The committee of the assault on the Capitol focuses on Trump's pressure on the states to annul Biden's victory

By Peter NicholasNBC

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on Capitol Hill is holding its fourth public hearing Tuesday.

The spotlight will be on the alleged effort by former President Donald Trump and his allies to force state officials to defy voters and hand him the 2020 election, according to committee members and their aides.

Building on previous hearings, the committee said it will show the intricacies of a scheme that sought to manipulate electoral votes to deprive Joe Biden of the majority needed to win.

[TV host Tucker Carlson repeated the lie that no Capitol raider was armed.

It's false]

The panel will lay out a central element of the plan: getting Trump supporters in key campaign states to produce official-looking certificates claiming they were legitimate voters, even though Trump had actually lost those states.

The plan fell through when then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021, refused to recognize the pro-Trump lists and instead certified Biden's victory.

Pence provoked the wrath of the former president's supporters, who stormed the Capitol that day and ran through the halls shouting "Hang Mike Pence."

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Tuesday's hearing, which begins at 1 pm ET, will also show the human cost of Trump's multi-pronged effort to remain in power despite his defeat.

Witnesses appearing live before the panel will describe how they were harassed and harassed for doing their jobs and defending Biden's legitimate victory in their states.

One of the witnesses will be Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state from Georgia, who stood his ground when Trump implored him in a recorded phone call to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's narrow victory in the state.

[Giuliani's "Drunkenness," Trump's Daughter's Sayings, and Other Viral Moments from the Capitol Attack Hearings]

Another is Rusty Bowers, the Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, who received a call from Trump and his ally Rudy Giuliani after the election about an Arizona law that would allow the Legislature to choose its list of voters.

Bowers reportedly told them, "You're giving me nothing but guesswork and asking me to break my oath and commit to doing something I can't do because I swore I wouldn't."

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Ga., on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

An adviser to the committee told reporters Monday on condition of anonymity that the "lies" about the election "led to threats that put state and local officials and their families at risk."

It is no accident that Bowers and Raffensperger are Republicans who supported Trump's re-election.

In presenting its case, the committee has made extensive use of witnesses from the Republican Party (GOP) and Trump White House officials, underlining that even Trump allies backed down in the face of what which they saw as an attempt to thwart the popular will. 

Leading the audience will be Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who was the head of Trump's first impeachment trial.

In a weekend interview with CNN, Schiff said the panel will show evidence of Trump's role in what is known as the "false voter" tactic.

[Trump advisers tried to make him see that his claims of voter fraud were false, but he was "out of touch with reality"]

The advisor to the committee said: “We will demonstrate that the president was warned that these actions, including false claims of voter fraud and pressure on state and local officials, risked violence.

They risked undermining confidence in our democratic institutions.

But they kept embracing those lies and continued to push this pressure campaign."

A video reveals a subject taking photos of the corridors of the Capitol the day before the assault

June 16, 202200:34

Another hearing set for Thursday will focus on how Trump implored the Justice Department to root out widespread voter fraud that didn't exist.

Trump has complained that the committee does not present witnesses who have defended his actions.

“I have soooo many witnesses to everything good,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, “but the highly partisan and one-sided Unselect Political Hack Committee has no interest in hearing or watching.”

[Committee Investigating Capitol Assault Says It Has Enough Evidence to Prosecute Trump]

Asked if the panel might want Trump to testify and offer his side of the story, the committee's adviser said: "The committee has long said that anyone with relevant information is welcome to come talk to us."