>> The President's intent was to stay
in power at all costs.
>> This election was stolen.
>> I flat out said, I swore an oath.
I'm t gonna break it.
I'm not putting on no stinking circus.
>> They put their faith in Donald
Trump
and he deceived them.
>> I don't think, by any large stretch,
can you characterize it as bipartisan.
>> The Select Committee laid the path
down
for the Department of Justice.
>> Donald Trump is going to be the
defendant and the candidate.
It's hard to imagine how it's going to play out.
>> Now on FRONTLINE,
Democracy on Trial.
>> FRONTLINE is made possible by contributions
to your PBS station from viewers like you.
Thank you.ic Broadcasting.
Additional support is provided by The Abrams Foundation
committed to excellence in journalism...
Park Foundation, dedicated to heightening
public awareness of critical issues...
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation
committed to building a more just,
verdant and peaceful world.
More at macfound.org.
The Heising-Simons Foundation, unlocking
knowledge, opportunity and possibilities.
At HSFoundation.org.
And by the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund,
with major support from Jon and Jo
Ann Hagler.
And additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen, committed
to bridging cultural differences in our communities.
Additional support for this program is provided by the
Jonathan Logan Family Foundation
empowering world-changing work.
♪ ♪
>> An historic day here in Washington.
A federal grand jury here has indicted
former President Donald Trump...
>> Mr. Trump is charged with three counts of conspiracy
and one count of obstruction.
>> This is the third criminal case
brought against
the former president this year.
>> He will now head to appear in federal
court
for the arraignment.
This was not quite the return to Washington
this former president had envisioned for himself.
♪ ♪
>> We were getting ready to win this
election.
Frankly, we did winhis election.
(cheers and applause)
♪ ♪
(siren blaring)
I won this election by hundreds of
thousands of votes.
There's no way I lost Georgia, there's
no way.
I only need 11,000 votes fellas
I need 11,000 votes. Give ma break.
♪ ♪
(sirens blaring)
Make no mistake, this election was stolen
from you, from me, from the country.
♪ ♪
And we fight.
We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell
you're not going to have a country
anymore.
(camera shutter clicks)
(typewriter keys echoing)
>> NARRATOR: For the first time in
American history--
a president charged with crimes in
office.
♪ ♪
>> A major development in Special
Counsel
Jack Smith's investigation into former
president Trump.
>> Special Counsel Jack Smith will
make remarks
at a news conference from
the Justice Department shortly.
>> This is a climactic moment, certainly,
in this investigation.
>> An indictment was unsealed
charging Donald J. Trump with conspiring
to defraud the United States
conspiring to disenfranchise voters,
and conspiring and attempting to obstruct
an official proceeding.
Since the attack on our Capitol, the Department of Justice
has remained committed to ensuring
accountability
for those criminally responsible for
what happened that day.
>> Jack Smith is sort of like the,
uh... (clears throat)
central casting career federal prosecutor.
He's been doing this for 20 years.
He has a reputation for being thorough
and methodical.
He's fairly aggressive but not reckless
aggressive.
He's a very formidable opponent for Trump's lawyers.
>> In this case, my office will seek
a speedy trial
so that our evidence can be tested in court
and judged by a jury of citizens.
>> NARRATOR: In the middle of a presidential
election
a critical moment for American democracy.
>> It lands us right in the middle
of a presidential campaign.
It is unavoidably going to be tainted
with the appearance of politics at
play.
Obviously, that's the card that Donald Trump will play.
>> They waited right to the middle
of an election
until I became the dominant force
in the polls.
I got indicted over bull (bleep).
I got indicted. Bull (bleep).
I get indicted for saying the election was rigged.
>> If he's convicted
then he's, you know, running for president
as someone who has been found guilty of federal crimes.
>> I love that mugshot.
I love that beautiful woman right there with a mugshot.
>> To say the stakes for that trial
are high
doesn't even begin to cover it, really.
We often, in the media
use the phrase
"trial of the century"
for this sensational trial
or that one.
But really, this would be, I think,
the trial of the century.
Because I cannot imagine anything more important
th a former president on trial
charged with trying to subvert American
democracy.
(sirens blaring)
(indistinct radio chatter)
>> Tensions are still high
following the chaos at the Capitol.
>> NARRATOR: The federal indictment
has its roots in the aftermath
of the January 6th attack.
>> The chaos here has aken the U.S.
Capitol
and the country.
>> Our nation's capital under a state of emergency
under a city-wide lockdown.
>> NARRATOR: In Congress there were
calls to create
a blue-ribbon bipartisan commission.
>> ...a 9/11 style commission to look
into
the causes of the attack.
>> A bill to create a bipartisan commission
faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
>> What was amazing was that the Senate
Republicans
refused to do that.
To do what Congress has done in many previous incidents
of great national catastrophe or crisis
or controversy
which is to create a bipartisan special committee
across both chambers.
>> NARRATOR: Republicans in Congress
led by Senator Mitch McConnell wouldn't
support
forming a commission at might go after
Trump.
>> Leader McConnell almost instinctively
goes into damage control mode.
He's not necessarily gonna go out on a limb
when the rest of his caucus isn't
going to go with him.
>> NARRATOR: In the face of Republican opposition
the Democratic Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi
created a committee of her own.
>> Morning.
With great solemnity and sadness,
I'm announcing that the House will be establishing
a select committee on the January 6th insurrection.
>> The House of Representatives today
did what the Senate would not--
voted to create a select committee.
>> It was the hope of Pelosi and the
Democratic majority
that they'd be able to pick off
at least some Republican support,
that there wouldn't be that great
a pushback,
but, in fact, there was.
And in the end only two Republicans
voted for the formation of that committee.
In fact, those two Republicans Adam
Kinzinger and Liz Cheney,
were the two Republicans who ended up serving
on the committee.
>> The fact that Liz Cheney and Adam
Kinzinger are the only two House Republicans
who believe that we should know what
happened on January 6th
that people should obey subpoenas from Congress,
that people should provide documents
when requested--
th's itself incredibly astonishing.
>> NARRATOR: They would spend a year
and a half
examining the evidence.
Tim Heaphy was the chief investigator.
A former U.S. attorney
Heaphy led the independent review
of the violence in Charlottesville
in 2017
and was now taking on January 6th.
>> We ended up hiring, I think it
was
14 or 15 former prosecutors.
Lawyers that have the skill set to
interview witnesses
to digest a large amount of documents
and to sort of discern what's relevant,
and separate that from what's not.
That skill set is developed largely
by trying cases,
by investigating cases
in federal and local prosecutors'
offices.
>> NARRATOR: They conducted more than
1,000 interviews.
>> The House Select Committee is shifting
into high gear
preparing to do battle
with some pretty big names in the Trump world.
>> NARRATOR: Reviewed millions of
documents...
>> The House Committee
probing the January 6th Capitol riot
has issued ten new subpoenas.
>> NARRATOR: Thousands of hours of
video evidence.
>> These subpoenas brings the focus
to the actions of former president
Donald Trump
in the days and weeks leading up to the insurrection.
>> They're con people.
They're con artists.
>> NARRATOR: From the beginning Trump
denounced the committee.
>> The Select Committee on January...
You know, like these people are legitimate.
Every one of them
is a radical left hater.
>> The committee issued a subpoena
to none other than
former president Trump himself.
>> NARRATOR:He refused to cooperate.
>> Trump suing the January 6th committee
to block a subpoena for his testimony...
>> NARRATOR: And while many of his
aides did testify,
others followed his lead.
>> Criminal contempt charges
against former White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows.
>> Peter Navarro refusing to cooperate
with the January 6th committee...
>> NARRATOR: The committee's final report spans 692 pages
a case against Donald Trump.
A blueprint for Special Counsel Jack
Smith.
>> We saw our work
as the first step in a process
and not the end of the process.
It's very clear that the select committee
laid the path down for the Department
of Justice.
>> The January 6th case that will
be heard
in Judge Chutkan's courtroom in Washington,
D.C.,
has the most striking resemblance
to what
unspooled itself from the January
6th committee.
The basis of the indictment
looks like a carbon copy
of what the January 6th committee
uncovered.
>> A lot of the evidence that we uncovered
is now in the hands of the Department
of Justice.
I just think all what we see now
is a by-product of the wor
of the January select committee.
>> NARRATOR: Bennie Thompson--
a longtime Democratic congressman--
chaired the committee.
>> Bennie Thompson is a Mississippi
congressman
a Black man who grew up during
the Civil Rights era in Mississippi
during the last vestiges of Jim Crow...
>> ♪ Glory, glory hallelujah ♪
>>..and saw how hard-fought
the franchise to vote was
for so many Black Americans.
>> NARRATOR: In January 6th, Thompson
saw parallels.
>> One of the symbols of Southern resistance
to voting rights and equal oppounity
was the Confederate battle flag.
(crowd clamoring)
And to see that flag
being waved by many of the protestors
brought back those memories.
>> When he saw rioters storm the Capitol,
carrying the Confederate battle flag,
essentially trying to take away the
votes
of the American people...
>> (crowd chanting): Fight for Trump!
>> ...that I know affected him profoundly.
And certainly was a driving factor
in the way
that he led the select committee.
>> NARRATOR: Thompson's committee
had gathered a trove of information.
The challenge: what do with it.
>> The one thing that we knew
was the information that we have
is compelling.
The thing we needed to do was tell that
to the American people in a compelling
way.
So that's why we brought in a former president of ABC News.
>> Yeah, I got a call pretty much
out of the blue
from the January the 6th committee.
They wanted, they wanted a storyteller.
And while they were brilliant, they were brilliant lawyers,
storytelling for a mass audience is
not what they do.
>> To bring in a guy like this
who would think outside the box really
did prove to be fruitful.
And it was Goldston who really began to envision this as,
in a way, a kind of miniseries that
there would be, you know,
sort of nine episodes,
and that these episodes would tackle
particular themes.
>> "Attack on the Capitol: The Investigation."
>> NARRATOR: The first hearing was
primetime television.
>> ...the nation is about to witness a defining moment.
The first hearing before the country
the results of the January 6th investigation.
>> This is an extraordinary moment
in American history.
>> When it came to that first hearing
we knew how high the stakes were.
>> ...is about to hold its first primetime hearing.
>> We were either going to you know,
make people realize
that this is important you know
or once you've lost them you've lost
them for good.
>> On the evening of June 9, 8:01
p.m., the drs opened.
My heart was beating pretty fast on June 9
and it was a real question of is this
going to work or not?
>> All right everybody, here we go, five on the line please.
>> I'm in this tiny control room
right up the stairs from Cannon Caucus.
And we count down to the start the
hearing
and at that point, what can you do?
>> Here we go, in three, two, one.
