was possible to talk sense to the president,” former attorney general William P. Barr told the committee in a videotaped session. “After the election, he didn’t seem to be listening.” That gets at a key issue in any criminal investigation of Trump’s actions — whether he understood the claims of fraud were false.
Hearing ends with video of rioters echoing Trump’s false claims
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By Seung Min Kim1:31 p.m.
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The Jan. 6 select committee concluded its second hearing by showing a video montage of Capitol rioters echoing President Donald Trump’s false election claims. (Video: The Washington Post)
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, closed Monday’s hearings by tying the false election claims put forward by Donald Trump to the rhetoric of those who participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The video montage was an attempt to illustrate how the claims from Trump — which his own advisers and administration officials testified were false — shaped the perspectives of his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
For instance, one man said that he voted early and that “it went well, except [you] can’t really trust the software. Dominion software all over.” Another asserted that a Dominion voting machine she used was connected to the internet and that “they stole that from us twice.”
“We know they were there because of Donald Trump,” Thompson said. “Now, we hear some of the things they believed.”
Analysis: Flipping states through recount was unlikely, campaign manager said
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By Paul Kane1:24 p.m.
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Trump’s campaign manager testified there was little chance of flipping enough states in recounts to win the election, a prospect that Fox News’ former election desk expert put at “zero” percent chance. As this Ballotpedia analysis shows, from 2000 through 2019 there were 31 recounts in statewide elections of any sort. Just three times did the original leader turn out to lose the election, most famously in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race when Democrat Al Franken won. All three races had initial margins of fewer than 300 votes, dramatically closer than any margin in 2020.
Analysis: Committee’s heavy use of video a strategy to build credibility
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By Josh Dawsey1:24 p.m.
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The committee’s heavy reliance on video has given a polarized country a chance to hear testimonies for themselves, and that’s a deliberate strategy, people involved with the panel say. Instead of making claims themselves, the committee wants top Trump advisers to provide information — on the record, on camera — hoping more people will believe what they have gathered. The committee members have known for months it would be difficult to convince people and believe the best chance they have is to show text messages, emails and recorded interviews.
Lofgren: ‘Not only was there the ‘big lie,’ there was the ‘big rip-off’
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By Mariana Alfaro1:20 p.m.
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As a closing argument, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) presented footage the panel compiled showing how Trump and his allies financially benefited from his false claims of election fraud.
Lofgren said Trump and his allies continued to push the false narrative of a fraudulent election, even though their litigation efforts making the same claim had failed, because it helped their fundraising.
“If the litigation had stopped on Dec. 14, there would have been no fight to defend the election and no clear path to continue to raise millions of dollars,” Lofgren said before introducing a presentation describing how Trump “used the lies he told to raise millions of dollars from the American people.”
Senior committee investigator Amanda Wick, in recorded footage, explained how the Trump campaign sent “millions of fundraising emails to Trump supporters, sometimes as many as 25 a day.”
“The emails claimed the, quote, left-wing mob was undermining the election, implored supporters to ‘step up to protect the integrity of the election’ and encouraged them to ‘fight back,’ ” Wick said. “But as the select committee has demonstrated, the Trump campaign knew these claims of voter fraud were false. Yet they continued to barrage small-dollar donors with emails encouraging them to donate to something called the ‘Official Election Defense Fund.’ ”
The committee, she said, “discovered no such fund existed.”
Wick said claims that the election was stolen were so successful that Trump and his allies raised hundreds of millions of dollars, then used to create the Save America PAC.
Lofgren said Trump supporters deserved the truth about where their funds went.
“We found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for,” she said. “So not only was there the ‘big lie,’ there was the ‘big rip-off.’”
Key update
Drive to overturn election became ‘marketing tactic’ for Trump and allies
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By Isaac Stanley-Becker1:15 p.m.
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The House select committee investigating the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol says it followed the money — and, in the words of Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), found that the “big lie” was also a “big rip-off.”
Fundraising appeals issued by Trump and his allies, Lofgren said, “misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for.”
Amanda Wick, a committee investigator who has previously prosecuted financial crimes, said the Trump campaign sent millions of fundraising emails between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021. The emails asked supporters to “step up to protect the integrity of the election” and promoted an “Official Election Defense Fund.”
