Storming the Capitol: Four Takeaways from the Fourth Hearing

Enlarge image

Committee of Inquiry as of January 6th

Photo: IMAGO/Pool via CNP /MediaPunch / IMAGO/MediaPunch

Hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.

Congress met there to formally confirm Joe Biden's election victory.

The attack killed several people and injured dozens.

An investigative shot deals with the question of Donald Trump being responsible for the violent clashes.

Day four of the hearing focused on efforts by Trump and his allies to prevent Biden's election victory from being recognized.

The committee presented evidence that Trump applied direct pressure to Republican officials in individual states.

Trump was also pursuing a plan for a list of "alternative voters" who would tip the result in his favor.

The four key findings of the June 21 hearing:

Intimidation and threats existed before January 6th

In addition to high-ranking representatives of governments and parliaments in various states, election workers also reported on the consequences of intimidating Trump and his allies.

Shaye Moss, a Georgia poll worker who was accused with her mother of voter fraud by Giuliani, has received threats via social media, including "wanting me dead, telling me I was going to jail with my mother She also received messages like, "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920," Moss said.

She loved her job as a poll worker, but eventually quit.

Republican Chairman of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers has been the target of protests and threats after his refusal to support Trump's plan.

He described in the committee how his office had received over 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of voice messages and text messages that left him and his staff unable to communicate.

Every week protesters marched in front of his house, called him a pedophile, perverted and corrupt, threatened him and tyrannized his entire neighborhood.

Trump was directly involved in the "alternative lists" plan

In the US presidential election, voters do not vote directly for their head of state.

Rather, they elect a college of electors (»Electoral College«), which then elects the president.

The committee presented evidence Tuesday that Trump was involved behind the scenes in compiling a list of "alternate voters."

Trump therefore hoped that these would replace the official lists in order to contest Biden's victories in the so-called swing states.

Trump reportedly hired Republican Central Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel to work with one of Trump's attorneys to come up with a plan for the alternative lists.

McDaniel testified during the hearing.

A former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified that Meadows and Trump's attorney Rudolph Giuliani were White House Counsel

was told at a meeting that the plan was not legally sound.

The investigative committee did not say whether Trump was aware of the meeting with the White House legal department.

Republicans pushed Trump's plan on the day of the storm

According to text messages obtained by the committee, an aide to Republican Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) told an aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence on the day of the Capitol storm that Johnson wanted to give Pence a list of Michigan and Wisconsin Trump voters .

A text message said it was “an alternate voter roll for MI (Michigan) and WI (Wisconsin) because the archivist did not receive it.

Michigan and Wisconsin are states that Biden won.

A spokesman for Senator Johnson tweeted that he was not involved in compiling the list "and had no knowledge that it would be delivered to our office."

Communication with the Vice President's office was "staff to staff" and the documents were never sent to Pence.

On the morning of Jan. 6, another Trump ally, Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, reached out to Rusty Bowers to ask if he would support Arizona voters voting out Biden.

"I said I wouldn't do that," Bowers said in committee.

Team Trump could not create "evidence" of voter fraud

Bowers also told the committee that Giuliani admitted to not finding the necessary evidence of voter fraud.

You have "a lot of evidence, but no evidence" for stolen voices.

A statement that Bowers said was accompanied by laughter.

At another point, the Republican was urged by a Trump attorney to back a plan to field a number of Trump voters from Arizona, even though the state had already confirmed Biden's victory.

Bowers said he was wondering how he could legally participate in the plan, and the attorney replied, "Just do it and let the courts sort it out."

Donald Trump continues to speak of voter fraud.

According to polls, more than two-thirds of Republicans believe this claim, which has no supporting evidence.

svs