>> The select committee to investigate
the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol
will be in order.
>> We wanted to make sure
that this was a presentation that
would grab the audience
and hold onto 'em.
Chairman Thompson loved to say "It's
gotta pop!" >> NARRATOR: To get it to "pop" they
had just the thing.
>> Donald Trump lost the presidential
election in 2020.
Don't believe me?
Hear what his former attorney general
had to say about it.
>> (on video): Not just what I...
I'd been through,
I've had... I had three discussions
with the president
that I can recall.
>> NARRATOR: Former Attorney General
Bill Barr.
>> This is the Attorney General of the United States of America.
For him to come forth under oath,
I think was very powerful.
>> (on video): I made it clear I did
not agree with
the idea of saying the election was
stolen
and putting out this stuff
which I told the president was bull (bleep).
>> Bill Barr, who had been hated by the left,
and who had been beloved by Trump all the way
until December of 2020
to hear him say, mincing no words
that there was all this bull (bleep)
that was being perpetrated by Trump
made you realize that ay
we're now about to walk into
a portal of evidence that is um, that is in fact different
than everything else.
>> NARRATOR: Following Barr: shocking
video.
>> Most of the footage we are about
to play
has never been seen.
The select committee obtained it as
a part of our investigation.
(shouting) >> Hold thline!
Hold the line! Hold the line!
>> Break the line! (shouting)
>> We have a breach of the Capitol
breach of the Capitol, on the upper
level!
>> We can't hold this, we're gonna get
too many (bleep) people.
Look at this (bleep) vantage point-- we're (bleep).
>> We need to hold the doors of the
Capitol.
(shouting)
I need (indistinct) support!
(shouting)
We lost the line!
We've lost the line!
All MPD fall back.
(on video): All MPD fall back up to
the upper deck!
All MPD fall back to the upper deck, ASAP!
(crowd shouting on video)
(crowd chanting "Nancy")
>> In the room that moment
we had officers that had
been there on January 6.
(crowd shouting on video)
(indistinct shouting struggling)
(shouting, struggling continue)
>> There was a real gravity that
we wanted to bring to that first hearing,
that that video
really put in perspective for us there.
>> ...get him out, get him up!
Get him up!
Officer down! >> Get him up!
(officers shouting) >> Get him up!
>> Hold up! Hold up! >> Get him up!
(shouting continues)
>> I don't think anyone, until that
footage was shown
had really fully understood the violence of the day.
(crowd cheering)
(crowd shouting)
>> Help!
(shouting continues on video)
>> Those law enforcement personnel,
here are people who were sworn
to protect the Capitol
come to work on that day too just
that,
and they are assaulted.
(crowd cheering on video)
>> NARRATOR: Paying special attention to the hearing
Donald Trump who responded on his own
social media platform.
>> (dramatized): The so-called "Rush
on the Capitol"
was not caused by me
it was caused by a rigged and stolen
election!
(indistinct radio chatter)
>> NARRATOR: The committee continued
laying out
its evidence to the contrary.
>> The attack on our Capitol
was not a spontaneous riot.
President Trump summoned the mob
assembled the mob,
and lit the flame of this attack.
>> NARRATOR: Vice chair at the hearing:
Liz Cheney a lifelong Republican
and rock-ribbed conservative.
>> ...or destroy by force, the government...
>> I chose Liz Cheney as my vice chair.
she had Republican credibility in
the broader sense.
So you take an African American liberal
and a white female conservative
to lead this committee.
>> Liz Cheney is Republican royalty
in many ways.
She's the daughter of Dick Cheney,
the vice president.
She's very conservative, she represents Wyoming.
No one would mistake her for a liberal,
but she also was someone
who broke very publicly with Donald
Trump.
>> And there is no RINO in America
who has thrown in
her lot with the radical left more
than Liz Cheney.
(crowd booing)
She has gone crazy!
>> I will do everything I can to ensure
the former president
never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.
>> She's been so strong on
"We need to have the truth about January
6. "We need to have the truth about
"what happened before January 6.
We can't have Trump again, he can't
be president again."
>> I talked to her about what was
motivating her.
And she said every time she sees the
video...
>> (crowd chanting): ...Mike Pence!
>> ...of Mike Pence being rushed to
safety
for fear of his life on January 6...
>> Evacuate so we can
secure the members on the other side,
copy!
>> ...she saw, in her mind the image of her father.
>> A plane has just crashed
into the World Trade Center here in
New York City.
(explosion) >> Oh, my God!
>> That looks like a second plane.
>> Dick Cheney the vice president
being rushed away from his office
in the White House to theunker on 9/11.
>> It is one of the darkest days in
America
attacked in an act of terrorist war.
>> Tremendously sad day,
insurrectionists have stormed the
U.S. Capitol
and they have been cheered on by the president.
>> And suddenly I got it.
Suddenly I got it-- for her, this
was what Al Qaeda
and 9/11 were to her father.
To the extent that her father became
really quite driven
by his view of the mission to protect
America after 9/11,
she saw her mission the same way
to protect America from Donald Trump.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Now helping to lead the
January 6th committee,
Cheney was determined to lay out the
case
against Donald Trump.
>> Over multiple months,
Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated
a sophisticated plan
to overturn the esidential election
and prevent the transfer of presidential power.
>> In the very first hearing she kind of laid out
the theory of the case, right,
the opening statement where she
puts forth this multi-part plan.
I think that will sound very much like
Jack Smith's opening statement in the trial in March.
It is a summary of how all of this fits togetr.
>> In our hearings you will see evidence
of each element of this plan.
>> Frankly we did win this election.
(crowd cheering) We did win this election.
>> Donald Trump and his advisors
knew that he had in fact lost the
election,
but despite this
you will see evidence that President Trump
corruptly pressured state legislators
and election officials to change election
results.
(telephone dialing out picks up)
>> I only need 11,000 votes!
Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give
me a break.
(telephone hangs up)
♪ ♪
>> What you saw at that hearing,
methodically laid out by Liz Cheney,
showed that it wasn't just some sort
of like random,
off the cuff impulsive actions on
his part,
but that there was in fact, a strategy
and a pattern and a methology to what
he was doing.
>> President Trump's efforts
to pressure Vice President Pence to
act illegally likely violated two federal criminal
statutes.
>> Because if Mike Pence does the
right thing
we win the election.
>> If I could have been a fly on the
wall
in the Department of Justice during
that,
I certainly probably expect everybody
sat up and took notice
of what she said after that.
>> In our final hearings you will hear
how President Trump summoned a violent
mob
and directed them, illegally
to march on the United States Capitol.
>> We fight like hell,
and if you don't fight like hell,
you're not going to have a country
any more.
♪ ♪
>> And with that the committee stands adjourned.
(bangs gavel)
>> NARRATOR: The hearings got the public's attention.
>> The first primetime January 6th hearing
laying the foundation for a specific
case against Trump.
>> The House Committee
went into graphic detail on the results of...
>> To put it crassly
the January 6th committee was a ratings hit.
>> From NBC News January 6th revelations
will
"blow the roof off the House."
>> The very first one,
the primetime viewing was at 19.4 million
which was really, really remarkable.
>> Huge-- surprisingly huge numbers last night
that's on par with events like Sunday Night Football games.
There were still multiple, multip, brand-new revelations
last night that took us by surprise.
>> NARRATOR: But for his supporters
Trump had a different story.
>> (dramatized): The unselect committee of political hacks
refuses to play any of the many positive
witnesses and statements.
>> It's a broadside.
And it's not just one broadside,
it is a continuous series of broadsides.
>> (dramatized): Bill Barr was a weak
and frightened
attorney general who was always being
"played"
and threatened by the Democrats.
>> It's just so relentless
it's so constant, it's so loud
that in parts of MAGA America,
that MAGA barrage drowns out anything
else.
>> (dramatized): Warmongering and despicable human being
Liz Cheney
who is hated by...
>> NARRATOR: And on the conservative
airwaves,
they ampfied Trump's message.
>> Every news network
in this country but this one
faithfully surrendered its entire prime time lineup.
The effect was North Korean, every
channel the same.
>> A full-on Hollywood multimedia extravaganza.
>> ...to prosecute Trump with this show trial
with this kangaroo court...
>> I don't think really by any large
stretch,
can you characterize it as bipartisan.
And this is, I guess a consequence of bigger issues
about the evenly divided country that we're in
and extreme partisanship in the political
process.
>> Can they show us one damned sentence
in the hundreds of thousands of documents
that they have collected
the thousand witnesses they've had--
anything, anywhere that links Donald
Trump to directing
or ordering an attack
on the Capitol building?
Where is it?
>> If you're talking to somebody who's
deep in MAGA America
they didn't pay attention to the January 6th commission.
They were told not to pay attention
to it.
That whatever was going to come out
it was going to be fake or fake news.
And this is the way a lot of Americans
live their lives.
It's not just red Americans, blue Americans as well.
We, we live in bubbles.
And this is the way millions upon
millions of Americans live.
(siren blaring)
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: In the weeks that followed
the committee laid out the details
of their case.
>> This morning we'll tell the story
of how Donald Trump
lost an election and knew he lost
an election
and as a result of his loss
decided to wage an attack on our democracy.
>> NARRATOR: A central question:
what the president knew and when he
knew it.
>> For a long time people who have
pursued Donald Trump
tripped up on the question of whether
they could prove
that he knew what he was doing was wrong
or that he knew what he was saying
was a lie.
The January 6th committee got past
that
by demonstrating that he was told,
time and time again,
that he did not win the election--
not by Democrats
not by the media but by his own people.
>> I want to start by showing a video
that tells the story
of what was going on in the Trump
White House
on election night in November of 2020.
>> (on video): The Fox News Decision Desk
is calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
That is a big get for the Biden campaign.
>> Arizona is called do you remember
that?
>> I do.
>> What do you remember happening
where you were when Arizona was called?
>> Um, I, uh, there was surprise at
the call.
>> After Fox News called Arizona for
Biden
there was discussion about whether President Trump
should say something and should declare victory.
The consensus of almost all of his advisors
was that he should not.
>> It was far too early
to be making any calls like that.
Um, ballots, ballots were still being
counted.
Ballots were still going to be counted for days
and it was far too early
to be making any proclamation like
that.
>> The professionals on his
campaign staff are telling him
you know
"We can't claim victory,
"either, you know, you lost or we
have to at least wait and see what's going to happen."
And Trump makes the choice that he
wants to listen instead
to Rudy Giuliani.
>> Were you part of any discussions
about whether the president should make
any sort of speech on election night?
>> I, I mean I spoke
to the president.
They may have been present but the
president--
but I spoke to the president several
times that night.
>> NARRATOR: Rudy Giuliani's advice
was very different
than that of Trump's political advisors.
