Washington – The House of Representatives’ election commission, which is considering the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, will meet on Tuesday for its fourth public hearing this month. This session will focus on President Trump’s efforts to put pressure on government officials as part of his broader campaign to remain in office for a second term after losing the 2020 election.
CBS News will broadcast a live coverage of the 13:00 ET hearing.
Two GOP election officials from Georgia are expected to appear before the commission: Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger, a Republican, and Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer of the Secretary of State’s cabinet, as well as Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also a Republican. Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former Fulton County, Georgia election official, will also appear.
Trump lost both Georgia and Arizona to President Biden, but he and officials with his re-election campaign forced senior U.S. officials to undo the election results, in part through a scheme to present alternative, pro-Trump voter lists.
Aides to elected committees said they would show that Trump was warned that these actions, including false allegations of election fraud, put pressure on local government officials to risk violence. They run the risk of undermining the credibility of our democratic institutions. “
In Georgia, Trump called on Rafensberger in a phone call on January 2, 2021, to “find” enough votes to win it, although Rafensperger repeatedly rejected the president’s efforts and denied allegations of widespread voter fraud in Georgia.
Both Rafensperger and Sterling defended the integrity of the Georgian election and faced intense criticism for their actions, receiving death threats and, in Raffensperger’s case, reprimands from the Republican Party. Despite the reaction, Rafensperger defeated Trump-backed MP Jody Hayes and two other candidates who challenged him in last month’s Republican primary.
The two election officials also testified this month before a special grand jury in Fulton County, which is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.
Moss, a Fulton County election official, sued One America News Network and Rudy Giuliani in December for defamation, alleging that the network had leaked stories falsely accusing her and her mother, an election collaborator, of committing ballot fraud. to change the outcome of the 2020 elections, according to the lawsuit. The two reached an agreement with One America News in April, although Giuliani remains indicted.
Trump himself also accused Moss and her mother of running a fake ballot scheme and called them professional voting fraudsters, allegations that led to death threats and intimidation and forced them to flee, commission officials said.
In Arizona, Bowers, who backed Trump in 2020, received a call from Trump and Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer, in late November 2020, urging the state legislature to replace the list of presidential voters, reversing the victory. Mr. Biden in the state, according to the Republic of Arizona.
Bowers also received an email from Ginny Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in early November 2020, urging him to choose a “clean voter list,” according to the Washington Post. The commission asked to speak to Thomas, and she told The Daily Caller that she looked forward to speaking with House investigators.
Testimony from Trump’s White House officials, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is expected to be heard during Tuesday’s hearing.
Tuesday’s hearing will mark the third week of a Jan. 6 election commission meeting that outlined to Americans how Trump is organizing a multilateral campaign to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and halt the peaceful transfer of power that culminated in the violent attack on the Capitol building.
Earlier hearings focused on the violence that erupted in the Capitol on Jan. 6 as law enforcement struggled to control a crowd of Trump supporters descending the complex to stop the Congress from counting the votes in the state election; Trump’s decision to declare victory on election night, even though his closest associates knew there was no evidence to support his claims that his election had been stolen; and the former president’s efforts to strengthen Vice President Mike Pence to reject the vote in the state election and unilaterally declare him the winner.
In their third hearing last week, aides to the former vice president said Trump’s repeated election lies had pushed the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis and put Pence in danger when a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.
“Approximately 40 feet. That’s all there was, 40 feet between the vice president and the mob, “said Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat. “Don’t be fooled by the fact that the vice president’s life was in danger.”
Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, is expected to play a leading role in the fourth hearing. He told CNN on Sunday that the panel would demonstrate how Trump is organizing a campaign to put pressure on life-threatening state and local election officials and provide evidence of the former president’s role in a scheme to persuade states to name pro-Trump alternatives. constituencies. .
“The system is holding up because many state and local election officials have reaffirmed their oath before the Constitution,” Schiff told CNN.
Since its inception nearly a year ago, the election commission has conducted more than 1,000 interviews – including with former White House and Trump campaign officials and members of the former president’s family – and has collected more than 140,000 documents.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to attack the commission and falsely claims he won the 2020 election. their members that they are “liars and deceivers.”
Add Comment