After a bombshell session Thursday, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol will focus on former President Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him.
Unlike the June 9 prime-time session, Monday’s hearing will be at 10 a.m. Eastern time. As Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the committee, remarked at the June 9 hearing, the June 13 session will include evidence that Trump “engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information” that the election had been stolen — even though advisers and allies told him repeatedly he had lost.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify Monday include election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, according to CNN. The conservative barrister had been part of George W. Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount of 2000, and in early September 2020, had warned in an essay that then-President Trump’s claims the election would be “rigged” were weak and baseless.
CNN reported that Ginsberg is expected to testify Monday that there is zero evidence of any widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The House January 6th Committee roster of witnesses tomorrow, as reported by Politico’s Nicholas Wu, includes Ginsberg along with former Trump campaign manager William Stepien; former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt; former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia BJay Pak; and former City Commissioner of Philadelphia Al Schmidt.
During her Thursday presentation, Cheney outlined that former President Trump had been repeatedly told by advisers that he had lost the election in the days and weeks leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The panel touched on that theme in its first hearing with a clip from former Attorney General Bill Barr, testifying that he repeatedly told the president “in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud” that would have affected the election.
As well, Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon was shown discussing conversations with then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sometime in November 2020.
“I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states,” Cannon said.
When asked how Meadows responded, Cannon said: “I believe the words he used were, ‘so there’s no there there.'”
An angry mob of Trump supporters, militia members and white supremacists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as Congress convened in a joint session to certify the presidential election results. The deadly attack briefly interrupted the proceedings, which ultimately went on after the Capitol had been cleared of invaders.
Five people were killed in the attack, including a Capitol police officer brutally beaten by mob members. Hundreds of attack participants have since been arrested and prosecuted.
In its overview Thursday, the House January 6th Committee alleged that Trump was part of a vast conspiracy to steal the election, and had stood by for hours while the Capitol was breached. Citing witness testimony, according to Cheney, Trump — when made “aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang [then-Vice President] Mike Pence'”— responded, “‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea,’ Mike Pence, quote, ‘deserves it.'”
Cheney also said that a number of Republican House members had also sought presidential pardons in the days after Jan. 6, 2021.
With AP reports
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 10, 2022