>> His personal lawyer Giuliani, tells
Trump,
"Keep fighting.
"We will have a legal crusade,
"a political crusade
to keep you in power."
Trump loves the idea.
>> Rudy Giuliani is one of
the most prominent figures in American
politics
in the last 25 years
who is remembered fondly for his leadership
post-9/11.
>> But over the years he drifted towards
Donald Trump.
Towards being someone that would be essentially
a yes man to Donald Trump
and some of his worst impulses.
>> NARRATOR: And on election night,
Giuliani insisted Trump should fight.
>> The president ignores the sound
advice
that he's getting from Bill Stepien
from the political professionals around
him
and he's listening to
one voice that is telling him something
different,
and that's Giuliani saying
"You should go out there and declare
victory."
>> And did anybody disagree
with your message?
>> Yes. >> Who was that?
>> The president disagreed with that.
Hehought I was wrong he told me so,
and, you know, that they were going
to, you know, go in a--
you know, he was gonna go in a different
direction.
(cheers and applause)
>> I think the most dangerous speech
that Donald Trump ever gave
was not the one that he gave on January 6.
I think it's the speech that he gave
at 2:30 in the morning
the night of the election.
>> This is a fraud on the American
public.
This is an embarrassment to our country.
We were getting ready to win this election.
Frankly, we did win this election.
(cheers and applause) We did win this election.
>> Trump knew that the trends looked
bad.
Trump knew that there were hundreds of thousands of votes
still to be counted
and he came out and he said,
"Frankly we did win the election."
>> We want all voting to stop.
We don't want them to find any ballots
at 4:00 in the morning
and add them to the list.
Okay? (cheers and applause)
>> NARRATOR: In the years since, Trump
has claimed that he believed what he said that
night.
>> I saw what happened.
I watched that election, and I thought
the election
was over at 10:00 the evening.
>> NARRATOR: But according to the
committee
his claims of fraud were part of a
well-established plan.
>> The moment when he said "Frankly, I won this election,"
was telegraphed many, many times
and throughout the campaign
of 2020,
he repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy
of the outcome,
cast doubt on absentee ballots et cetera.
>> As early as April 2020,
Mr. Trump claimed that the only way
he could lose an election
would be as a result of fraud.
>> (on video): The only way we're gonna lose this election
is if the election is rigged.
Remember that, it's the only way
we're going to lose this election.
This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen.
Did you see what's going on?
Take a look at West Virginia mailmen selling the ballots,
they're being sold they're being dumped
in rivers.
This is a horrible thing for our country.
>> There is no-- there is no evidence of that.
>> This is not going to end well.
>> NARRATOR: For the January 6th committee,
it was crucial evidence of Trump's intent.
>> He makes numerous speeches and,
and TV...
comments in TV interviews.
>> You're going to see corruption
like you've never seen, you're going
to see a rigged election.
It'll be the greatest rigged election in history
it'll be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated.
>> It's all a big fraud.
>> It's a crooked deal it's a rigged
deal
new ballots are coming out that are
thrown in garbage cans
with the name Trump on it.
>> This was part of the scheme of
getting his supporters
sensitized to the fact that
"There's going to be some fraud here."
>> Because the only way they're going to win
is by a rigged election, I really
believe that.
>> This is a pattern for Trump.
He has done this every step of the
way through his career
long before potics.
>> My name's Donald Trump,
and I'm the largest real estate developer
in New York.
>> When "The Apprentice" lost an Emmy
to "The Amazing Race,"
he claimed that the Emmy contest was
rigged.
>> (dramatized): "Amazing Race" winning
an Emmy again
is a total joke.
The Emmys have no credibility. (Twitter chime)
The Emmys are all politics
that's why "The Apprentice" never
won. (Twitter chime)
>> The public is smart.
They know it's a con game.
>> I have just called President Obama
to congratulate him on his victory.
>> He claimed that the election was
rigged in 2012
when Mitt Romney whom he had endorsed
lost to Barack Obama.
>> (dramatized): This election is
a total sham and a travesty.
We are not a democracy. (Twitter chime)
More reports of voting machines
switching Romney votes to Obama. (Twitter
chime)
Let's fight like hell and stop this
great
and disgusting injustice! (Twitter
chime)
We can't let this happen.
We should march on Washington. (Twitter
chime)
>> Every step along the way
anything he has ever lost is because
somebody else
has cheated and stolen it from him.
>> Fox News can now project that Texas
senator Ted Cruz
has won Iowa.
>> Ted Cruz wins the Republican contest
here in Iowa.
>> The big question now:
how is Donald Trump going to handle
a loss?
>> (dramatized): The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz
from the most recent election on the
basis that he cheated--
a total fraud. (Twitter chime)
>> You have twted that
Senator Ted Cruz stole the Iowa election.
>> Everything about it was disgraceful.
It was a fraud as far as I was concerned.
>> Knowing what we know now--
I think you would go back to February
1 of 2016.
>> It's a total voter fraud when you
think of it
and actually I came in probably first
if you think about it.
>> That episode
was a bright red blinking light
foreshadowing everything that was to come.
>> The portrait that both prosecutors
and the January 6th committee are trying to paint
is that Trump knows what's going on.
That this wasn't something spontaneous.
This wasn't something that the president
truly believed.
That it was all part of an overall
and illegal--
according to prosecutors and the committee--
strategy to remain in power unlawfully.
>> NARRATOR: And in court filings
prosecutors have said Trump's statements
are evidence
of the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the case.
>> "They demonstrate the defendant's
common plan
"of falsely blaming fraud for election
results
"he does not like, as well as his
motive, intent,
"and plan to obstruct the certification
of the 2020 election results and illegitimately
retain power."
>> Intent the whole ball game.
The jury is making an evaluation of
that.
Um, that's the most difficult thing to prove.
Not impossible, but it is the most difficult thing to prove.
>> NARRATOR: Robert Ray was an independent
counsel
who investigated President Bill Clinton
and helped get Trump acquitted
in his first senate impeachment trial.
>> Our system requires that a jury of 12 unanimously
meaning all of them, all 12 of them
find the defendant guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt.
(gavel bangs)
>> NARRATOR: To try to show the president's intent
the committee focused on his own statements
after election night.
>> Although he publicly claimed
that he had won the election
privately he admitted that
Joe Biden would take over as president.
>> I remember maybe a week after the
election was called,
I popped into the Oval just to like
give the president the headlines and
see how he was doing
and he was looking at the TV and he
said,
"Can you believe I lost to this effing
guy?"
>> At the same time that President Trump
was acknowledging privately that he
had lost the election,
he was hearing that there was no evidence
of fraud
or irregularities sufficient to change
the outcome.
>> His campaign team
and this included his son-in-law Jared
Kushner,
went to him after the election was declared.
And they didn't just rebut the claims
of voter fraud.
They explained to him their analysis
of why he lost.
They showed him the numbers
state by state in the swing states.
>> I made this case, I know Hope Hicks
and others did to him,
which was, "You should kind of make this a victory lap.
"Go around the country, talk about
what have accomplished
"and you're going to be in a great place in 2024
to win the presidency back."
♪ ♪
>> But then you had Rudy Giuliani
who was whispering in his ear what
Trump wanted to hear.
Trump likes the people who tell him what he wants to hear.
And he picked, in effect Rudy Giuliani
in order to go down the road of challenging
the election.
>> There is strong evidence that this
was an election
that in at least three or four states,
and possibly ten
they, they... it was stolen.
Bringing in 100,000 ballots in garbage cans,
and every single one of them was for Biden.
>> NARRATOR: The federal indictment alleges that
by the middle of November,
Trump's conspiracy to overturn the
election was underway.
>> November 14, 2020, is an important
date
in the federal indictment of Donald
Trump.
It is the moment when Donald Trump
said, "Rudy Giuliani--
"he's the only one who's providing me
with a plausible path forward, and I'm going to take it."
>> Look, you can fight it all you
want.
The reality is dead people voted.
Over 300,000 ballots were counted in secret...
>> Rudy Giuliani was central to a
lot of these schemes,
framing them, orchestrating them,
directing other people
being in on the communications.
And so once Trump made a decision
to defer to Rudy Giuliani as the person
who was setting the tone
and giving people their talking points
for what the approach was,
that's when he decided to go after
these nutty theories.
>> 8,021 ballots from dead people
mail-in ballots for dead people.
We're checking the records of the cemeteries
around Philadelphia. (audience laughter)
>> NARRATOR: During that period,
Giuliani and Trump would repeat dozens of false allegations
and the committee believed they had
evidence
it wasn't an honest mistake.
>> One of the things the committee
did that was critical
was putting together this timeline
in which they showed,
very clearly
the president would be told one thing
one day,
not true, don't say that.
And he would go right back out and
say it the next day anyway.
That's really important toward I think,
establishing intent to lie, intent
to defraud.
>> Each ballot went three times,
here's ballot number one here it is
a second time
third time, next ballot.
>> I told the president myself that
these allegations
about ballots run through the machine several times,
it was not true.
>> In several counties in Georgia
there's clear evidence that tens of
thousands of votes
were switched from President Trump
to Biden.
>> Well, Mr. President we did a hand
re-tally
of all the ballots and compared that to what the machine said,
and it came up with virtually the
same result.
>> In Detroit a vote dump came in
unexpectedly.
I'll tell you what's wrong: voter fraud.
>> And then he raised the big vote dump in Detroit
and I said, "There's no indication
of fraud in Detroit."
>> Over 10,300 ballots in Georgia were cast
by individuals who died prior to the election.
>> The actual number were two,
two people that were dead that voted.
>> You have Dominion which those machines are fixed
they're rigged.
You can press Trump and the vote goes
to Biden.
>> I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines.
I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations.
I told him that it was crazy stuff.
>> Stretching the truth in a campaign ad
or on the debate stageis one thing.
But when you are using that lie
to subvert the democratic process,
and to convince people that they need to overturn the election,
now you're talking about conspiracy.
And that's what he's charged with.
>> NARRATOR: Trump wouldn't talk to
the committee,
but he did talk to NBC News.
>> The most senior lawyers in your
own administration
and on your campaign told you that
after you lost
more than 60 legal challenges, that
it was over.
Why did you ignore them
and decide to listen to a new outside
group of attorneys?
>> Because I didn't respect them.
As lawyers. >> You'd hired them.
>> Sure. But that doesn't mean-- you
know, you hire them,
you never met these people you get a recommendation.
They turn out to be RINOs, or they
turn out to be not so good.
In many cases, I didn't respect them.
But I did respect others.
I respected many others that said
the election was rigged.
>> Were you calling the shots, though
Mr. President, ultimately?
>> As to whether or not I believed
it was rigged? Oh sure.
>> Okay. >> It was my decision.
