PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: July 12, 2022
Washington, DC – In the first part of the seventh hearing of the January 6th Select Committee, we learned how after it became clear that he lost the election, Trump turned to a group of outside advisers who provided “unhinged” ideas for Trump to continue to falsely claim the election was stolen, including a proposal to have the military seize state voting machines. Ultimately, Trump incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol in a last, desperate attempt to stop the transfer of power.
“The evidence that Trump knew he lost the election is overwhelming based on what we’ve heard so far,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “Nearly everyone close to the president told him that he lost the election, but no amount of evidence could sway him from trying to overturn the will of the people.”
1. Trump tried to seize state voting machines.
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- Trump proposed two draft executive orders directing the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to “seize, collect, retain and analyze” all voting machines nationally. He planned to name unhinged fringe conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a special counsel to oversee the efforts and launch criminal prosecutions.
- Trump asked Attorney General Bill Barr to “seize the [voting] machines,” — a request Barr rejected, seeing no probable cause.
2. Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified that he did not believe there was widespread voter fraud and that he believed Trump should’ve conceded, echoing testimony from other top witnesses, including former Attorney General Bill Barr.
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- Cipollone testified, “Did I believe [Trump] should concede the election at a point in time? Yes I did.” Cipollone called Trump’s plot to seize voting machines, “a terrible idea for the country.”
- Cipollone joins the scores of other Trump advisors, White House staff, and family who told him he lost the election. Seeing no evidence of fraud, Cipollone told the Committee he believed, “at some point you have to put up or shut up.”
- White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany affirmed, “Upon the conclusion of litigation, was when I began to plan life after the administration.”
3. Trump sent out a tweet urging his followers to go to D.C. on January 6th – “Be there. Will be wild!”
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- This was a last-ditch effort to overturn the will of the people after it became clear that his lies and conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud wouldn’t lead to the outcome he wanted.
- Trump allies jumped on the tweet and began promoting the January 6th rally, some becoming openly homicidal.
- A staffer from Twitter reported, “it felt as though a mob was being organized…and they were gathering together their weaponry,” after the Dec. 19 tweet. They explained, “the leader of their cause was asking them to join him in this cause…on Jan. 6 as well.”
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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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