PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: June 13, 2022
Key Takeaway: Trump Knew He Lost But Pursued Criminal Conspiracy To Overturn Election Anyway
With Compelling New Evidence and Footage, the January 6 Select Committee Laid Out How Trump Ignored His Team’s Legal Advice and Pushed Claims He Knew Were False
Washington, DC – The January 6th Select Committee presented evidence that Trump ignored the advice of his legal team and pushed election fraud claims he knew were false, even before the first votes were cast.
Trump knew he lost, the people around him repeatedly told him he lost, and he still went forward with the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results.
“Trump spent months planting false seeds of doubt about election integrity in the minds of his supporters, and after he lost the election, knowingly spread false conspiracy theories about voter fraud,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “He went to great lengths to plan and enact the criminal conspiracy to overturn the election he knew he lost based on conversations with his family, top advisors, and legal team. The January 6 Select Committee will continue laying out the evidence of this plot, and the ongoing threat against our country.”
Below are key takeaways from the first part of the hearing:
Trump made repeated claims about election fraud in the months leading up to the election and encouraged his voters to not vote by mail.
- Even before the first votes were cast, Trump repeatedly made claims of election fraud, priming his supporters to believe that the election would be stolen if he lost. Former Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, Attorney General Bill Barr and others explained the “red mirage” to Trump – that election night would show a higher number of Trump voters before mail-in ballots were cast. But Trump ignored his advisors and drummed up suspicion around mail-in voters.
On election night, Trump chose to listen to an inebriated Rudy Giuliani rather than his legal advisors and falsely declared victory.
- Despite Jason Miller, Bill Stepien, and others telling Donald Trump that it was too early to call the election in his favor, Trump chose to listen to a reportedly drunk Rudy Giuliani who urged Trump to declare a premature victory.
Experts showed that Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud were statistically impossible and debunked.
- Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor, said that Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud were impossible. Trump lawyers Matt Morgan and Eric Herschmann, Attorney General Bill Barr, and even Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner all testified that they did not believe Rudy Giuliani’s assertions of voter fraud, with Herschmann calling the conspiracy “crazy.”
Despite knowing he lost, 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.
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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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