>> NARRATOR: One of the allegations in the charges
against Trump is that he used lies
to carry out his criminal conspiracy.
>> "The Defendant's knowingly false statements
were integral to his criminal plans."
>> NARRATOR: But to the president's defenders,
his statements about the 2020 election, true or not
should be protected under the constitution.
>> You will see Trump and those who defend him
essentially using the free speech defense,
and saying that these are just words and in the end
it's not a crime in America to lie to the American public,
even though Donald Trump lied to the
American public a lot.
>> This is a central area of the president's
defense.
He does have First Amendment rights
and particularly as president.
And trying to turn words into criminal
conduct
is a very slippery road
for the prosecution under the First
Amendment.
And in the event of a conviction
I can guarantee you this--
this will be point one in the brief
on appeal.
>> Lying to the government
is not protected by the First Amendment.
Obstructing justice is not protected
by the First Amendment.
>> NARRATOR: Ken White is a prominent
criminal defense lawyer, and a First
Amendment expert.
>> And so here, the government's position
is going to be,
"We are not going after him for, u
know
"what he said on the news, that's not the crime.
"The crime is he's specifically pushed
to derail specific government functions."
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: As they gathered their
evidence
the January 6th committee returned
again and again
to onetate: Georgia.
>> When Donald Trump tried
to overturn the election results
he focused on just a few states.
The former president had a particular
obsession
with Georgia.
>> I think that Trump chose us
because Republicans did control
basically every level of government.
You got the House, you got the Senate
all Republican controlled, not even
close.
I think he thought he could come here
and basically just by some kind of
fiat,
say, "Okay, make it happen."
>> NARRATOR: And it was in Georgia
that Donald Trump received a stark
warning
from Gabriel Sterling, an election
official.
>> Gabriel Sterling explicitly warned
President Trump
about potential violence on December
1, 2020
more than a month before January 6.
You will see excerpts from that video repeatedly today.
>> Mr. President
it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia.
Stop inspiring people to commit potential
acts of violen.
Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot,
someone's going to get killed, and
it's not right.
>> Gabe Sterling called out Donald
Trump.
He was the first to really as far
as I remember
to really come out and say "There's
going--
like, this is going to lead to violence."
>> We're investigating there's always
a possibility
I get it. You have... >> Gabe Sterling is not listed
as some kind of Republican in name only
or some kind of liberal Republican prior to that moment.
>> I've been a Republican since I
was about nine
when Reagan was running for reelection.
I was nine years old when I first
kind of declared myself.
My mother was not very happy.
But my dad was pleased.
I was working campaigns in the late
'80s and early '90s.
So yeah, I've been in Republican politics
as an operative and a volunteer
since before I could drive a car.
So yeah, I've been at it for a while.
>> The chair recognizes
the gentleman from California, Mr.
Schiff for an opening statement.
>> Mr. Sterling, thank you also for
being here today.
>> Schiff-- I remember they told me
he was going to question me, I'm like,
"Damn it."
I can't stand that guy.
(laughs) He irritates me to death
because I think he's wrong
and doesn't tell the truth a lot.
But I said, you know what?
I'm just going to play this straight.
I'm a fact witness just answer the
questions.
>> Donald Trump claims that there was
"massive voter fraud in Georgia."
Mr. Sterling, that was just plain
false, wasn't it?
>> Yes, sir.
(interview): I want to give some perspective
for this.
I was a voting systems implementation
manager.
I was a bureaucrat of all bureaucrats,
basically, at that time.
No one should know who the hell I am.
I just was doing my job.
>> NARRATOR: Sterling was on the frontline
as Trump attacked the Georgia election results.
>> (dramatized): Thousands of uncounted votes discovered
in Georgia counties. (Twitter chime)
Big voter fraud information
coming out concerning Georgia. (Twitter chime)
Georgia Republicans are angry, all
Republicans are angry.
Get it done! (Twitt chime)
>> The people in Georgia are mad.
They know their votes were stolen.
>> Georgia, of the six states I looked
at, is a cesspool.
>> Georgia's probably going to be
the first state
I'm going to blow up
and the secretary of state need to go with it.
>> Everyone must go to the capitol
of Georgia now.
We need to see people power and this
will do it.
>> (chanting): We want Trump!
>> NARRATOR: On the ground tensions were mounting.
>> I mean you have a whole voting population
out there who still, today
believes that this election
was stolen.
>> (chanting): America First!
And I they think that, you know, some
fraud happed.
And that's how you end up in situations where they're
threatening the election officials
in Georgia.
(chime)
>> "Keep opposing the audit, and somebody
in your family is going to have a very unfortunate
incident."
"Please pray.
"We plan for the death of you and
your family every day.
I'm sorry."
"You and your family will be killed very slowly."
>> It wasn't fun I can tell you that.
Um...
We were in the mix of...
a...
radicalized lie, essentially.
And it just kept on escalating. (chime)
>> Y'all oughta blow your (bleep) brains out
you piece of (bleep).
>> NARRATOR: The threats poured into the voicemails
of election officials. (chime)
>> Hope you're happy with the way
(bleep) going
'cause you know who's fault this is
when the (bleep) (bleep) hits the
goddamn fan
'cause you know it's coming.
>> We're coming after you
and every mother (bleep) with our Second Amendment.
(Bleep) enemy communist (bleep) sucker
you will be served lead."
♪ ♪
>> It's all gone too far.
All of it.
It has to stop!
(interview): I had no script.
In fact, I didn't realize I was going
to call out the president
until I was literally saying the words
out loud at the time.
Mr. President,
you have not condemned these actions
or this language.
This has to stop.
We need you to step up
and if you're going to take a position
of leadership,
show some.
>> After you made this plea to the
president,
did Donald Trump urge his supporters
to avoid the use of violence?
>> Not to my knowledge.
>> Now, as we know
the president was are of your speech
because he tweeted about it later
that day.
(Twitter chime)
>> The president retweeted a criticism
of Gabriel Sterling's press conference.
So the president was aware that there
were threats of violence
and he persisted in the Big Lie.
>> You have Gabriel Sterling saying,
"People will die."
This was the warning and Donald Trump was unmoved by it.
Was there any sort of a sense
that maybe we ought to dial down the
rhetoric,
that maybe this is getting out of hand,
maybe this is dangerous? No.
>> Gabriel Sterling's warning that someone could get killed,
I think that still remains true today.
Because you still have
the president targeting judges
and law clerks and witnesses.
And I think it is remarkable
that no one has been physically hurt.
But I think time will tell whether something does happen.
(sirens wailing, horns honking)
>> The committee plans to reveal even
more evidence
former President Trump pressured state
officials
to overturn the results of the 2020
election.
>> NARRATOR: Rusty Bowers, the Speaker
of the Arizona House
and lifelong Republican,
was a crucial witness to Trump's campaign
of pressure on local officials.
>> Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testifying today
he received numerous calls
asking him to decertify the Arizona
electors.
>> NARRATOR: Bowers would testify
about his private conversations with
the president.
>> Going in the room, we walked down
through the hall,
and there's lots of people in the
hallways, and then guards,
and then there's a doorway and, you
know, I'm thinking,
"Okay, how big is this room?"
And then I walk in the room
and I'm thinking, "Oh, my word.
(cameras clicking)
This is one big room." (laughs)
I'm like, "Wow."
And there's ten million photographers
all jammed together,
jostling in front of us.
And I'm trying to maintain composure
and not run screaming off down the Mall,
down towards the Lincoln Memorial.
But I saw Liz Cheney
and she was looking at me
and that kind of calmed me down.
(gavel bangs)
>> I now welcome Rusty Bowers,
a distinguished legislator from Arizona.
Speaker Bowers, thank you for being with us today.
>> This is a loyal lifelong Republican.
He's a conservative who fought to
get Trump reelected.
>> Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers,
come on up here!
(cheers and applause)
>> Rusty Bowers is a compelling person.
It's hard to talk to him and not believe
him.
And the stories that he told
about his direct communications with
the president
were just so indicative and so powerful
that he was kind of an obvious choice, frankly,
for somebody that America needed to
hear from directly.
>> After the election,
you received a phone call from President
Trump and Rudy Giuliani, in which they discussed
the result
of the presidential election in Arizona.
If you would tell us about that call.
>> Mr... the president initially laid
out
the broad claim of fraud across the
country--
named different states including my
own.
>> What was the ask during this call?
He was making these allegations of fraud
but he had something, or a couple things,
that they wanted you to do-- what were those?
>> They said, "Well, we have heard
"via an official high up in the Republican
Legislature,
"that there is a legal theory, or
a legal ability in Arizona,
"that you can remove the, um
electors of President Biden and replace
them."
(chuckles) Well... for them to say to me,
"Yeah, we just want you to throw out those electors
and put in Trump's."
I'm thinking, "Have, have I gone to another planet?"
I mean, it's like, what? I'm not gonna
do that!"
I mean, I wanted him to win, okay,
so what?
I'm not gonna cheat, I'm not gonna cheat to win.
What, what's that?
I flat out, flat out said,
"You're asking me to break my oath.
"I swore an oath-- I'm not gonna break
it, period.
Not gonna break it."
I said, "Well, if you're talking this
I gotta have the proof."
I said, "Rudy,
do you have the names of the dead
people who voted?" He goes, "Yes."
"And do you have the names
of the 200,000 illegals who voted in our election?"
"Yes."
I said, "I want those names."
And the presidensays, "Rudy, give
the man what he wants
give him what he wants."
He says, "Yeah we've got them, Mr.
President,
and I'll get them to him."
>> NARRATOR: In the criminal indictment
Jack Smith saw the call as evidence of a crime.
>> "The Defendant and Co-Conspirator
1
"asked the Arizona House Speaker to use the legislature
"to circumvent the process by which
legitimate electors would be ascertained."
>> If you are calling a state official
and you're asking them to nullify
lawful votes,
and to replace them with unlawful votes
that is squarely within federal statutes
regulating election conspiracy.
>> NARRATOR: Not long after the call
Rudy Giuliani himself arrived in Arizona.
>> Did you meet with Mr. Giuliani and his associates
while they were in Phoenix?
>> Yes, I did, sir.
There was a row of people and--
Giuliani and Jenna Ellis I recognized
them.
And I sat down on the opposite side.
And I just said, "Did you bring me the proof?"
And he said, "What?"
I said "Do you remember our phone
call
when you said you were going to bring
me the proof?"
And he said, "Oh, yeah."
I said, "Did you bring it?"
And he looked-- turned to Jenna Ellis,
and he says, "Do you have the proof?"
And she said, "Yeah."
"Well, can we see it?"
She leans over and fumbles through her briefcase
and says, "Oh no I don't have it here--
must be at the hotel room."
