After Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney accused former President Trump of witness tampering on Tuesday, top Democrats on the Jan. 6 committee claim they have no idea what the Wyoming Republican is talking about.
After Cheney made the audacious claim, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee’s chairman, told reporters he had no idea to whom she was referring.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a committee member, stated that the committee was aware that Trump had attempted to reach a witness for “a couple of days,” but he also admitted that he was not aware of the witness’ identity.
Trump has not yet responded to the accusation in the media.
President Trump attempted to call a witness in our investigation after our most recent hearing.
During the committee hearing on Tuesday, January 6, Cheney made the statement without mentioning the identity of the witness.
That person informed their lawyer about President Trump’s call instead of answering or responding to it. Our attorney informed them.
And the Department of Justice has received that information from this committee.
Let me reiterate that we will take any attempts to sway witness testimony very seriously,’ the Wyoming Republican who serves as the committee’s ranking member on January 6 stated.
Additionally, in recently discovered text exchanges, Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale expressed sorrow for aiding in the president’s victory and accused him of being responsible for the death of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt.
On the evening of January 6, Parscale texted former Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, “A sitting president asking for civil war.” “I feel bad for assisting him in winning.”
Parscale texted Pierson, “A woman is dead.” You do understand that this was going to happen, she texted in response.
‘Yeah. Parscale said, “If I were Trump and knew that my rhetoric killed someone.
The rhetoric wasn’t the problem, Pierson retorted. It was Katrina, agreed Parscale.
In July 2020, Parscale was removed from his position as Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, and Bill Stepien took over in his place.
As the Jan. 6 committee aired evidence from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who claimed he encouraged Trump to concede after Dec. 14, Cheney referred to the argument that former President Trump was duped into believing the election had been stolen from him as “nonsense” and dismissed it.
The representative claimed that the committee had observed a “change” in the manner taken by witnesses and attorneys who supported Trump.
According to Cheney, “today there appears to be a general recognition that the committee has established key facts, including that nearly everyone close to President Trump – his Justice Department officials, his White House advisors, his White House Counsel, and his campaign – all told him the 2020 election was not stolen.”
She claimed that as a result, Trump’s defense team was forced to “adjust the plan.”
Now, it appears that the president was duped by people outside the administration, convinced to disregard his closest advisers, and unable to distinguish between right and wrong.
This new tactic seeks to place the blame solely on John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Congressman Scott Perry, or other individuals rather than President Trump.
Of course, this is absurd. The 76-year-old President Trump is a male. He is not a kid who is easily influenced.
In addition, Cheney stated that Pat Cipollone’s testimony “matched our expectations” as a former White House attorney.
She stated that the charges of electoral fraud between the November election and January 6 would be the main topic of the hearing on Tuesday.
At the hearing on Tuesday, clips from Cipollone’s videotaped deposition were shown.
The committee presented a clip where Cipollone said that by mid-December, after numerous court rulings had been against the former president, he had persuaded him to drop his charges of electoral fraud.
Did I think he ought to have conceded the election at one point? Indeed I did.
For defying Trump’s orders and recognizing Joe Biden’s victory in the election on January 6, the former White House counsel said that former Vice President Mike Pence was deserving of the Medal of Freedom.
“I believe the Vice President acted appropriately.” He, in my opinion, acted courageously. He deserves a lot of respect from me.
According to numerous reports, Cipollone and his group threatened the former president with resignation in response to his allegations of electoral fraud.
He reportedly made it extremely apparent to the committee that he didn’t believe Trump and his allies were behind the plot.
Cipollone claimed that Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff who has declined to appear before the committee, advised him that there was no substantial proof of fraud and that Trump should give up.
Cipollone was questioned regarding Meadows’ assurance that Trump will depart politely.
“I would argue that is a claim and a sentiment that Mark Meadows expressed…
It wasn’t a one-off declaration.
The committee attempted to make the point that trusted members of Trump’s inner circle were not on his side with regard to election fraud, and he chose to ignore them.
Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, and Kayleigh McEnany, his press secretary, both said they believed the fight was over after legal battles concluded unsuccessfully in mid-December.
According to McEnany, “I believe that with the conclusion of litigation I started to plan for life beyond the administration.”
Ivanka remarked, “I think it was my sentiment, perhaps previously as well,” in reaction to the Justice Department’s conclusion that there was no wrongdoing.
Cipollone claimed he “supported that finding” that there was no widespread fraud, which was reached by Attorney General Bill Barr.
Cipollone claimed that he received a call on December 18 informing him that several outside advisors had been at the president’s office to talk about electoral fraud.
Gen. Michael Flynn, a close confidant of the former president who once dated a Russian spy, Sidney Powell, and Michael Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, attended the conference.
I observed Gen. Flynn. Sidney Powell was sat there, as I noticed. I didn’t like seeing the individuals in the Oval Office.
First of all, I had no idea who the Overstock representative was. Who are you, I asked him as I turned to face him.
A lower-level staff member took them to the president’s office, but Powell claimed she didn’t know if they could have a private meeting with him. Then Cipollone started to run.
In a clip from her testimony that was broadcast, Powell remarked, “I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) claimed that the committee had met with six attendees of the discussion on election fraud on December 18.
Raskin claimed that the dispute that followed was “heated and obscene” and included “challenges to physically fight.”