The committee, Wick said, “discovered no such fund existed.” Instead, it was a “marketing tactic,” as a senior digital adviser on the Trump campaign confirmed to investigators.
Wick said Trump and his allies raised $250 million after the election, nearly $100 million of it in the first week after Nov. 3, 2020. Much of that cash went to a PAC at Trump’s disposal. That PAC, Save America, has sent millions of dollars to allies and former officials in the Trump White House, as Wick detailed. More than $200,000 has gone to the Trump Hotel Collection.
Philly city commissioner: No evidence of dead voters voting in Pa.
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By Seung Min Kim1:06 p.m.
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A Republican city commissioner in Philadelphia who investigated Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the city testified Monday he found no evidence of the former president’s insistence that dead people voted there in the 2020 election.
Al Schmidt, part of the three-member board that oversees elections in Philadelphia, also detailed the torrent of threats he and his family faced once Trump named him in a tweet that falsely claimed he was ignoring the accusations.
For instance, Schmidt told the committee, his commission looked into a claim put forward by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that 8,000 deceased people voted in the election.
“Not only was there not evidence of 8,000 dead voters voting in Pennsylvania, there wasn’t evidence of eight,” Schmidt said Monday. “We took seriously every case that was referred to us, no matter how fantastical, no matter how absurd, and took every one of them seriously, including these.”
Schmidt also discussed how Trump going after him publicly and personally escalated threats against him in an alarming way. After the Nov. 11 tweet from Trump, Schmidt faced a barrage of detailed threats, including references to his family members, their addresses and photos of their homes.
“After the president tweeted at me by name, calling me out the way that he did, the threats became much more specific, much more graphic,” Schmidt said.
Expert GOP election lawyer described what happened in court: Trump lost
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By Rosalind Helderman1:01 p.m.
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On June 13 GOP election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg said that in each legal challenge, President Donald Trump’s campaign produced no credible evidence of fraud. (Video: The Washington Post)
The committee was unlikely to convince a sitting judge who heard a post-election challenge brought by the Trump campaign to testify, so they turned to the next best thing: Esteemed Republican election lawyer Benjamin L. Ginsberg.
Ginsberg testified that he had analyzed the more than 60 post-election legal challenges brought by the campaign and found that over and over again, Trump’s claims were dismissed in court. “The simple case is the Trump campaign did not make its case,” he testified.
Ginsberg, who represented President George W. Bush in his 2000 election litigation, also punctured a frequent falsehood told by Trump and his supporters: That judges refused to hear the merits of their allegations of fraud but instead dismissed cases only on procedural grounds. Ginsberg testified that his analysis showed that only about half the cases were dismissed for procedural reasons. In the other half, Ginsberg said judges considered the merits of Trump’s case — and found them wanting. “They did have their day in court,” he said.
Analysis: Trump claimed fraud in 2020 Philly vote yet received record tally
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By Paul Kane1:00 p.m.
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If there was anything particularly unusual about the Philadelphia vote in 2020, it was the tally for Donald Trump. The GOP incumbent president set a modern record for votes for any Republican presidential nominee in Philadelphia, receiving 132,740 votes, according to state records. That’s 24,000 more votes than Philly gave him in 2016. In this century’s six races, only George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign came close to Trump’s vote, with 130,099 ballots in Philly.
Analysis: Threats received by election officials and their families draw shock
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By Marianna Sotomayor12:58 p.m.
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Former Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt (R) testified on June 13 that after President Donald Trump tweeted about him, he began receiving threats. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
When Al Schmidt called out Trump shortly after the 2020 election for baselessly claiming that 8,000 dead people voted in Pennsylvania, the now former city commissioner of Philadelphia and his family faced a barrage of violent threats.
“You lied. You a traitor,” reads a text he received shortly after the election. “Rino stole elections we steal lives.”
Schmidt’s wife received an email saying he would “BE FATALLY SHOT” and “COPS CANT HELP YOU … HEAD ON SPIKES, TREASONOUS SCHMIDTS.”
As the images flashed on the screen in the hearing room, House Chaplain Margaret G. Kibben stared intently. Sitting beside her was Rep. Kathy E. Manning (D-N.C.), who just shook her head in disbelief, mouth agape.
