WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump has been told the same thing over and over again by his campaign team, data analysts and a steady stream of lawyers, investigators and allies in the inner circle: There was no voting fraud that could led to the 2020 presidential election.
But in the eight weeks since losing to Biden, the defeated Trump has publicly, privately and ruthlessly imposed his false allegations of rigged elections in 2020 and stepped up an exclusive scheme to undo Biden’s victory. When all else failed in his efforts to stay in power, Trump invited thousands of his supporters to Washington on January 6, 2021, where extremist groups led the deadly siege of the Capitol.
The scale and strength of this scheme began to take shape during the hearing of the House of Representatives by the commission investigating 1/6. The prime-time hearing was watched by about 20 million people on television, almost double the number that joined the start of Trump’s two impeachment trials.
When the group resumes on Monday, it will delve deeper into its findings that Trump and his advisers knew early on that he had in fact lost the election, but have made a “huge effort” to spread false information to convince the public. the opposite.
Biden spoke about the importance of the commission’s investigation into a speech in Los Angeles on Friday. “The January 6 uprising was one of the darkest chapters in the history of our nation,” the president said, “a brutal attack on our democracy.”
The Americans, he said, must “understand what really happened and understand that the same forces that led to January 6 remain at work today.”
A House of Representatives panel investigating the 1/6 attack on the Capitol has been prepared next week to reveal more details and testimonies about its assessment that Trump was well aware of his election loss. With 1,000 interviews and 140,000 documents during the one-year investigation, it will show how Trump has been repeatedly told that there are no hidden ballots, fake voting machines or support for his allegations. However, Trump refused to accept defeat, and his desperate attempt to cling to the presidency led to the most violent home attack on the Capitol in history.
“For several months, Donald Trump has been monitoring and coordinating an improved seven-part plan to repeal the presidential election and prevent a transfer of presidential power,” spokeswoman Liz Cheney told R-Wyo at a hearing Thursday night. “Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States,” she said.
On Wednesday, the commission will hear testimony from top Trump-era Justice Department officials – Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy, Richard Donohue and Stephen Engel, the former head of the department’s Legal Advice Bureau. with the situation and provided anonymity to discuss their statements.
The testimony of three former Justice Department officials is expected to focus on a chaotic stretch in the administration’s recent weeks, when Trump openly weighed in on the idea of replacing Rosen with a lower-ranking official, Jeffrey Clark, who was considered more inclined to defend. the court for the president’s false allegations of voter fraud.
The situation reached its peak after a one-hour meeting at the White House on January 3, 2021, attended by Rosen, Donohue, Engel and Clark, when senior Justice officials and White House lawyers told Trump he would resign if he went ahead with his plan to replace Rosen. Eventually, the president left Rosen to complete the administration as interim attorney general.
Thursday will turn to Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count the votes in the Jan. 6 election, a scheme proposed at the White House by outside attorney John Eastman. During the uprising, rebels roamed the halls of the Capitol, shouting “Hang Mike Pence” when the vice president rejected Trump’s plan to cancel the 2020 election.
“I’d like to see the truth come out,” said Ken Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died after suffering a stroke defending the Capitol, CNN reported on Friday.
He said that while the family received countless condolences after his brother’s death, including from the vice president, “no tweets, no notes, no cards, nothing” from Trump. “Because he knows he’s the cause of everything.”
The hearings are intended to remain a public document about the attack and the circumstances surrounding it and may lead to a prosecution referral. As Trump considers another White House candidacy, the commission’s final report aims to report the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814.
Trump responded to his social media site on Friday, condemning “witch hunts! even when he fully admitted that he refused to accept defeat.
“Many people told me about the election results, both for and against, but I never hesitated,” he said, insisting on his false allegation of stolen elections.
Trump announced that January 6 “represents the largest movement in the history of our country.”
The commission initially blamed the uprising directly on Trump, saying the attack was not spontaneous, but a “coup attempt” driven by Trump’s efforts to cancel the 2020 election.
With a new 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and shocking testimony from Trump’s inner circle, the commission provided new details about the threatened democracy.
“Jan. “It was the culmination of a coup attempt,” said Benny Thompson, D-Miss. “The violence was not accidental.”
In a previously unseen video, the commission released a remark from former Attorney General Bill Barr, who testified that he told Trump that allegations of rigged elections were “bullshit.”
In another video, the daughter of former President Ivanka Trump testified before the commission that she respects Bar’s opinion that there was no election fraud. “I accepted what you said.”
Others showed leaders of extremist oath keepers and proud boys preparing to storm the Capitol to stand up for Trump. One after another, the rebels told the commission they came to the Capitol because Trump asked them to.
In a shocking statement, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards told the commission she slipped into other people’s blood when rebels crashed past her into the Capitol. She suffered brain injuries in the melee.
“It was a massacre. It was chaos, “she said.
The riot left more than 100 police officers wounded, severely beaten and bloodied, while a crowd of Trump supporters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, stormed the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during or after the riots, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.
Court documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers discussed the need to fight back in November to keep Trump in office. Leaders of both groups and some members have since been charged with rare rebellion charges over the military-style attack.
The Ministry of Justice has arrested and charged more than 800 people with violence that day, the largest network in its history.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in Los Angeles on Friday that the commission’s goal was to “seek the truth” to make sure “no one will ever think it’s good to have a coup, to have an attack.” of the Capitol of the United States, an attack on the democracy of our country. “
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Associated Press authors Mary Clare Jalonik, Farnush Amir, Kevin Frecking, Michael Balsamo, Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller in Washington and Alana Darkin Reacher of Boston contributed to this report.
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For a full coverage of the January 6 hearings, go to
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