PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: July 21, 2022
Eight hearings reinforced what our founders forewarned: America must protect democracy from those who will destroy it in order to seize power for themselves
Washington, DC – In the eighth hearing of the January 6th Select Committee, we learned from former Trump staffers, both lifelong Republicans, how Trump “fanned the flames” as the violent attack on the Capitol unfolded. Trump sat by because the attack achieved what he could not: it stopped Congress’ count of the electoral votes.
The hearings have proven that Trump and his MAGA allies knowingly attacked our country. The committee has laid out in meticulous, comprehensive detail evidence which proves the following:
- Trump and his MAGA allies knew he’d lost the election.
- They illegally pressured VP Pence to unilaterally overturn the election.
- They illegally pressured state legislatures and election workers to overturn the election.
- They illegally pressured the Department of Justice to help them overturn the election. They knowingly sent an armed mob to the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. They were in contact with – and incited – extremist groups to come to the Capitol; and involved Republican members in the plot.
- They provoked the violence to stop the transfer of power, watched it unfold, and refused to call it off for over 3 hours because it served their purposes of preventing the peaceful transfer of power.
“The hearings have already proved that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, and paid for the violent, criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of an election they knew Trump lost,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “MAGA Republicans across the country are still plotting to have the final say in who leads us. If they’re not held accountable, they will use violence and threaten our democratic freedoms again.”
1. Trump and his MAGA allies must be held accountable for their attack on our country.
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- Committee Chair Bennie Thompson said “I fear we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy” if no one is held accountable for the criminal conspiracy.
2. Trump didn’t fail to act on January 6th, he chose not to because it helped accomplish his goal of overturning the election he knew he’d lost.
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- The former president’s ultimate goal was to reverse the outcome of the election he knew he’d lost. When his other plots didn’t work, Trump wanted to halt or delay Congress’ count of the electoral votes through any means necessary – including knowingly inciting a violent, armed mob.
- After Trump learned the violence was underway, Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany testified that he called members of Congress to encourage them to continue rejecting the results
- Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified that Trump was “pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse” with his tweet targeting Mike Pence, and that his MAGA allies “latch onto every tweet and every word he says.”
3. Multiple sources confirmed Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony that Trump had an altercation with his Secret Service detail after they would not allow him to join the attack at the Capitol.
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- Secret Service Sergeant Mark Robertson said Trump was “upset” and “adamant about going to the Capitol” following the Ellipse rally, even after being warned about armed individuals.
4. Trump rejected the pleading of staff, including members of his family, to call off his supporters attack on the Capitol to overturn the election
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- It would’ve taken Trump less than 60 seconds to get on camera and call off the violent attack he incited.
- National Security officials revealed “There were calls to say goodbye to family members and so forth,” from Pence’s security detail, who feared for their lives.
- Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, joined by Eric Herschmann and Mark Meadows, attempted to convince her dad to say “something more direct than he wanted to” in response to protesters threatening to hang Mike Pence.
- Sarah Matthews, White House staffer Judd Deere, Pat Cipollone, and aide Ben Williamson all asked Trump to release a statement on social media condemning the attack. Trump resisted calling for “peace” in his tweet to the rioters.
- Republican members of Congress also asked Trump to tell the crowd to disperse.
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The Select Committee will continue to lay out the real, overwhelming evidence gathered by non-partisan career prosecutors that proves 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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