Other observers had similar reactions as Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) apologized on behalf of everyone on the committee for the fierce, and unfair, backlash the Schmidt family had received for telling the truth.
Key update
Former DOJ prosecutor debunks Giuliani claims of fraud during ballot counting in Atlanta
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By Amy Gardner12:58 p.m.
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One of the most enduring claims of election fraud stemmed from surveillance video at State Farm Arena, a central mail-ballot counting facility in Fulton County, Ga., the home of Atlanta.
At today’s hearing, former federal prosecutor Byung J. “BJay” Pak offered more details about why he concluded that the claims were false.
At the heart of the allegation was a claim that election workers had smuggled in “suitcases” filled with fraudulent ballots, and another that they had double- and in some cases triple-counted ballots. Rudy Giuliani, one of President Donald Trump’s top lawyers at the time, led the charge and even described the alleged fraud in a hearing of the Georgia Senate.
None of it was true, Pak said Monday. After being asked by then-Attorney General William P. Barr to examine the allegation, Pak said, “We found that the suitcase full of ballots, the alleged black suitcase that was being seen pulled from under the table, was actually an official lockbox where ballots were kept safe.”
Pak also explained how Giuliani played a surveillance clip that showed the workers pulling the lockbox out from under a table. The entire video, he said, showed that they had packed the cases up when they thought they were done counting for the night, but once they were instructed to continue, they pulled them back out.
“Nothing irregular happened in the county,” Pak said. “The allegations made by Mr. Giuliani were false.”
Donoghue, in talks with Trump, said he batted away multiple fraudulent election claims
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By Seung Min Kim12:55 p.m.
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The Jan. 6 committee shared testimony of former acting attorney general Richard Donoghue on June 13 about how Trump was entertaining many conspiracy theories. (Video: The Washington Post)
A voting machine in Michigan did not have a 68 percent error rate — not even close. There was no suitcase packed with fraudulent ballots in Georgia. And no, Native Americans were not paid to vote.
Richard P. Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general, told committee investigators how he and Justice Department lawyers systematically investigated claims about potential election fraud — and found that none had merit.
“I said something to the effect of, ‘Sir, we’ve done dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews. The major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed,’ ” Donoghue said in his videotaped deposition about his conversations with Donald Trump.
Donoghue said he stressed to the former president that, “We’re doing our job. Much of the info you’re getting is false.”
Among the claims that DOJ researched: that a voting machine in Michigan had the abnormally high error rate (it was actually .0063 percent, according to Donoghue); that a truck driver had transported a tractor-trailer full of ballots from New York to Pennsylvania (that was “not supported by the evidence,” Donoghue said); that there was a suitcase in Georgia stuffed with fraudulent ballots (“sir, there is no suitcase,” Donoghue said he told Trump); and that Native Americans were being paid to vote.
All were false. But even though Trump seemed accepting of the DOJ’s findings, the president would quickly move on to another fraudulent claim, according to Donoghue — which department lawyers would similarly bat away.
“When you gave him a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldn’t fight us on it, but he would move to another allegation,” Donoghue said.
Barr blasts ‘2000 Mules’ for false election conspiracy theories
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By Matthew Brown12:53 p.m.
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In recorded testimony played on June 13, former attorney general William P. Barr said he was unimpressed with the Dinesh D’Souza film “2000 Mules." (Video: The Washington Post)
Former attorney general William P. Barr said he was “unimpressed” with the false election claims made in Dinesh D’Souza’s film “2000 Mules,” which claims to prove widespread voter fraud.
“My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud, and I haven’t seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that, including the ‘2000 Mules’ movie,” Barr told committee investigators.
Barr called the logic of the film, which claims to use cellphone geolocation data to prove widespread voter fraud, “singularly unimpressive” and “indefensible” in how it misrepresents the technology. He added that the photographic evidence was “lacking” in its claim to show the mass dropping off of ballots.
“It’s not clear that even if you can show harvesting that that changes the results of the election,” Barr told investigators, because the ballots themselves would have to be shown to be illegal in some way, which the Trump campaign would have had to separately prove.
Barr noted that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation also dismissed the film’s claims for lack of substance. |
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