WASHINGTON – A House of Representatives commission investigating the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, plans to use the testimony of former President Donald Trump’s campaign leader against him on Monday as it provides evidence that Mr Trump is deliberately spreading lies. , which the 2020 election was stolen from him in an attempt to undo his defeat.
The commission plans to call on Bill Stipien, the last chairman of Mr Trump’s campaign, who is expected to be asked to clarify what the campaign and the former president himself knew about his fictitious allegations of widespread election fraud. These allegations will be at the heart of the second of a series of hearings the commission is holding this month to uncover the findings of its extensive investigation.
After an explosive first prime time hearing last week, commission leaders are seeking to maintain a steady stream of revelations about the scale of Mr Trump’s conspiracy to cancel the election and how he sowed the seeds of his Capitol siege last year.
On Monday, they plan to describe the origins and spread of Mr Trump’s election lies, including the former president’s refusal to hear advisers who told him he had lost and that there was no evidence of widespread irregularities that could change the outcome. They then planned to demonstrate the chaos caused by these lies in several states, which eventually led to a riot.
An aide to the commission said the committee would focus in particular on Mr Trump’s decision on election night to declare victory, although he was told there were no figures for victory.
The second panel of witnesses will include Bung J. Again, a former U.S. lawyer in Atlanta who resigned abruptly after refusing to say that widespread voter fraud had been discovered in Georgia.
According to an internal note published as part of a lawsuit, Trump’s campaign knew back in November that its bizarre allegations of fraud were untrue. Last week, the group showed videotapes to his top advisers and even to Attorney General William P. Barr at the time, saying they had told Mr Trump and senior White House officials.
Mr Stepien attended keynote talks on what Mr Trump’s chances of succeeding in winning swing states starting on election night show. He was part of a meeting with Mr. Trump on November 7, 2020, just after the convening of the election on television networks in favor of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in which he told Mr. Trump about the extremely low chances of success with its challenges.
Mr. Trump, encouraged by his lawyer, Rudolf Giuliani, wanted to continue anyway.
Mr Stepien, who rarely speaks in public, appears on summons, raising questions about his willingness to testify against Mr Trump.
Mr Stepien is currently serving as an adviser to Harriet Hedgeman, a Republican approved by Mr Trump, who is challenging Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and vice-chairwoman, creating a potentially hostile dynamic for his interrogation on Monday.
Read more about the hearings of the House of Representatives committee on January 6
In a letter sent to Mr Stepien on 6 January, the Commission suggested that there was evidence that he was aware that the campaign was raising money by making false allegations of electoral fraud.
“As the manager of the Trump 2020 re-election campaign, you have observed all aspects of the campaign,” the letter said. “After that, you watched Trump’s presidential campaign turn into an effort focused on Stop theft messages and related fundraising. This announcement included the promotion of some false allegations involving voting machines, despite an internal campaign note in which campaign officials found that the allegations were false. “
Mr Stepien will appear alongside Chris Steeworth, a former political editor at Fox News, who was fired after Fox properly called Arizona’s 2020 presidential election for Mr Biden, a move that angered Mr Trump. .
The second part of the hearing will address the false allegations of Mr Trump throughout the country, especially in competitive countries. Along with Mr Pack, who resigned after learning that Mr Trump wanted to fire him for rejecting allegations of unbridled voter fraud in Georgia, the committee is due to hear Al Schmid, a Republican and former city commissioner in Georgia. Philadelphia, who also opposed Mr. Trump’s Lies. Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who served as a national adviser to George W. Bush’s presidential campaign and played a central role in the 2000 Florida census, is also expected to appear.
The panel of witnesses on Monday suggested that the commission wanted to outline the impact of Mr. Trump’s lies in the conservative media and in various states, as well as to oppose the unfounded nature of Mr. Trump’s claims with the legitimate legal challenges of past Republican campaigns. .
An aide to the commission said the commission would present evidence during the hearing of witnesses who investigated Mr Trump’s allegations of fraud and found them to be untrue.
The panel also plans to show how Mr Trump’s fabrication of stolen elections was used as a fundraising tool, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars between election day 2020 and January 6. possible criminal referral to the Ministry of Justice against Mr. Trump and his allies.
And some members of the committee have long believed that one way to break into Mr Trump’s supporters is to prove to them that they have been tricked into donating their money to a fake cause.
Aides said the committee would also try on Monday to show how rebels who stormed the Capitol echoed Mr Trump’s words, citing his motivation for storming the building in an attempt to prevent Congress from formalizing his defeat.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and chair of the House Committee’s administration committee, is expected to play a key role in presenting evidence at the hearing, officials said.
Over and over again, senior officials in the Trump administration have told Mr Trump that he lost the election in 2020. But over and over again, Mr Trump has kept going with his lies about widespread fraud.
Shortly after the election, as ballots are still being counted, the chief data expert in Mr Trump’s re-election campaign told him outright that he would lose.
In the weeks that followed, as Trump continued to insist he won, a senior Justice Department official repeatedly told him that his allegations of widespread voting fraud were baseless, ultimately warning him that they would ” hurt the country. “
These fears were reiterated by the White House’s top lawyer, who told the president he would join a “murder and suicide pact” if he continued to pursue extreme plans to try to annul the 2020 election results.
Last week, on January 6, the panel released a video of an interview showing Mr Barr, who testified that he knew the president’s allegations were untrue, and told him this three times.
“I told the president it was nonsense,” Mr Barr was heard saying to the commission’s investigators. “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
Committee members reviewed some of the evidence they plan to present at Monday’s hearing during television news interviews on Sunday.
“Former President Trump has been told by many people – it should have been clear – that there is no evidence that the election was stolen, and he ignores that,” said Elaine Luria, a Democrat from Virginia and a member of the committee. on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Representative Adam Kinsinger, an Illinois Republican, contrasted with those close to Mr. Trump who told him the truth and “yes people” who encouraged his fantasy of stolen elections to please him.
“If you really believe the election was stolen, then if the president really believed it, he is not mentally fit to be president,” Kinsinger told CBS’s Face The Nation, adding: “I think did not believe. I don’t think the people around him believed it. It was all about retaining power against the will of the American people.
Michael C. Schmid contributed to the reports.
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