>> This meeting or at any other later
time
did anyone provide you
with evidence of election fraud sufficient
to affect the outcome
of the presidential election in Arizona?
>> No one provided me, ever, such
evidence.
(interview): Giuliani was kind of frustrated with us all
and he said, "You know we've got a
lot of theories,
we just don't have the evidence."
(chuckles) And I, when I heard him
say that, I,
I said...
"Did he just say what I thought he
said?"
(laughs)
And they all looked at me, like, the same thing on their mind
like, "Whoa!" (laughs)
You know, that "Yeah, he just said that!"
That was like a rocket's red glare
moment.
Like, wow! (laughs)
That's... you gotta be kidding this
is like a
this is the clown show-- they're out hunting,
they're trying to find something,
and, and they're wanting us to participate in this
and, and he says that?
Holy moly, we can't do this stuff,
you know, it's like...
>> NARRATOR: Rudy Giuliani refused
to answer questions
from the committee about his conversations
with Bowers.
Trump attorney Jenna Ellis also refused.
For the January 6th committee,
that meeting with Bowers was a bombshell
revelation.
>> "We have a lot of theories, but
we don't have any evidence."
That shows that
none of this had to do with evidence
or reality, right?
This is all about just making stuff up
in order to justify keeping Trump in power.
>> NARRATOR: The phrase Giuliani uttered
would become iconic
and Giuliani a central figure in Trump's
indictment:
listed as Co- Conspirator mber 1.
>> "Co-Conspirator 1 responded with
words to the effect of,
'We don't have the evidence, but we
have lots of theories.'"
>> It shows Rudy Giuliani admitting
that there's no evidence
for the theories they had,
that these are just talking points
not backed with any fact.
And that's exactly the theory of the
government.
>> During the conversation did he
bring up the fact
that you shared a similar party?
>> He would say, "Aren't we all Republicans
here?
"I would think we would get a better
reception
"I mean, I would think you would listen
a little more open
to my suggestions-- we're all Republicans."
For someone to ask me
to deny my oath and just let the courts
figure it out
or let somebody else punt it to someone
else,
is not something I will do.
>> What you have to understand here is that Rusty Bowers,
this guy who worked for Trump,
wanted Trump to be reelected in Arizona,
worked for Trump's reelection is given
a choice--
he can choose between his oath to the Constitution
or President Trump.
And he stays loyal to the Constitution.
That is, in effect, what... the choice
that he's given.
>> Even in the past when there have
been...
>> Rusty Bowers speaks with a moral
and legal clarity
that's very necessary to understand.
>> We choose to follow the outcome
of the will of the people.
It's, it's my oath.
And, and I hope that I'll never break
that.
I know I'm not, you know I'm not perfect.
I'm certainly not a perfect witness.
But I am a witness.
And, uh...
I had my say.
And I wasn't trying to flower it up,
I wasn't trying to be
anything other than just Rusty.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Rusty Bowers is now a
key witness
on a central charge of the indictment.
>> "The Defendant and his co-conspirators
"executed a strategy to use knowing deceit
"in the targeted states to impair,
obstruct
and defeat the federal government function."
>> NARRATOR: In their filings,
Trump's lawyers have argued
he is immune from prosecution
because was doing his job as president
when he worked to change the election
results.
>> "The indictment is based entirely
"on alleged actions within the heartland
"of President Trump's official duties,
"or at the very least,
within the 'outer perimeter' of his
official duties."
>> The former president has a motion claiming
that he is immune from criminal process
with regard to these charges which
involve his official acts
as president of the United States.
>> "As President Trump is absolutely
immune
"from criminal prosecution for such
acts,
the Court should dismiss the indictment."
>> Donald Trump's legal team
suggesting that even a president
who had a political rival assassinated
could still be immune from criminal
prosecution.
>> NARRATOR: The federal judge presiding
over the case
has already rejected Trump's immunity
claims,
saying a president is not entitled
to a life-long,
get-out-of-jail-free pass.
>> The questions being raised right
now
regarding presidential immunity
are absolutely key to the very foundation
the very philosophical foundation
of this republic.
Because if you take an oath of office
in the United States of America,
you're swearing an oath to our system
of government.
And so, if a president
is not subject to that system of government
if he's not subject to that code of laws
we don't have quite the republic that
we thought we had.
(siren wailing)
>> NARRATOR: An appeals court is now considering
the question of immunity.
Whatever the decision, both sides
could appeal
to the United States Supreme Court.
(indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
The committee's investigation kept bringing them
back to what happened in Georgia.
(laughter)
>> Mr. Giuliani, what are you doing
here in Georgia?
>> You'll see.
>> NARRATOR: Giuliani was there
to make his case to the Republican
state legislature.
>> Bless you, too. >> Don't give up.
>> Oh, I'm not giving up. >> Never,
never give up.
>> Nope.
>> He was very jovial, I have to tell you.
I think he had gotten
basically a king's welcome by all
the Republicans.
(cameras clicking)
It was like, you know, he was their
superstar or whatever.
(man laughs)
They all wanted pictures with him.
They were all so impressed with him
and couldn't believe that he was there.
Um, very obsequious.
(cheers and applause)
>> We appreciate you, Rudy. We love you, Rudy!
>> NARRATOR: Giuliani and others from Trump's team
had come with a conspiracy theory:
election workers were counting suitcases
of illegal ballots.
>> Tha you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank
you-- Senator Jordan?
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> NARRATOR: Jen Jordan, a Democratic
state senator
was in the room with Giuliani,
Jenna Ellis, and Trump's other lawyers.
>> They are going to pull ballots
out
from underneath a table.
Watch this table.
>> You had the woman who was narrating.
>> This table, the black one was placed there
by the lady with the blonde braids.
>> And saying, "You see this woman
here?
You see her here?"
>> At about 8:00 in the morning,
we're going to roll this back and
show it to you--
there you go-- so now they're going
to start
pulling these ballots out from under this table.
I don't know the name of the lady in the blonde braids,
but one of them had the name Ruby across her shirt somewhere.
>> "She's taking the ballotsout, and
now she's, you know
filling them in or she's stealing
these ballots."
>> NARRATOR: It was an allegation
Trump personally amplified.
>> There's even security camera footage
from Georgia
that shows officials telling poll watchers to leave the room
before pulling suitcases of ballots
out from under the tables and continuing
to count for hours.
>> They kept on recycling these things.
>> The footage appears to show poll
workers
pulling ballots out of suitcases...
>> It's like playing whack-a-mole.
>> Yeah, how about those suitcases
that were pulled out from the table
in Georgia.
>> Looking at ballots, they're finding them under the tables.
I mean, this is like a banana republic.
>> NARRATOR: But the full surveillance video didn't show
what Trump and Giuliani claimed.
>> The magic suitcases
which were really just ballot carriers
that had been put under the table
about an hour earlier
and they were placed under there
with the monitors and the press in the room.
>> NARRATOR: A day after Giuliani's presentation,
the video aired on local TV.
Their claims were debunked.
>> This is the short section of the video
the Trump team has shared.
It's not suitcases being pulled from under that table,
but official sealed ballot containers.
If we go back in the video to hours
before,
you can see that table being brought into the room
at 8:22 a.m.
Nothing underneath no hidden suitcases.
As ballots that have been opened,
but not counted,
are placed in the boxes, sealed up
and stored under the table.
>> No magical appearing ballots.
These were ballots that were processed
in front of the monitors
put in the boxes in front of the monitors
and placed there in front of the monitors.
And I, I'll go to my deathbed,
knowing that they knowingly lied.
They looked in the state senators' eyes
the people of Georgia,
the people of America and lied to
them about this,
and knew they were lying
to try to keep this charade going
on
that there was fraud in Georgia.
>> NARRATOR: But the conspiracy theories continued.
>> This is not a conspiracy theory
those are legitimate questions.
>> I think the woman in charge here is named Rubyreeman
and I think her daughter Shay Freeman Moss,
either was helping here or helping her earlier.
>> NARRATOR: Giuliani had caed out
by name
two election workers--
Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.
>> After pulling out hidden boxes
stuffed with ballots
Ruby Freeman, as seen here in this
video
repeatedly scanned the same batch of ballots
at least three times.
>> NARRATOR: Like the claim about
suitcases of ballots
it wasn't true.
>> The secondary part of that was,
"They were scanning multiple times, multiple times."
And a standard operating procedure
is
if there's a mis-scan,
you delete that batch and straighten
it up like you do.
And then run it through again-- and that's what they were doing.
And the reason we know that's the
case is because
we had a hand tally that showed
the number of ballots matched what was counted.
So we know that they didn't do that.
>> I now welcome Andrea "Shaye" Moss.
In December 2020 Miss Moss and her mother
Ms. Ruby Freeman became the target...
>> People say, "You know
I know somebody just like
those two ladies in my community
who work elections."
And they're just everyday people.
To have them as a witness
for our committee, I think, was very
powerful.
I understand that you are here
along with your mother today.
Uh, would you like to introduce your
momma?
Hi, Ma. (chuckles)
>> Well, I know the events that we're
here to talk about today
are incrediblyifficult to relive.
I'd like to show you some of the statements
that Rudy Giuliani made
a week after that video clip from State Farm Arena
was first circulated
by Mr. Giuliani and President Trump.
I want to advise viewers that these
statements
are completely false and also deeply
disturbing.
>> Tape earlier in the day
of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss
and one other gentleman quite obviously,
surreptitiously, passing around USB
ports
as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine.
>> He sounded a lot more despera.
Quite frankly, he seemed more unhinged.
He made some overtly racist comments.
>> They look like they're passing
out dope
not just ballots.
It is quite clear they are stealing votes.
They're still walking around Georgia,
lying.
They should have been, they should have been,
they should have been questioned already.
Their places of work, their homes
should've been searched
for evidence of ballots, evidence
of USB ports,
for evidence of voter fraud.
>> NARRATOR: But there was no evidence
that they were passing USB drives.
>> In one of the videos we just watched,
Mr. Giuliani accused you and your
mother
of passing some sort of USB drive
to each other.
What was your mom actually
handing you on that video?
>> A ginger mint.
>> Passing along a ginger mint back and forth
gets spun up into this baseless theory,
not an accident.
It is meant to stir up people's anger.
>> It wasn't just Rudy Giuliani.
>> And these two Black women
who are ing their civic duty are vilified.
>> It really does end up ruining people's
lives.
I mean, I can't tell you how many
emails I got
with respect to Shaye Moss and Ruby
Freeman
and that they should be strung up.
>> Were a lot of these threats
and vile comments racist in nature?
>> A lot of them were racist a lot of them were just hateful.
A lot of threats, um, wishing death
upon me, um...
Telling me that, you know, I'll be
in jail with my mother
and saying things like
"Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920."
