Thread by @AmoneyResists

Here we go…(Jan 6th hearing #4)
#January6thCommiteeHearings

Chairman Thompson outlines the evidence presented in the first three hearings. He draws a direct parallel between Trump’s amplification of the Big Lie and the recent election in New Mexico in which officials refused to certify the results based on vague unconfirmed fraud claims.

He says that todays hearing will focus on Trump’s pressure campaign on local election officials to overturn the will of the voters based on false allegations of fraud, and that he threatened the livelihoods and lives of these individuals if they refused to comply with his demands

He turns it over to Liz Cheney, who states that Trump knew he had lost the election, yet he continued to pressure local officials to overturn results and thwart the will of the voters. She encourages everyone to listen to testimony divorced from politics. “This is serious.”

She turns it over to Rep Adam Schiff, who says that for the first time in our nation’s history, an individual who had lost the Presidential election mounted a campaign to illegally hold on to power. He says Trump tried first to fight the results in court, then tried to fight them

at the state and local level. “The president’s lie was and is a dangerous cancer to our democratic process.” When state officials refused to decertify the count, he amped up the pressure. This consisted of angry phone calls and texts that included threats of violence and death.

They showed video testimony of state legislators saying they feared for their lives when angry Trump supporters appeared outside their homes calling them tyrants, traitors, and criminals. Trump used Giuliani and Eastman to put pressure on state and local election officials.

Trump posted the contact information for state election officials in Michigan on Facebook to his millions of followers and encouraged them to reach out and ask them to “decertify the results” of their state. These officials were bombarded with threats of violence.

“The dangers posed to state officials in swing states was a precursor to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol on January 6th.” Rep Schiff is introducing the various witnesses from these states who will testify today against Trump.

Chairman Thompson is swearing in the witnesses. Mr. Bowers (Speaker of the House of Arizona) is the first to be questioned. Mr. Thompson asks Mr. Bowers if it was true that he wanted Trump to win the election. He says yes. He asks him if Joe Biden won the state of AZ. He says yes

Rep Schiff asks Mr. Bowers if he had seen the statement that Trump issued about him calling him a “Republican in name only [RINO]” and that “He had spoken to him many times and he agreed that he [Trump] had won the state of Arizona.” Mr. Bowers says this statement is false.

Mr. Bowers says that he had received phone calls from Mr. Giuliani with Trump asking him to overturn the results. He asked him if they had evidence to support this. Mr. Giuliani said yes, they did. He asked if he could have it and Giuliani said yes but never sent it.

They claimed they had evidence that thousands of illegal immigrants had voted and thousands of dead people. But they produced no evidence. He told them repeatedly that what they were asking him to do was unlawful and violated his oath of office to the United States Constitution.

Rep Schiff asked Mr. Bowers how they prefaced these requests to him. He said that Trump would say things like “Aren’t we all Republicans here? Why aren’t we getting a better reception?” Mr. Bowers said his oath wasn’t to the Republican Party but to the U.S. constitution.

Rep Schiff asks Mr. Bowers about the meetings he had with Mr. Giuliani and Jenna Ellis in Phoenix just before the governor certified the state for Biden. He says they pressed Mr. Giuliani on the evidence, and he again claimed that they had the evidence but it “wasn’t with them.”

Rep Schiff says that the Committee has uncovered evidence during the course of their investigation tying individuals who occupied state houses in Arizona were also present at the Capitol on January 6th. He shows this side-by-side of the Q-Anon Shaman Jake Angeli in AZ & Capitol.

Mr. Bowers recalled Rudy Giuliani saying, “We've got lots of theories. We just don't have the evidence.” He said he doesn't know if that was a gaffe or if Giuliani didn't think through his words, but Bowers and his team “kind of laughed” at it.

Mr. Giuliani and other Trump allies pressured Mr. Bowers relentlessly to overturn the certification of electoral votes from the state of Arizona. He said no. “We had no legal path or authority in state or federal law to do what was being requested of us by Mr. Trump or Giuliani.”

Rep Schiff is now giving an overview of Trump’s teams efforts to submit slates of fake electors for Trump in states that Biden had won. At Trump’s direct request, the Republican National Committee assisted Trump with this request. “Team normal” walked away at this point.

The committee learned that Trump’s team knew this plan to have electors meet and cast votes for Trump in states that he had lost was illegal. His own lawyers on his campaign staff made this clear to him. They even lied to the people who were going to submit these fake votes.

Fake electors ultimately did meet in New Mexico, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and submitted fake slates of electors from these states to the Capitol. The Trump campaign went forward with this scheme knowing it was illegal.

“It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore an allegiance to uphold.” Mr. Bowers wrote in his personal journal reflecting on these events.

Mr. Bowers said his entire team and office was inundated with tens of thousands of emails from angry Trump supporters rendering them unable to communicate or work. He said they are always afraid about what is going to happen on Saturdays when people visit them to make threats.

He says people showed up to his office and neighborhood with videos of him claiming he is a “pedophile” and a “corrupt politician.” He says he wasn’t sure of the affiliation they had with certain groups but one man had three bars on his chest and a gun and threatened his neighbor

Committee is in recess for 5-10 minutes. Stay tuned. 🍿

The Committee is back. Chairman Thompson said that Trump’s pressure campaign was on state election officials in all of these swing states, but he had a particular focus on the state of Georgia. The investigation is ongoing but they will present some findings today.

He asks Mr. Raffensperger (the Secretary of State for the state of GA) if he wanted Trump to win the election. He says yes. He now asks him to elaborate on his claims that the election went smoothly in his state. He says the wait time for the 2020 election was approximately 3 min

Mr. Schiff asks Mr. Raffensperger who won the state of Georgia in the 2020 election. He says President Biden won the state by approximately 12,000 votes. They rechecked this numerous times and we’re confident in the results.

