Jan. 6 committee holds fourth hearing

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, said that pressuring election officials was a "fundamental part" of former President Trump's strategy to block the 2020 election results.

"Pressuring public servants into betraying their oath was a fundamental part of the playbook," Thompson said.  

While Trump focused on a few states to overturn the election results, officials would not go along with his allegations of fraud, Thompson said.

"When they wouldn't embrace 'the big lie' and substitute the will of the voters, with Donald Trump's will to remain in power, Donald Trump worked to ensure they faced the consequences," he said, referring to the threats that election officials received in the wake of the 2020 election.

Thompson added that "the lie hasn't gone away, saying that "people who believe that lie are now seeking positions of public trust."

Jan. 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson warned that former President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 presidential election continue to corrupt America's democratic institutions.

"People who believe that lie are now seeking positions of public trust. And as seen in New Mexico, their oath to the people they serve will take a backseat to their commitment to the big lie. If that happens, who will make sure our institutions don't break under the pressure?" he said at the beginning of the hearing.

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GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee vice chair, said at the opening of today's hearing that former President Donald Trump was aware of the potential for violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but that did not deter him from continuing to spread lies about the election results.

Cheney previewed how the committee will show how Trump was given warnings over threats and potential violence.

"You will hear about a number of threats and efforts to pressure state officials to reverse the election outcome. One of our witnesses today — Gabriel Sterling — explicitly warned President Trump about potential violence on December 1, 2020, more than a month before January 6. You will see excerpts from that video repeatedly today," she said.

Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State, is one of the witnesses for today's hearing.

Cheney also asked those watching to “focus on the evidence,” adding, “we cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence.”  

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In opening statements Tuesday, Chair Bennie Thompson said the democratic process remains under threat, citing how county-level leaders in New Mexico – including one convicted of trespassing Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021 – refused to certify a recent primary, citing election lies promulgated by former President Donald Trump. 

Thompson is referring to the New Mexico Otero county commission’s vote to refuse to certify the June 7 primary results. The commission, led by three GOP members, cited a distrust of Dominion voting machines, repeating the false conspiracy theory peddled by President Trump’s legal team. 

One of the members of the commission, Couy Griffin, the founder of “Cowboys for Trump,” was convicted in March by a federal judge of illegally trespassing on the Capitol grounds during the riot. In the attack, Griffin climbed over walls and police barriers before walking up to the inauguration stage for President-elect Joe Biden. 

After the state Supreme Court ordered the commission to certify the primary results by June 17, the commission relented with only Griffin – an ardent conspiracy theorist – voting against the certification. 

When Couy was sentenced on Friday to 14 days behind bars with time served, he reiterated his claims against Dominion voting machines and said he would not vote to certify the election until there was a hand count of the ballots. 

Voting rights advocates have expressed concern over the commission’s initial defiance, concerned that the same thing could happen in other parts of the country where election falsehoods have taken root. 

“The lie hasn’t gone away,” Thompson said. “It’s corrupting our democratic institutions” and could end in “catastrophe” if the democratic institutions don’t hold. 

Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Adam Schiff is presenting additional findings during the panel's fourth hearing this month.

CNN previously reported that Schiff was expected to play a leading role in Tuesday's hearing.

Schiff is a Democrat from California and serves as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

He was the lead impeachment manager representing Democrats during former President Trump's first impeachment trial.

"The former President and his allies have spent every day since January 6 attempting to rewrite history about that bloody attack on our nation's Capitol. That's why these public hearings are so essential — to show the American people exactly how January 6 came about, who is responsible, and most critically, what we can and must do to prevent another attack on our democracy."

Read about the other Jan. 6 committee members here.

After the 2020 election, senior Justice Department officials told then-President Donald Trump that he lost Georgia fair and square, and debunked his conspiracy theories about the Georgia election to his face, according to new testimony revealed Tuesday during the Jan. 6 select committee hearing. 

