WASHINGTON – Next up Tuesday for the House hearings on the Capitol attackJan. 6, 2021, is the pressure former President Donald Trump applied to state officials to overturn 2020 election results, including Trump’s infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
What evidence does the Jan. 6 committee have?:Is the Jan. 6 committee sitting on explosive evidence of Trump’s role in the Capitol assault?
Remember Trump’s ‘find’ vote call to Georgia?
A key event the committee is investigating is the Jan. 2, 2021, call from former President Donald Trump urging Georgia Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes for him to beat President Joe Biden in Georgia.
Trump insisted he couldn’t have lost the state, but Raffensperger told him what he was saying “was not true” during the call, which was recorded. Sterling publicly called Trump’s claims false.
The committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Trump tried everything in his power to change the election results. “He tried to pressure state legislatures to reverse the results of the election in their states, but they refused,” Thompson said.
What we know about today’s hearing:Jan. 6 hearings summarize Tuesday with a focus on Trump’s pressure on state officials. What to expect.
Trump contests Georgia call was ‘perfect’
Former President Donald Trump continued to maintain in a statement Sunday his call to Georgia officials was “appropriate.” In a separate statement, he again called the investigation a hoax and a waste of time.
“My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, with many other people, including numerous lawyers, knowingly on the line, was absolutely PERFECT and appropriate,” Trump said.
Jan. 6 committee hearing schedule:Here’s what to expect about at upcoming Jan. 6 hearings
Why hear from Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers?
Testimony from the Arizona House Speaker, Rusty Bowers, is important because the state was one of seven key states that President Joe Biden won in 2020, but that former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn.
Bowers said he got a call in late November 2020 from Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, urging the lawmaker to submit an alternate set of electors. Bowers refused.
Another Trump lawyer, John Eastman, argued states could submit alternate slates of electors from the ones that were officially certified, so Vice President Mike Pence could reject their Biden electors, according to earlier testimony and court records. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter to six of the states urging legislative leaders to overturn their official results, according to court records.
“We’ll show during the hearing what the president’s role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislators would reconvene and bless it,” a committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff , D-Calif., told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
What happened on Day 3:Trump called Pence a ‘wimp’ as VP resisted ‘pressure campaign’ to overturn election
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism