PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: June 23, 2022
“This is the smoking gun” – Eric Holder on Trump pressuring the DOJ to ‘just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.’
“Saturday Night Massacre x 1000” – Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General
“This was a devastating hearing.” – David Axelrod
“former Trump advisers acknowledging this testimony is quite grim.” – Maggie Haberman
Washington, DC – Here’s what journalists, legal experts, Committee members, and other experts are saying about the fifth hearing of the January 6th Select Committee.
Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, @EricHolder:
Trump – “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen”. This is the smoking gun. Coupled with other testimony demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind.
David Axelrod, @davidaxelrod:
This was a devastating hearing. The account of Trump’s frantic, attempted coup at the Justice Department as a prelude to a larger coup was stunning.
The plotting of members of Congress to facilitate it–and then to seek premptive pardons-was telling and vile.
Neal Katyal, Georgetown law professor and former Acting U.S. Solicitor General, @neal_katyal: Saturday Night Massacre x 1000
Maggie Haberman, New York Times Senior Political Reporter, @maggieNYT:
Have heard from several former Trump advisers acknowledging this testimony is quite grim.
Jake Tapper, CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, CNN (Video): A very disturbing day of testimony.
Jonathan Turley, GWU law professor, Fox News (Video): I think they are making a much stronger case than we knew.
Igor Bobic, HuffPost Senior Politics Reporter, @igorbobic:
This is one of the craziest hearings yet. The whole drama inside the DOJ – assistant AGs pledging they would resign if Rosen goes, for one – could be its own movie.
Pod Save America, @PodSaveAmerica:
So to recap, the Republicans who requested pardons were:
– Rep. Gaetz
– Rep. Biggs
– Rep. Perry
– Rep. Gohmert
– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
– Mr. Brooks
Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, @EricHolder:
Those pushing the appointment of clearly unqualified Clark to be AG are part of the conspiracy.
Zac Petkanas, President of Petkanas Strategies, @Zac_Petkanas:
Three current members of the House Judiciary Committee asked for pardons.
Gaetz, Biggs, and Gohmert.
They were so worried they’d broken the law in helping overturn the election that they asked for pre-emptive pardons. What’s McCarthy got to say?
Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, @EricHolder:
All lawyers involved in the plot to stop the transfer of power as part of the 1/6 conspiracy must be disbarred.
Katie Benner, New York Times Justice Department Reporter, @ktbenner:
The fact that the WH had begun referring to Clark as the acting attorney general on the afternoon of Jan. 3 should give us pause. The WH and Trump also knew that Clark was ready to send that letter to Georgia. That’s how close US came to seeing an election thrown into utter chaos
Ryan Goodman, former Defense Department Special Counsel, @rgoodlaw:
This is otherwise known as President Trump’s taking an affirmative step —an “overt action”— in furtherance of scheme (to use language of criminal conspiracy).
Rosen testified Clark said Trump offered him job of acting A.G. and accepted it (to send corrupt letter)
New evidence👇
Hugo Lowell, Congressional Reporter for The Guardian, @hugolowell:
NEW: Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark about his plan to help Trump overturn 2020 election, per testimony — “Congratulations. You just admitted your first act as Attorney General would be committing a felony.”
Kyle Griffin, MSNBC Executive Producer, @kylegriffin1:
Officials in Trump’s Defense Department — Kash Patel and acting Secretary Christopher Miller — were pushing to investigate insane claims of U.S. vote manipulation out of Italy.
David Axelrod, @davidaxelrod:
Beginning to see why @RepScottPerry was fishing for a pardon.
Ashley Schapitl, Senate Finance Committee Chief Communications Advisor, @AshleySchapitl:
It’s more clear with every hearing but Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans’ refusal to bar Trump from running again was such a betrayal of the country. What we heard today was complete insanity.
Jay Rosen, NYU professor of journalism, @jayrosen_nyu:
Akin to @AdamSerwer’s “the cruelty is the point…”
A striking thing about the hearings is how utterly thin, weak and shambolic Trump’s “evidence” was. Embarrassing to all but the most obsequious. But that was the point. The piss poor quality of the proof was his toady finder.
Manu Raju, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent, @mkraju:
Sean Penn in attendance at Jan. 6 hearing. Says: “I’m just here to observe — just another citizen.” Penn: “I think we all saw what happened on January 6 and now we’re looking to see if justice comes on the other side of it,” per @AnnieGrayerCNN
Defend Democracy Project, @DemocracyNowUS:
As @RepLizCheney said in her opening remarks: “There is much more evidence to come.”
We must continue to follow the facts wherever they lead. No one is above the law in the United States. #Jan6Justice
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The Select Committee will continue to lay out real evidence gathered by non-partisan career prosecutors proving that Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy to overturn an election they lost.
This criminal conspiracy extends well beyond the violence perpetrated on January 6, 2021, that injured 140 police officers, including making it harder for people to vote, attempting to appoint bogus electors to overturn the will of voters, and intimidating state officials to change the results in contested states.
Getting to the truth during these hearings and then demanding accountability at the courts and the ballot box is how we stop the current MAGA campaign to sabotage future elections by changing state laws, threatening state officials, and packing election administration offices so that they can have the final say over election results – even when they lose.
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