Barr added, “There was no evidence of subterfuge… we didn’t see any evidence of fraud.” This was the latest in a series of clips the committee has played of Barr debunking Trump’s election-related conspiracy theories.

Almost the entire city of Atlanta is in Fulton County, and Trump repeatedly claimed that there were irregularities and illegal voting in the city, even though there was no evidence to back up his claims.

Richard Donoghue, who was the acting deputy Attorney General after Barr stepped down in December 2020, also told the committee about his conversations with Trump about Georgia. He told the committee that he said to the president, “sir, we’ve done dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews. The major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed.”

The House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has begun its fourth hearing of the month. 

The panel is expected to focus on how former President Donald Trump and his allies pressured officials in key battleground states as they sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Committee aides said the hearing will also demonstrate how Trump and his allies concocted a scheme to submit fake slates of electors.

The committee will hear live testimony from four witnesses in two separate panels.

Panel one:

Panel two:

The committee plans to show video testimony of depositions from officials in other states where Trump and his allies pressured state-level officials to try to block Biden's election win.

Heading into the hearing, Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson told CNN that the panel will reveal information on Republican members who sought pardons from former President Donald Trump “over the next few weeks.” He said it won’t come out today.

The committee has accused GOP Rep. Scott Perry of seeking a pardon, something he has denied, and has promised more information about pardon requests from multiple Republicans.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol turns its attention Tuesday to the campaign to pressure state-level officials to overturn the 2020 election results.

The hearing will focus in particular on then-President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results in Arizona and in Georgia — where Trump infamously asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes he needed to win.

Committee aides said the witnesses testifying in person on Tuesday from Arizona and Georgia will be able to speak to the pressure campaign that came from the White House, as well as the backlash they received from Trump's supporters.

The witnesses from Georgia include Raffensperger and his chief operating officer, Gabe Sterling, both of whom faced relentless attacks from Trump after certifying the state's election. Fulton County election worker Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, who was falsely accused by Trump of ballot fraud, will also testify about the backlash she faced.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, will testify about the pressure he received from Trump and Giuliani, according to committee aides.

Here are key things to watch for during today's hearing:

The Meadows connection: Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee member who will lead Tuesday's hearing, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that the hearing would show how Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had played an "intimate role" in the efforts to pressure Georgia state legislators and election officials.

The California Democrat said the committee would release new text messages showing that Meadows had wanted to send autographed "Make America Great Again" hats to those conducting Georgia's post-election audit.

Committee aides said the hearing would "demonstrate his involvement" in Georgia in the run-up to Jan. 6.

Meadows reached out multiple times to Raffensperger after the 2020 election, according to text messages obtained by CNN, and he participated in Trump's January 2021 call where the former President asked Raffensperger to "find" the votes the then-President needed to win.

While that call was going on, Meadows was texting with the deputy secretary of state, who urged him to end the call that now stands at the center of Fulton County's investigation into whether any of the actions Trump or his allies took related to Georgia's election were criminal.

Testimony from those who faced backlash from Trump's attacks: The witnesses will be able to testify firsthand on Tuesday about the impact of Trump's pressure campaign and false claims about the election — as they all were subjected to attacks and threats.

Aides said that Bowers, the Arizona secretary of state, will be able to testify about the "campaign of harassment" he was subjected to in the run-up to January 6 and the months that followed.

Raffensperger and Sterling were attacked by Trump and his allies for certifying Georgia's election. Sterling warned in a December 2020 news conference that "it's all gone too far" after local election officials had been subjected to threats and harassment.

Moss, who was a Fulton County election worker in 2020, will testify how her mother's and her lives were upended and they were forced to go into hiding after Moss was accused by Trump of carrying out a fake ballot scheme, according to committee aides. She and another election worker sued Giuliani last year.

In her written testimony provided on Monday, Moss said the false stories accusing her of taking part in voter fraud had led to her receiving death threats.

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