>> These women, whose lives had been
completely destroyed,
that's where the story
about the state pressurecampaign becomes
real.
>> I felt horrible.
I felt like it was all my fault,
like, if I would have never decided
to be an elections worker, like, I
could have done
anything else, but that's what I decided
to do.
And now people are lying and spreading
rumors and lies
and attacking my mom.
I'm her only child.
I just felt like it was, it was my
fault
for putting my family in this situation.
♪ ♪
>> There are real-world consequences
to lying and attacking
and demonizing innocent people in this country.
And Donald Trump has always been very
heedless
of the human costs of his lies and
his gaslighting.
And this is a very painful example of that.
>> Ms. Moss, I want to thank you for coming in to speak with us
and to thank you for your service
to our democracy.
With your permission
I would like to give your mother the last word.
>> My name is Ruby Freeman.
I've always believed it
when God says that He'll make your
name great
but this is not the way it was supposed
to be.
(soft chuckle)
I built my own business around that
name
LaRuby's Unique Treasures,
a pop-up shop catering to ladies with unique fashions.
I wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed
that I was and I am Lady Ruby.
Actually I had that shirt on--
I had that shirt in every color.
I wore that shirt on Election Day
2020.
I haven't worn it since,
and I'll never wear it again.
Now I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore.
There is nowhere I feel safe.
Nowhere.
Do you know how it feels to have
the president of the United States to target you?
The president of the United States
is supposed
to represent every American.
Not to target one.
But he targeted me Lady Ruby,
a small business owner a mother
a proud American citizen
who stand up to help Fulton County run an election
in the middle of the pandemic.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Federal prosecutors have cited
the lies about Freeman and Moss in their indictment.
>> "Co-Conspirator 1 orchestrated a presentation
"to a judiciary subcommittee of the Georgia state senate,
"with the intention of misleading
state senators
into blocking the ascertainment of
legitimate electors."
>> Breaking news in Georgis investigation
into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election.
>> NARRATOR: In Georgia, prosecutors
have ao weighed in
with their own charges.
>> "Members of the enterprise,
"including several of the defendants,
"falsely accused Fulton County election
worker Ruby Freeman
of committing election crimes in Fulton
County, Georgia."
(flash bulb pops)
>> NARRATOR: Trump, Giuliani and others
have been charged in Georgia with
a host of crimes
related to their attempts to overturn
the 2020 election.
While Trump and Giuliani await trial
four of their codefendants have pled guilty
including Jenna Ellis.
>> If I knew then what I know now,
I would have declined to represent
Donald Trump.
I look back on this whole experience
with deep remorse
for those failures of mine Your Honor.
>> It's very important that
Jenna Ellis pled guilty to criminal
charges. Because it raises the point that,
"Wait a minute
this wasn't a traditional lawyer-client relationship."
And so when you have lawyers pleading guilty to crimes,
that is broadcasting loudly
that they were not providing conventional legal advice.
>> NARRATOR: In a separate civil case
a federal court ordered Rudy Giuliani
to pay $146 million for defaming Freeman
and Moss.
>> A legal loss for Rudy Giuliani
that could cost him millions.
>> Rudy Giuliani, the once-respected
New York mayor
and former attorney for Donald Trump
has filed for bankruptcy.
>> Forced to declare bankruptcy
the latest chapter in a dramatic fall
for the man once dubbed "America's
mayor."
>> NARRATOR: As the January 6th hearings
continued
the committee linked the efforts in Georgia to Trump personally.
(gavel bangs)
They had evidence and a witness.
>> Brad Raffensperger
is the 29th Secretary of State of
Georgia
serving in this role since 2019.
>> My job as secretary of state
is to make sure we have honest fair,
and accurate elections.
>> He's a very strong Christian,
he's a very strong Republican,
and he's very conservative.
He was an engineer.
Now, being an engineer allowed him
to lean into the numbers and lean
into the data.
He felt very comfortable with that,
which is, you know, a rare thing for anybody in politics,
because engineers are very mathematical,
very linear, you know,
not always the biggest personalities.
>> I looked at, as the office osecretary
of state
as how do we really improve the process
of elections.
All 159 counties had new election
equipment
with a verifiable paper ballot
ready for the election of 2020.
>> NARRATOR: It was a phone call from the president
that put Raffensperger at the center of the hearings.
(dial tone phone dialing out)
>> That phone call
is one of the most powerful piec of
evidence
that's come out of
this, this post-election period.
(electronic beeping, indistinct chatter)
(connecting tone)
>> Oh-- uh...
>> Mark Meadows reached out to
my deputy secretary of state
and she called me, and I told her
I didn't think that was a good idea.
And we were kind of told that,
no, we definitely need to have this
conversation.
(on recording):
>> It shows how frantic and desperate
President Trump had become by that
phone call.
I think it shows how his demands
were fully removed from any kind of
evidence.
>> I just listened to him talk.
I was making some notes.
"Okay, 5,000.
Okay, great," and I'll respond to
that.
But when I got an opportunity to,
you know, speak,
then I, I just said, "Well, Mr. President
the challenge that you have is your data is wrong."
(on recording):
My job was just to respond with the
facts.
And if I had a different set of facts
I would have responded with whatever
they were.
We just... our job was to give him
the true data,
which I did.
>> The former president was pushing
to see if he could somehow, you know...
it would move me somewhere, someplace.
Because I think that's been an effective
strategy for him
over his business career and political
career.
That people tended to buckle
instead of stand firm on their principles.
>> NARRATOR: In Georgia,
Trump had lost to Biden by 11,779 votes.
>> Trump didn't understand
it just doesn't click... didn't click
with him
that someone wouldn't just give in.
It just did not occur to him
that there was some higher level of
loyalty
to the law and the Constitution.
>> I knew that we had followed the law,
we had followed the Constitution
and I think sometimes momentsrequire you to stand up
and just take the shots.
You're doing your job, and that's
all we did.
You know, we just followed the law
and we followed the Constitution
and at the end of the day, President
Trump came up short.
But I had to be faithful to the Constitution
and that's what I swore an oath to do.
>> This call becomes critical, because
it's recorded.
We get to hear in the president's own voice
how he's doing it, what he's doing,
how he's putting pressure on these people.
>> So look all I want to do is this.
I just want to find, uh...
11,780 votes.
>> This is a scheme to overthrow an
election.
He knew the number that he needed
to hit
to change the outcome of the election.
>> NARRATOR: And Trump accused
Raffensperger himself of a crime--
allowing election fraud.
>> The president of the United States
demanding that an election official
find thousands of votes,
and then strongly implying
that there would be criminal sanction
in the event that those votes were not found.
I mean, that is terrible evidence for the president.
>> What I knew is that we didn't have
any votes to find.
We continued to look we investigated--
like I just shared the numbers with
you--
there were no votes to find.
>> That call is damning
and I think it's going to be damning
potentially in front of a jury
because juries when they can hear
a defendant's voice on tape,
when they can hear something
that is that real and that visceral,
it can be incredibly powerful testimony.
(call ends)
>> "The Defendant said that he needed
to 'find'
11,780 votes."
>> It shows him demanding a remedy
that doesn't make any sense
in the context of anything lawful.
That's just asking
"I want to win
you've gotta do it."
I think it's going to be
a very powerful call
for that jury.
>> NARRATOR: For his part, Trump has
defended
the phone call with Raffensperger--
describing it as "perfect."
>> "A 'perfect' phone call
"to discuss a rigged and stolen election
"and what to do about it
"with many people, including lawyers
d others
knowingly on the line."
♪ ♪
>> After weeks of trying to overturn
the results of the election,
his legal team has come up with nothing.
>> NARRATOR: In the middle of December
2020...
>> In the courts where evidence gets
scrutinized,
authenticated, and tested, they're getting hammered.
>> NARRATOR: As the president was failing
in his attempts to reverse the election...
>> All but now ending the president's
attempt
to reverse his election loss.
>> NARRATOR: A new pse began.
>> And it comes as the electoral college
is set to cast their votes for president
tomorrow.
>> On December 14, 2020,
the presidential election was officially
over.
The electoral college had cast its vote.
Joe Biden was the president- elect of the United States.
>> The president has reached the end
of the road.
The electoral college certified the
election.
His legal team and allies lost more than 50 challenges.
>> The cases run their course,
the electoral college meets,
people are saying no.
So he's running out of options, right?
The sequence is increasingly desperate.
>> On Friday, December 18, his team
of outside advisors
paid him a surprise visit in the White
Hou
that would quickly become the stuff of legend.
>> This meeting is one of the most extraordinary meetings
that ever happened in that building
in more than 200 years of history.
Here you had a president of the United States
who had lost an election in the Oval
Office
being advised by...
a swarm of colorful characters to
say the least.
>> NARRATOR: At the meeting:
former national security advisor Michael
Flynn
and attorney Sidney Powell
by then both known for
their embrace of conspiracy theories
about the election.
>> You had people in there
counseling Donald Trump that he should
explicitly order martial law
that he should create a special czar.
The person they had in mind for this
was Sidney Powell
that she should become the special elections czar
and be empowered
to use the machinery of government
itself to overturn the election.
>> NARRATOR: As word of the meeting
spread,
senior White House lawyers rushed to the oval office,
including White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
>> President Trump's close advisors
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone,
Eric Herschmann, advisor to the president
and others who were in that room
who were saying to this group,
"What evidence do you even have
that there was fraud in the election?"
>> NARRATOR: The White House lawyers
were insistent
that the psident shouldn't declare martial law
to overturn the election
or empower Sidney Powell.
>> At times there were pple shouting
at each other
hurling insults at each other.
(chuckles)
>> The president is taking all of
this in,
mostly a passive observer in this
meeting,
but he is watching this play out.
His close advisors telling his lawyers,
"You have no evidence that there was
fraud in the election.
"And you've lost every case.
Every case you brought in to court, you've lost."
And Sidney Powell says "The judges were corrupt.
That's why we lost."
And Eric Herschmann, supporter,
close advisor to the president, says
"What are you talking about?
"Every case?
"The judges? We appointed many of those judges.
"You're saying they're all corrupt?
Like you people have nothing you're crazy."
>> I think that it got to the point
where the screaming was
completely completely out there.
I mean, you get people walk in
it was late at night
it'd been a long day, and...
what they were proposing
I thought was nuts.
Flynn screamed at me that I was a
quitter and everything
kept on standing up and turning around
and screaming at me.
And at a certain point I had it with him.
So I yelled back.
"Better sit your effing ass back down."
>> I'm gonna categorically describe
it as...
"you guys are not tough enough."
Or maybe I put it another way,
"You're a bunch of pussies."
Excuse the expression.
>> At the end of it, Trump sees that
there is so much opposition,
including from his White House counsel.
