'We have no evidence': Trump's team invents myth about voter fraud

Created: 06/22/2022, 05:00

By: Lukas Zigo, Christian Stör

The hearings on the storming of the Capitol continue in the United States.

Donald Trump's team apparently tried everything to overturn the result.

• Subpoena for Vice:

  The Capitol Storming Committee reserves a subpoena from Mike Pence.

• Ex-president in focus:

  A US Congressional committee is investigating the role Donald Trump played in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

• Criticism of the committee:

  A CNN journalist accuses the investigative committee of withholding information.

+++ 10:20 p.m .:

At the fourth hearing to investigate the riot in the Capitol, the Secretary of State responsible for organizing elections in the state of Georgia testified: Republican Brad Raffensperger.

Shortly after the election, Trump openly asked him in a telephone call to collect enough votes for his election success in Georgia.

A recording of the conversation was shared with the media at the time.

Among other things, it was heard how Trump says: "I just want to find 11,780 votes."

Donald Trump claims to this day without any evidence that he was deprived of victory in the 2020 election by fraud.

© Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal/AP/dpa

Various recordings of the 67-minute phone call were played during the hearing, in which Raffensperger repeatedly contradicted the President.

Raffensperger said at the meeting there was no doubt that Biden won the Georgia election by a margin of about 12,000 votes.

Several recounts came to the same conclusion.

"The numbers are the numbers, and the numbers don't lie," said Raffensperger.

"There were no votes to be found." The count was correct.

There were many allegations at the time, "and we investigated each one."

Raffensperger said he and his wife received threats after refusing to comply with Trump's request.

All of this was very worrying.

Donald Trump: A big scandal - as a series in pictures

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Hearing on the storming of the Capitol: Senator wanted to overturn the election result

+++ 9.50 p.m .:

In the USA, the people only choose the President indirectly.

Ultimately, it is the 538 Electoral College electors, nominated by the states, whose votes bring the President and Vice President into office.

When certifying these results on January 6, 2021, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin wanted to present then-incumbent Vice President Mike Pence with a list of "alternative" votes from the Electoral College.

This emerges from a series of text messages between Johnson's adviser Sean Riley and Pence confidant Chris Hodgson, revealed at the fourth hearing into the Capitol riot.

Overturning the election result in this way was not an issue for Hodgson.

He flatly refused the request.

Hearing on the storming of the Capitol: Trump's team puts officials under pressure

+++ 8:55 p.m .:

Donald Trump was the loser of the 2020 US election. But he didn’t want to admit it.

So, together with his team around Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, he tried everything to be able to remain in office.

At the end of two chaotic months came the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Now a House of Representatives committee is investigating how this could have happened.

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At the fourth hearing on June 21, representatives from several state governments and parliaments reported how they were pressured by the then incumbent's team.

Russell Bowers, among others, testified.

The Republican chairman of the Arizona House of Representatives described how Trump's team spoke of alleged voter fraud.

However, no one from Trump's team has ever presented him with any evidence of this.

Bowers referred to a statement by Rudy Giuliani: "We have a lot of theories, we just don't have the evidence." After that, according to Bowers, "we kind of laughed about it".

Bowers also explained how Trump and his team had pressed him to initiate a procedure in his state's House of Representatives to subsequently address Trump's election defeat in Arizona.

But that would have been against the law and against his oath of office, Bowers stressed.

And he personally made it clear to Trump several times that he would not do anything illegal for him.

After refusing to bow to pressure, protesters marched in front of his house every week, calling him a pedophile, a pervert and corrupt, threatening him and bullying his entire neighborhood, Bowers said.

In transcripts of pre-recorded witness interviews, several other state officials made similar reports.

Capitol storming hearing: Donald Trump attacks committee members

+++ 5.45 p.m .:

The committee investigating the storming of the Capitol is focusing on two crucial key states in its fourth public hearing today.

It will be about how much pressure Donald Trump put on officials in Georgia and Arizona to turn his defeat there into victory.

The former President, meanwhile, continues to verbally attack the U-Committee.

On his Truth Social platform, he mocks its members, calling them "crazy" Democrats who "play the ridiculous card of the uprising" because of his supposedly strong poll numbers.

(However, Republicans also serve on the committee.)

Capitol Storm Hearing: Republicans Downplay Importance

+++ 1:45 p.m .:

The Republicans continue to try to downplay the importance of the investigative committee for the storming of the Capitol.

According to John Thune, hardly anything new can be expected.

"It seems like it's mostly a reboot," said the South Dakota senator.

Update from Tuesday, June 21, 11 a.m.:

The campaign by former US President Donald Trump and his supporters against those responsible in the states after the 2020 presidential election is the focus of the next public hearing of the investigative committee on the Capitol storm.

The panel's meeting this Tuesday (June 21, 7:00 p.m. EST) is intended to show that Trump pressured local officials to overturn the election results, a panel official announced.

A statement from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is responsible for organizing elections in the US state of Georgia, is expected.

Trump asked Raffensperger in a phone call to collect enough votes for his electoral success in the state.