Rudy Giuliani, a former personal attorney for Donald Trump, claims in a video of his testimony that he told White House lawyers they weren’t “tough enough” and a “bunch of p***ies” for saying there wasn’t enough proof of election fraud.
Raskin claimed that following the chaotic meeting, Trump tweeted an invitation to his followers to visit the Capitol on January 6: It will be crazy, wrote Trump.
Cipollone slammed Sidney Powell, an attorney representing Trump, for suggesting that Trump issue an executive order seizing polling machines that his team considered to be involved in fraud.
In my opinion, there comes a time when you either have to put up or shut up. to have voting equipment seized by the federal government?
That is a bad concept for the nation. In the US, we don’t operate that way. No one has the right to do it, according to Cipollone.
Bill Barr, a former attorney general, claimed that when Trump presented him with a draft executive order to seize voting machines around the country, he promptly rejected it.
In his videotaped deposition, Barr remarked, “Some people believe we can get to the bottom of this if the department sees the machines — it was his standard manner of raising the topic.”
“I said without a doubt.” There is no plausible reason, thus we won’t be seizing any equipment.
I don’t understand why we even have to tell you that’s a poor idea, Cipollone continued. It’s a terrible idea.
Then, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy released texts from former Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson warning Meadows that the “Save America” event on January 6 might turn violent.
She claimed that some of the ‘crazies’ speaking at his rally did so because Trump adored them.
In her recorded testimony regarding her texts, Pierson expressed special worry for right-wing broadcasters Alex Jones and Ali Alexander, saying that “he admired individuals who viciously defended him in public.”
Stephen Ayres, one of the two Tuesday witnesses for the January 6 committee who participated in the Capitol disturbance on January 6, claimed that he had not intended to travel to the US Capitol when he went to Donald Trump’s “Stop The Steal” protest on the White House ellipse.
Ayres responded, “The president got people fired up… we were just following what he said,” when asked why he altered his views.
He claimed that Trump’s social media pleading was what motivated him to travel to Washington, DC, that particular day.
Ayres claimed that he didn’t make up his mind to leave until late in the day, when Trump tweeted a request for the rioters to return home.
According to several witnesses, they wanted Trump to publicly end the riots far earlier.
We essentially departed as soon as President Trump’s tweet was published, according to Ayres.
I believe that if he had done that earlier in the day, about 1:30, we might not be in this unfortunate scenario right now.
Ayres, who no longer thinks Trump’s victory was stolen, said it “makes me crazy” that Trump continues to support long-since refuted election fraud accusations.
I eagerly awaited each word. I was listening to what he said and acting on it.
I mean, if I was doing it, millions or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people were probably doing it, and they might still be.
Ayres remarked that he felt as though he had “horse blinders on.”
He said that I was imprisoned the entire time. Ayres has admitted guilt to the accusations against him for taking part in the riot that day, but no sentence has been given.
Rep. Jamie Raskin delivered a harrowing recap at the hearing’s end.
Raskin remarked that in comparison to this attack on our citizens and institutions, the Watergate break-in was like a Cub Scout meeting.
He said the hearing the next week “will be a moment of reckoning.”
It is the panel’s seventh hearing, and the only one this week is anticipated in light of allegations made last week by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson that Trump directed his supporters toward the Capitol while knowing they were armed and got into a physical altercation with his security detail when Secret Service agents prevented him from joining the mob.
Raskin said Cipollone supported “virtually everything” that came up in the panel’s most recent six sessions, including Hutchinson’s shocking story, according to NBC News.
The Maryland Democrat added, “I didn’t see any inconsistency there. He had the option to say whatever he wanted to say.”
He and Stephanie Murphy, a fellow Democrat, will preside over the hearing on Tuesday.
It was announced on Tuesday that the January 6 committee will have a private meeting with former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne at the end of this week.
According to CNN, Byrne, a close associate of Donald Trump’s, attended a meeting at the White House on December 18 where the president and a group of formal and informal advisers discussed ways to rig the results of the 2020 election.
In 2019, he was forced to resign from his role as the company’s chief executive after admitting that he had a romantic relationship with Maria Butina, a woman who had been found guilty of being a Russian agent.
The hearing for the House Select Committee looking into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 will center on the December 18 meeting on Tuesday in the afternoon.
According to reports, Byrne’s Friday meeting with lawmakers won’t have any restrictions.
DailyMail.com has requested confirmation from the January 6 committee.
The committee’s standard procedure calls for a deposition to be conducted behind closed doors as a first step before considering holding a public hearing.
In Tuesday’s report, it was unclear whether Byrne would be testifying before the panel for the first time or if he would be sworn in.
The former CEO has been charged with deliberately promoting Trump’s unfounded assertions that President Joe Biden would win the 2020 race if it were “rigged.”
In addition to Byrne, former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as his discredited former national security advisor Michael Flynn, were present for the Oval Office meeting.
White House officials and the former president’s conspiracy theorist followers engaged in “fighting” and yelling battles during the “forceful” encounter, according to CNN.
According to committee staffers, ideas discussed at the meeting included confiscating voting machines for government examination and appointing Powell as a special counsel to look into electoral fraud.
It wasn’t until Tuesday that it was revealed Byrne had attended the meeting.