He understands that people would very
likely resign
And so, it seems that he reluctantlyoncludes
that he's not going to declare martial
law.
NARRATOR: Instead, late that night
after the meeting had broken up,
the president turned to Twitter.
>> "Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election.
"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th.
Be there, will be wild!" (Twitter
chime)
>> Dissatisfied with his options,
Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd
on Wednesday, January 6,
the day when Congress would meet
to certify the electoral votes.
>> While he doesn't actually go ahead
with martial law,
he is embracing a path that is in
fact, radical anyway.
He's not using the United States miliry
but he's summoning his own army of
supporters to Washington,
some of whom are known to be extremists
and in some cases violent,
to help him stay in office
over the will of the voters.
>> It's Saturday, December 19.
And one of the most historic events
in American history has just taken
place.
President Trump,
in the early morning hours today,
tweeted that he wants the American people
to march on Washington D.C. on January
6.
>> This wildly inflammatory tweet
was a bullhorn that immediately went
out to
some of the more violent organized
Trump supporters--
The Oath Keepers.
>> "He called us all to the Capitol
"and wants us to make it wild.
"Gentlemen we are heading to D.C.
Pack your (bleep)."
>> The Proud Boys...
>> "It's all or nothing, patriots.
Boldness and bravery is necessary."
>> They heard it as a message from their leader,
"Come to Washington."
>> The "Will be wild!" tweet
was the call in a call and response.
They mobilized to come to Washington.
These individuals came to Washington
because Donald Trump told them to be there.
Because Donald Trump told them the
election was rigged.
Because Donald Trump told them
that someone was trying to take their
votes away from them
and silence their voices.
They believed it.
>> This could be Trump's last stand.
And it's a time when he has specifically
called on
his supporters to arrive in D.C.
>> The time for games is over.
The time for action is now.
Where were you when history called?
Where were you when you and your children's
destiny
and future was on the line?
>> NARRATOR: For prosecutors, that tweet,
the call to march on Washington,
represents a crucial step in Trump's
criminal conspiracy.
>> Jack Smith's theory is that that
was part of the attempt
to obstruct the proceedings on January
6.
That Trump wanted a large,
at least boisterous, if not violent
crowd there to interfere with the proceedings
maybe stop them,
put pressure on the people there.
And that was one component of his
obstruction.
>> "After cultivating widespread anger
and resentment for weeks
"with his knowingly false claims of election fraud,
"the Defendant urged his supporters
"to travel to Washington
on the day of the certification proceeding."
>> The special counsel is sort of situating it as this hinge,
where things sort of really start
to go wrong.
That shows that this was part of a plan.
And if they can convince the jury of th
that's a huge portion of the ball game.
>> NARRATOR: In their filings,
Trump's attorneys have argued
that his statements were protected
by the First Amendment.
>> "The indictment therefore attempts
to criminalize
"core political speech and political
advocacy
"which is categorically impermissible
under the First Amendment."
>> There should be room
under the First Amendment and otherwise
for the president to say an awful lot
without having to tag him with a criminal
offense.
And that's why there's a First Amendment.
You're given a big amount of latude
to say a lot of wild and crazy even
stupid, things,
without having to worry about somebody afterwards
deciding that you should be sent to jail for it.
>> While prosecuting the president
in an electoral context is new
prosecuting people for electoral fraud
is not new at all.
There are burdens of proof there are legal tests,
there are jury instructions,
and if you can meet those elements
then you're outside of
the protection of the First Amendment.
This is not a novel legal theory here.
(siren wailing)
>> NARRATOR: As January 6 approached,
Trump refocused his efforts closer to home
at his own Department of Justice.
>> Today, we'll tell the story
of how the pressure campaign
also targeted the federal agency
charged with enforcement of our laws,
the Department of Justice.
>> Trump tried to weaponize the Department
of Justice
against our own democracy.
Bill Barr is the first one to stand
up and say,
"No, I'm not going to do that."
He steps aside, he resigns.
And he's replaced by Jeff Rosen and
Richard Donoghue
as a sort of tag team here.
(keyboard keys clacking)
>> NARRATOR: Rosen was a Republican political appointee who had served
throughout Trump's administration.
Donoghue, also a Republican,
had spent much of his career as a
government lawyer--
in the Army and at the Department
of Justice.
>> These are folks who were
appointed by Donald Trump.
They are aligned with him politically.
>> Pretty much every day after Barr
left,
Trump would call Jeffrey Rosen at
the Justice Department
or his deputy, Richard Donoghue,
and try to put pressure on them
to get the department to go along
with this narrative
that there were serious questions
about the integrity of the election.
>> Mr. Donoghue,
you had a conversation with the president
where he raised false claim after
false claim
with you and Mr. Rosen.
How did you respond to
what you called a "stream of allegations"?
>> I wanted to try to cut through
the noise
because it was clear to us
that there were a lot of people whispering
in his ear, feeding him these conspiracy theories
and allegations
As the president went through them,
I went piece by piece
to say, "No, that's false, that is not true."
And to correct him, really in a serial fashion
as he moved from one theory to another.
>> How did the president respond to
that, sir?
>> He responded very quickly and said,
essentially,
"That's not what I'm asking you to
do.
"What I'm just asking you to do is
just say it was corrupt
and leave the rest to me and the Republican
congressmen."
♪ ♪
>> He's saying "Don't care about evidence
"don't care about facts, just say this.
"And then I'm going to be able to
use that
"to give people political cover
"to do what I want them to do,
which is to overturn the vote."
>> I-- look, I think that's a very
unfortunate statement on the on the president's part,
but it wouldn't be the first time
that a president made a, a conscious decision
to reject advice from his legal advisers,
including the Department of Justice.
Is that evidence of criminal misconduct?
Could be. Could be.
But sorting that out before a fair-minded
jury,
assuming that there's a fair-minded jury
is, I think, another question.
>> NARRATOR: As it became clear
Rosen and Donoghue wouldn't go along,
Trump looked for someone who would.
>> Trump turns to this
mid-level Department of Justice employee,
Jeff Clark and he says, "Let's put him in
as the acting attorney general."
>> He had been an environmental prosecutor.
Clark's official role has nothing
to do
with anything involving election fraud.
He had no business at all being involved
in this.
>> NARRATOR: Clark drafted a letter
that would claim publicly that the
department was concerned
about serious allegations of election
fraud,
even though his superiors had said
there was no such evidence.
>> That letter of course was never
sent.
Clark tried to push for it to be sent
by sort of attempting to dethrone
acting attorney general Jeffery Rosen.
>> NARRATOR: According to testimony
and evidence before the committee,
Trump told Clark that he was going
fire Rosen
and make him the new attorney general.
>> Well, Clark makes an incredibly stupid mistake
which is that he tells Jeffrey Rosen,
the acting attorney general,
that he is going to be replaced.
>> On the-- on Sunday, the third
he told me that the president had
offered him the job
and that he was accepting it.
>> Clark tells him
"Oh yeah Trump is going to put me
in."
And he gives notice to his opponents.
That's always a huge mistake
in Washington or anywhere else.
>> Well...
you know, on the one hand, I wasn't
going to accept
being fired by my subordinate.
(chuckling): So, I wanted to talk to the,
thpresident directly.
>> And there was another crazy White House meeting
where Rosen, Donoghue,
meet with Clark,
the president, and other presidential
advisors,
in the Oval Office, for hours,
fighting over whether Clark should be the attorney general.
>> Jeff Clark was proposing
that...
Jeff Rosen being replaced by Jeff
Clark.
And I thought the proposal was...
asinine.
>> And when he finished
discussing what he planned on doing,
I said "Good...
"(bleep)"-- excuse me, sorry--
"effing a-hole.
"Congratulations, you just admitted your first step
"or act you take as attorney general
"would be committing a felony and violating Rule 6(e).
You're clearly the right candidate for this job."
>> Mr. Donoghue,
did-- did you eventually tell the president
that mass resignations would occur
if he installed Mr. Clark and what
the consequences would be?
>> I said, "Mr. President, within
24, 48, 72 hours,
"you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations
"of the leadership of your entire
Justice Department
"because of your actions.
What's that going to say about you?"
>> In the end,
that proves to be enough to stop Trump--
very reluctantly very reluctantly--
from putting Clark in as his acting
attorney general.
Talk about a close call.
>> NARRATOR: But for the January 6th
committee
and federal prosecutors,
the pressure on the Justice Department
was another part of the conspiracy.
>> He's trying to enlist as part of
a scheme
these officials of the Justice Department.
Lawyers, officers of the court
people who have taken an oath
to uphold the rule of law,
and they won't go along with it.
>> "The Defendant and co-conspirators
"attempted to use the power and authority
"of the Justice Department
to conduct sham election crime investigations."
>> NARRATOR: As with the pressure
on state election officials,
Trump's attorneys have argued that he was just doing his job.
>> "Urging his own Department of Justice
"to do more to enforce the laws
"that it is charged with enforcing
is unquestionably an official act
of the president."
>> NARRATOR: And the president is entitled
to name anyone he wants as the attorney general.
>> "Deliberating about whether to replace
"the acting attorney general of the
United States
is also a core presidential function."
>> Jack Smith has made that judgment
that that has crossed over the line
into criminal conduct.
But he is now going to have to prove
that the president went over that line,
whatever that line is.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Having called his supporters
to come to Washington on January 6
Trump turned his attention
to a key player in his effort to stay
in power:
Vice President Mike Pence.
>> Today, we're focusing on
President Trump's relentless effort
to pressure Mike Pence to refuse
to count electoral votes on January
6.
>> The pressure campaign on Vice President Pence
is the last gambit to keep Trump in power.
I mean, basically, it's the last lever
that they can pull to try and steal the election.
>> NARRATOR: It was based on an obscure
legal theory:
that the vice president had the power
to overturn the election results.
>> Greg Jacob was counsel
to Vice President Pence.
He conducted a thorough analysis
of the role of the vice president
in a joint session
of Congress under the Constitution.
I now recognize the gentleman from
California,
Mr. Aguilar.
>> Mr. Jacob, did you go to the vice president's residences
on the morning of January 6?
>> Yes.
>> And did theice president have a
call with the president
that morning? >> He did.
We were told that a call had come
in from the president.
The vice president stepped out of
the room
to take that call, and no staff went
with him.
>> The president had several family
members
with him for that call.
I'd like to show you what they and
others
told the select committee about that
call,
along with never-before-seen photographs
of the president on that call from
the National Archives.
>> When I entered the office the second
time,
he was on the telephone
with who I later found out to be was
the,
the vice president.
>> Could you hear the vice president
or only hear the president's end?
>> Only hear the president's end.
And at some point, it started off
as a calmer tone
and then it became heated.
