Democrats hoped the evidence presented in the numerous Jan. 6 show trials put on by a House Select Committee of anti-Trump sycophants would sway the American public and convince them to vote blue in November. Their hopes have been demolished.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot held another hearing Thursday on how Former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to pressure Department of Justice officials to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election based on numerous instances of voter fraud.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, led the questioning of the witnesses, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and Steven Engel, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
Here are some takeaways from Thursday’s trial.
1. Republican members of Congress requested blanket pardons in case they faced prosecution for their claims about the election, according to the Committee.
According to a series of emails from Rep. Mo Brooks, lawmakers who boldly stood up for election integrity understood they would subsequently face the legal wrath of the Democrat Party and hoped Trump would consider pardoning them if charges were filed.
Recorded witness testimony also named Reps. Andy Biggs and Louie Gohmert as having requested pardons from Trump.
Jan. 6 committee reveals email from U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks seeking a pardon for himself and Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Committee showing witnesses testifying that Reps. Scott Perry, Louie Gohmert, Andy Biggs, Brooks, and Gaetz all allegedly sought pardons. pic.twitter.com/56MFYTqQL5
— Jake Zuckerman (@jake_zuckerman) June 23, 2022
2. The Committee claims Trump launched a pressure campaign to overturn election results.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel’s chairman, said in an opening statement that Trump’s pressure campaign to steal the election stretched to the highest levels of government, including the DOJ.
“Donald Trump didn’t just want the Justice Department to investigate. He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies,” Thompson said.
His lies? Can Donald Trump magically place more voters on the roll than citizens in the county? Can Donald Trump orchestrate a dead-of-night ballot dump in battleground states? Or is that what Democrats actually did in order to secure more votes for Biden?
Kinzinger opened his remarks by praising the witnesses for risking their careers to do the right thing and abide by their oaths to the Constitution.
“The president cannot and must not use the department to serve his own political interests,” Kinzinger said.
Oh, like how the Biden administration is using his Justice Department to attack conservative parents and Trump supporters?
3. Trump appointed allies to top Justice Department positions.
Someone call the press! Donald Trump appointed an attorney sympathetic to his fraud claims to a key Justice Department role!
As if that proves anything!
Trump pushed to appoint Jeffrey Clark, then the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, as the head of the DOJ.
Clark circulated a letter to swing-state officials urging them to appoint alternate slates of electors. The letter pushed states to “convene in special session” to appoint the fake electors.
According to one witness, Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone called Clark’s draft letter “a murder-suicide pact” and that he wanted nothing to do with it.
Cheney said that had the letter “been released on official Department of Justice letterhead, it would have falsely informed all Americans, including those who might be inclined to come to Washington on Jan. 6, that President Trump’s election fraud allegations were likely very real.”
Without any actual investigations (not the ones controlled by Democrats) into his claims, how did anyone know they weren’t real?
4. Everyone freaked out about Jeffrey Clark.
One witness claimed Trump spoke of removing acting attorney general Rosen to be replaced by Clark.
Clark later told Rosen that Trump wanted to make him the acting attorney general and offered to keep him as his deputy if he reversed his position on the election.
“I didn’t accept that offer. Let’s put it that way,” Rosen said to laughter in the committee room.
The witnesses detailed a meeting with Trump at the White House in which officials at the department threatened to resign en masse if Trump followed through on appointing Clark, leading to hundreds of resignations among department leadership over Trump’s action, and Clark would be left leading a “graveyard” at the department.
The committee showed White House documents already referring to Clark as acting attorney general even though Rosen was still in the post.
Federal investigators raided Clark’s home earlier this week in connection to an investigation over his role in attempting to overturn the election.
Long story short, the Committee’s got a big goose egg. They’re producing nothing except a nationwide hatred for lawmakers with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Author: Elizabeth Tierney
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