A recording of the conversation was released to US media.

Among other things, it could be heard Trump saying, "I just want to find 11,780 votes." Georgia was one of the states in which the November election decided in favor of Trump's challenger Joe Biden.

During Thursday's public hearing, Raffensperger and others would report on how they experienced this pressure, the committee official said.

Hearing on the storming of the Capitol: documents give insight into Trump's plan

Update from Monday, June 20, 10 p.m.:

Donald Trump wanted to stay in office even after his election defeat by Joe Biden.

His plan was simple.

Vice President Mike Pence was supposed to block the formal confirmation of the result on January 6, 2021 - which was not legally possible.

That Trump knew this was shown on June 16 at the third public hearing before the committee investigating the storming of the US Capitol.

So it was basically the end of the story of trying to block the certification process.

The June 21 hearing will now focus on what happened in the months between November 2020 and January 2021, according to members of the committee.

The main question is what pressure Trump put on the election officials in the key states in order to be able to achieve the election result he wanted.

The committee intends to follow the same reasoning it used to obtain a judge's order in a federal court in California that forced Trump's attorney, John Eastman, to turn over documents to the committee.

Judge David Carter wrote at the time that Eastman and Trump's venture amounted to "a coup in search of a legal theory."

These documents are said to show that Trump's team went ahead with the plans, although various lawyers privately admitted that they had no legal validity.

Capitol Assault Committee: Pence subpoena not ruled out

Update from Monday, June 20, 8:00 p.m .:

The committee investigating the storming of the US Capitol reserves the right to summon former Vice President Mike Pence.

"We are not excluding anyone or anything at this point," committee member Adam Schiff told CNN on Sunday when asked if there was a possibility Pence would be subpoenaed.

"We're not taking anything off the table as far as the witnesses who haven't testified yet," the Democrat said.

There are several "high-ranking personalities" that the committee of inquiry would like to interview.

Schiff did not name names.

"Why are you protecting Donald Trump?" - Criticism of the Committee on the Capitol Storm

First report from June 20:

Washington DC – When an angry mob of supporters of then US President Donald J. Trump stormed the cradle of American democracy on January 6, 2021, the western world was shocked.

To date, it has been arguably the most memorable of many questionable events in the former reality TV star's presidency.

Now the investigative committee is accused of withholding information that could legally incriminate Trump.

Dana Bash of the news network CNN confronted Congressman Adam Schiff about why the committee has not yet released all of its information to the Justice Department - even though the goal is to start a legal process against the former US President.

USA: Media questions committee "Why didn't they (...) hand over everything they asked for?"

On Sunday's State of the Union, Schiff and Bash discussed the committee's three previous hearings and the revelations made during those sessions about the Capitol storming.

When Bash brought up the subject of how much evidence the committee turned over to the Justice Department, she asked the congressman the obvious question.

"What will come of it?" Bash asked, adding, "Will the Justice Department file charges?

Why haven't you given the Justice Department everything they're asking for -- and they say they need to possibly do that?"

• The next dates of the public hearings in the investigative committee

• Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. (CEST)

• Thursday, June 23, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. (CEST)

"I don't think Congress has ever done that," Schiff replied.

"Congress never says, 'Hey Justice Department, other branches of government, just come and look at our files.'

We don't say, 'We want to go over there and rummage through your files'.

When the Justice Department asks for specific things, we work with them, and we will work with them on this as well.”

US – Department of Justice without investigation: "Why don't they help you?"

In the past, Schiff has questioned why the Justice Department hasn't already announced prosecutions against Trump's allies, saying that "they need to conduct their own investigations" into Donald Trump's potential involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Schiff did not see any indication that the Justice Department had opened an investigation into Trump, prompting Bash to remark: "You have criticized the Justice Department for being slow to move.

If they have done so much work, why don't they help them?"

• The most important witnesses of the investigative committee

• Pat Cipollone – Former Presidential Advisor to Trump's administration

• Richard Donoghue – former Justice Department official

• Caroline Edwards - Officer of the US Capitol Police

• Steve Engel – Former Justice Department Attorney

• Benjamin Ginsberg – GOP Election Advocate

• Cassidy Hutchinson – Advisor to Trump's White House

• Greg Jacob - Former General Counsel to Mike Pence

• Michael Luttig - Conservative attorney and former judge

• Byung J. Pak – Former US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia

• Nick Quested - British filmmaker who documented the Proud Boys

• Brad Raffensperger - Secretary of State of Georgia

• Jeff Rosen - Former Assistant Attorney General

• Al Schmidt – Former City Commissioner of Philadelphia

• Marc Short - Former Chief of Staff to Mike Pence

• Bill Stepien – Former Donald Trump campaign manager

• Gabriel Sterling – Georgia State Electoral Officer

• Chris Stirewalt – Former Fox News executive

"We will certainly help them," said Schiff.

“We want them to know exactly what they are asking for and we intend to release our findings in full detail once our investigation is complete.

We also have a job to do, and we're doing it, and we're doing it in line with the way our agency and the executive have worked to date." (lz)