>> Donald Trump is focused on this
idea
that Pence wielding the gavel on January
6
can single-handedly overturn the election,
because he was presiding over this
final certification
of the electoral votes.
>> The conversation was, was...
pretty heated.
>> It's an extraordinary thing
a president pressuring a vice president this way,
insulting him that way
a person who had been nothing but
loyal to him
through all those, all those months and years.
>> Did Ms. Trump share with you
any more details about what happened?
>> Her dad had just had an upsetting
conversation
with the vice president.
>> It was a different tone than I'd heard him take
with the vice president before.
>> Iean, I think she was...
uncomfortable over the fact that there
was obviously
that type of interaction between the two of them.
>> The word at she relayed to you
that the president called the vice president,
I apologize for being impolite
but do you rememr what she said her
father called him?
>> The P word.
>> Trump told Pence, "You have a choice.
"You can either be a patriot or you
can be a pussy.
"Patriot means turn the election over
to me.
Being a pussy means being afraid to
use your power."
>> Mr. Jacob how would you describe
the demeanor of the vice president
following the call with the president?
>> When he came back into the room,
I'd say that he was steely
determined, grim.
>> NARRATOR: In almost four years
it was the first serious break between Pence and Trump.
>> Donald Trump had every expectation
that he would go along with him on
this.
Why wouldn't he?
He'd done everything else up until
now. Pence is a vice president who has
been
exceedingly loyal to Trump
for three years, 11 months and however
many days.
Mike Pence never, ever broke with
the president.
>> NARRATOR: Now Pence had to make a critical decision.
>> Pence had just a clear conflict
between what Trump wanted him to do
and what the Constitution and the rule of law
required him to do.
I thk he managed to navigate those
conflicts
in various ways over four years.
Not always, in my view in the right
way.
But this was such a blatant transgression.
>> NARRATOR: Pivotal to the plan
was this man-- John Eastman.
>> Here's this law professor
a member of the Federalists.
His role was to provide a,
sort of a pseudo-intellectual cover
for legal arguments.
>> And he manufactures
this theory of the vice president's power
that bas... that says that the vice
president
of the United States is the ultimate
arbiter
on January 6, those were his words,
"the ultimate arbiter."
And Trump fully endorses Eastman's plan.
>> Well, John Eastman was one of my
law clerks...
Perhaps 20, 25 years ago.
I was greatly concerned that John had given
the advice that he had given.
>> Judge J. Michael Luttig
is one of the leading conservative
legal thinkers
in the country.
He's served in administrations of
President Ronald Reagan
and George H.W. Bush.
>> Judge Luttig had a kind of moral authority
within the conservative community.
A guy himself who had been
short-listed for the Supreme Court.
Was on a first-name basis
with members of the Supreme Court.
>> Judge Luttig, I had the incredible
honor
of serving as one of your law clerks.
Another person who did was John Eastman.
And you've written that Dr. Eastman's
theory is,
in your words, "Incorrect at every turn."
>> Mr. Eastman said to the president
that there was both legal
as well as historical precedent
for the vice president to overturn
the election.
This is Constitutional mischief.
I would have laid my body
across the road before I would have let the vice president
overturn the 2020 election.
I diagrammed his, uh his, his legal
analysis,
from beginning to end and concluded
that we was wrong at every every turn
of his analysis
every turn of his thinking.
>> Judge Luttig, you wrote that the efforts
by President Trump to overturn the 2020 election were
"the most reckless, insidious,
"and calamitous failures in both legal and political judgement
in American history."
What did you mean by that?
>> Exactly what I said Congressman.
>> NARRATOR: White House lawyers had also warned
about Eastman's theories.
But Trump persisted,
summoning the vice president to the Oval Office.
>> The Eastman plan.
It was the last option
for Donald Trump.
January 4, 2021.
In the Oval Office John Eastman, President
Trump,
they pull Vice President Pence in.
He's joined by his aides Greg Jacob
and Marc Short.
Trump says to Pence, in front of others
"You have to now listen to John Eastman,
"you have to follow the Eastman plan--
object to the certification."
It's a pressure campaign.
Pence says to Trump,
"I'm going to do what I can, Mr. President,
I want to help you out but I'm listening
to my lawyers."
He turns to Greg Jacob his advisors,
and he says,
"They're telling me I can't do it.
I can't do it, it's not constitutional,
it's not legal."
Trump says "You can do it, listen to John."
>> Mr. Jacob during that meeting between
the president and the vice president
what theories did Dr. Eastman present regarding
the role of the vice president
in counting the electoral votes?
>> So during that meeting on the fourth
I think I raised the problem
that Mr. Eastman's proposals
would violate several provisions of the Electoral Count Act.
Mr. Eastman acknowledged that that was the case.
>> Pence turns to Trump and says
"Are you listening to this? Do you hear this?"
But Trump isn't listening to that, he just
he's banging away on Pence
"You are the guy who's going to keep us in power."
(siren blaring)
>> NARRATOR: Pence stood firm.
>> This is a man who has been so loyal for so long
but I think, at the end of the day,
Mike Pence knew that he s
going to uphold the Constitution.
And he knew that he had no power to
overturn
and do the things that the president
was saying.
>> The choice Mike Pence was facing was not really a choice.
He had no choice to do anything
other than count the votes that took place.
But at this point, Donald Trump had
surrounded himself
with people who were feeding him more
and more nonsense
about how this process worked.
It was just another situation
of the president creating his own
reality
deciding things that can happen that simply can't,
and set Mike Pence up for the fall
in a way
that he had really no choice in what to do.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: The pressure on Pence
figures prominently
in the indictment of Trump.
>> "The Defendant and co-conspirators
attempted
to enlist the vice president to use
his ceremonial role
at the January 6 certification proceeding
to fraudulently alter the election results.
>> NARRATOR: John Eastman is listed
as one of
the unindicted co-conspirators
though he still defends the advice he gave the president.
>> Trump's interactions with Pence
direct and indirect, are crucial.
They really go to showing that part of the way
he obstructed justice
was trying to wrongfully pressure
Pence who had an official task not to undertake
that task.
>> Is the ct that Donald Trump asked him to do that
is, is that criminal?
Again, I think you've got to be really
careful there.
I don't think that's something you
want to make criminal,
you know, on its own.
The mere ask to say, you know,
"I want you to not certify the results."
It doesn't necessarily mean that it
was a violation
of the criminal law.
It depends on context and whatever other evidence
the government has.
>> Whether or not a particular act
that the president
is alleged to have engaged in
is in and of itself a crime
isn't really going to be the question
at that trial.
It's going to be whether that act
was in furtherance of a criminal objective.
All of these acts, all of the things
that
we've been talking about
they don't have to be illegal in and of themselves.
The crime is a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
♪ ♪
>> There's a lot of anticipation for today's hearings.
The committee says it will present
newly obtained evidence and testimony.
>> NARRATOR: In the midst of the
Jaary 6th committee's hearings, a dramatic moment.
>> Live testimony from a White House
advisor
who was right there in the West Wing
on January 6.
>> NARRATOR: A surprise witness.
>> During the Watergate hearings there
was only
one surprise witness-- it was Alexander Butterfield
while in the January 6 hearings,
the surprise witness is Cassidy Hutchinson.
>> NARRATOR: Cassidy Hutchinson:
a 25-year-old White House staffer.
>> The most intimidating thing
is all those cameras sitting one foot
from her face
taking pictures of her.
(camera flash pops)
This is a young woman
standing in a setting that could
almost feel amphitheatrical.
♪ ♪
>> I was with Cassidy on the day of
her testimony.
During it, I'm sitting behind her.
She was incredibly nervous
I think like any normal person would be to do this.
There was a time beforehand where
she wanted to back out.
Because it was really scary to go up against
the president of the United States
and speak the truth,
is something that only a few people will know.
>> She was a hardcore Trump loyalist.
And she's getting ready to destroy
the tribe
that she gets her identity from.
I've been there, right. I've been
in that moment. It was pretty awe-inspiring to be
quite honest with you.
>> I will now swear in our witness.
>> Knowing how Trump had
become so intimidating a person for people who crossed him
and this one young woman doing what so many other
much older, frequently male staffers wouldn't do
which is come forward
and testifying truthfully under oath.
>> ...the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
>> (inaudible)
>> Thank you, you may be seated.
>> NARRATOR: Inside the White House
Hutchinson had been a top aide
to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows
and in the room during key events
the committee was investigating.
>> Hutchinson was a crucial witness
in terms of helping to
shine a light on the president's state
of mind
because so few people were capable
of doing that.
>> NARRATOR: Hutchinson revealed details
about Trump's plans for January 6.
>> On January 2,
four days before the attack on our
Capitol
President Trump's lead lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, was meeting
with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others.
Ms. Hutchinson we understand that
you
walked Mr. Giuliani out of the White House that night
and he talked to you about January 6.
What do you remember him saying?
>> As Mr. Giuliani and I were walking to his vehicles
that evening he looked at me and said
something to the effect of
"Cass, are you excited for the sixth?
It's going to be a great day."
I member looking at him saying
"Rudy, could you explain what's happening on the sixth?"
And he had responded something to
the effect of
"We're going to the Capitol.
"It's going to be great.
"The president's going to be there.
He's going to look powerful."
>> She clearly had nothing to gain by doing it.
She was telling the truth as she saw it.
This poised, composed
young woman with no obvious axe to
grind
as she's telling her story
it's the most powerful moment I think in the entire hearings.
>> And I found Mr. Meadows
in his office, scrolling through his
phone.
I remember leaning against the doorway
and saying
"I just had an interesting conversation
with Rudy, Mark.
It sounds like we're going to go to
the Capitol."
He didn't look up from his phone
and said something to the effect of,
"There's a lot going on, Cass, but
I don't know
things might get real, real bad on
January 6."
>> (crowd chanting): U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.! >> Tensions are running high.
30,000 supporters of the present
are gathering right now.
They're having what they're calling
a "Stop the Steal" rally.
>> NARRATOR: And on January 6,
Hutchinson was in the president's
inner circle.
>> I think the campaign is aware
that January 6 would be the last stand.
Once that certification happens on
the sixth
that it's really over.
(siren blaring)
>> Miss Hutchinson did you go to the rally
in the presidential motorcade?
>> I, I was there, yes.
(siren blaring)
>> And were you backstage
with the president and other members of his staff and family?
>> I was.
>> NARRATOR: It was in the tent backstage
that Hutchinson
heard crucial evidence of what Trump
knew
about the potential for violence that
day.
>> (on video): When we were in the
fstage announce area tent
behind the stage
he was very concerned about the shots--
meaning the photographs that we would
get
because the rally space wasn't full.
>> The former president was unhappy
with the crowd se.
We learned that some of the crowd
size