He asks Mr. Sterling (the Deputy GA Secretary of State) about his remarks at the press conference outside the statehouse that day saying that Trump needs to stop perpetuating false claims of fraud because “someone is going to get killed.” He explains he had lost it when he saw…

threats made specifically to election officials in the state of Georgia. Mr. Schiff asks him if after his speech, Mr. Trump ever told his supporters to abstain from engaging in or threatening violence. Mr. Sterling says “not to my knowledge, no.”

Trump’s team continued to put out statements making false allegations of fraud in the state of Georgia. One such conspiracy theory centered on so-called “suitcases filled with illegitimate ballots.” These were not illegitimate ballots and were being handled according to procedure

Despite Mr. Sterling’s efforts to combat misinformation using his press access, he was unable to compete with Trump’s megaphone and bully pulpit of lies and disinformation. They are now showing clips of Trump making false claims of fraud by playing Fox “News” clips at his rally.

The committee is now showing testimony from the AG for the northern state of Georgia saying they looked into these claims and thoroughly investigated them including interviewing witnesses and the allegations were false and without merit. Barr knew this as well and told Trump.

Before they play the phone call between Trump and Secretary Raffensperger, Mark Meadows texted the Secretary over 17 times to set up the call. Meadows also visited Georgia beforehand to meet with officials. They’re playing clips of Trump pressuring the deputy Secretary of State.

“Whatever you can do, Francis, I’d appreciate it.” Trump said to the chief investigator of the election in Georgia [Francis Watson]. He told her “You will be praised when you get this right.” He even referenced Jan 6th on this call saying “January 6th is a very important date.”

Trump’s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to pressure him “to find 11,780 votes” was sixty seven minutes long. Mr. Schiff says they can’t play the entire call during the hearing but it is available on the website and will play select clips from it today.

They’re now playing clips of Trump from this call asserting insane conspiracy theories of fraud with no basis in facts or reality and debunking each one systematically. This is absolutely brutal for Trump. He is on the call. This was all him. He sounds absolutely hysterical.

There were not suitcases stuffed with ballots. There were not large numbers of votes dumped for Biden “late at night.” There were not “large numbers of dead people” voting. He tells Trump they’ll send him the link to the arena debunking this. Trump replied “I’m not interested”

They’re now showing a retweet from Trump of Lin Wood saying that Brad Raffensperger and his deputy “were given every chance to get it right. They will soon be going to jail.” Now we’re hearing a part of the call where Trump threatens Raffensperger.

They now play the clip of Trump saying “I just need to find 11,780 votes. That’s one more than we need. I won by 400,000 votes. I just need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. Fellas give me a break.” Trump sounds like a deranged mob boss.

Rep Schiff asks Raffensperger about threats he received from Trump’s more radical followers. He says his phone was doxxed and he received thousands of threats. His wife also received hundreds of sexual threats that “were disgusting.” They also broke into his daughter’s apartment.

Rep Schiff thanks these members for their testimony and Chairman Thompson excuses the witnesses. The last witness is Shea Moss, an election official from Georgia who became along with her mother the target of nasty lies in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the election.

Chairman Thompson asks Ms. Moss whether she had ever received threats before in her ten years as an election official. She says she never had. He turns it over to Rep Schiff. He asks her to describe what she loves about her job as an election official.

Ms. Moss says her grandmother taught her that the right to vote was precious because many of her family members didn’t always have this right. She stated that she enjoyed her job because it enabled her to help people navigate the process and assist them in casting their ballots.

Rep. Schiff plays a video of Rudy Giuliani calling Ms. Moss out by name as someone who was “responsible for their loss.” He claimed she was “passing illegal USB drives from her mother like vials of heroin.” She says what her mother was actually passing her was a Junior mint.

As soon as Giuliani targeted her, she began receiving threats. Thousands of threats via Facebook messages targeting her and her mother. She said these threats have turned her life and her mother’s lives upside down. She doesn’t go out. She doesn’t give out her business card.

We are now seeing testimony from her mother Ruby who told the January 6th committee that her entire life was upended by Trump’s lies. It ruined her name, her business, made her flee her home, and worry for the safety of her and her daughter.

She recalls how Trump supporters tried to come in to where she worked to make a citizens arrest of her and her mother. Her mother says “The president of the United States is supposed to represent all citizens of this country; not target one. He targeted me and my family.”

Mr. Schiff asks her if any of these election officials are still working for Fulton county. She says none of them are. He asks if she left her position. She says yes, she felt she had no choice but to leave. Mr. Schiff and Chairman Thompson thank Ms. Moss and her mother.

Rep Schiff is giving his closing statement. He says Trump is the first president in history to try to upend the peaceful transfer of power. If a president can target a citizen with a lie as heavy as a mountain just for doing her job, who among us is safe? None of us is.

He reminds us that our democracy held on January 6th, but barely. And it was only because of the courage of brave individuals like those we heard from today that it withstood this test. And that the threat remains. And we must work to protect our democracy.

Ms. Cheney says in closing to Ms. Moss: More than 30 people did not do what you did. Stone, Flynn, Eastman took the fifth, Bannon, Navarro indicted, Meadows engaged with litigation. The American people have not yet heard from Cipollone. We know Trump does not want him to testify.

Cheney says they want Pat Cippollone to testify to the American people and that he will do so. Chairman Thompson says that the next hearing on Thursday will feature testimony from Mr. Donahue who tried to stop many of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

Chairman Thompson thanks the witnesses for their courage and their testimony. The 4th hearing is adjourned.