gated his stolen election allegations and found no credible fraud that could impact the outcome of the election. this letter and others like it would have urged multiple states to withdraw their official and lawful electoral votes for biden. acting deputy attorney general richard donahue described jeff clark's letter this way. quote, this would be a grave step for the department to take and could have tremendous constitutional political and social ramifications for this country. the committee agrees with mr. donahue. assessment had clark assumed the role of attorney general in the days before january 6th and issued these letters the ramifications could indeed have been grave. mr donahue also said this about clark's plan and i recall to begin saying what your proposal you nothing left in the united states just to support and meddling the upcoming presidential election. in our

hearings, you will hear 1st hand at the senior leadership of the department of justice threatened to resign at the white house council threatened to resign and how they confronted donald trump and jeff clark in the oval office. the men involved, including acting attorney general, jeff rosen, and acting deputy attorney general. richard donahue were appointed by president trump. these men honored their oath of office, they did their duty and you will hear from them in our hearings. by contrast, jeff clark has invoked his 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and refuse to testify. representative scott perry who is also involved in trying to get clark appointed as attorney general has refused to testify. here. as you will see, representative parry contacted the white house in the weeks after january 6th to seek a presidential pardon multiple other republican congressman also sought presidential

pardons for their roles and attempting to overturn the 2020 election. in our 4th hearing, we will focus on president trump's efforts to pressure vice president my pants to refuse to count electoral votes. on january 6th, vice president pans has spoken publicly about this. president trump was wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. and frankly, there is no idea more on america than the notion that a one person could choose the american president. what president trump demanded that my pants do wasn't is wrong. it was illegal and it was unconstitutional. you will hear this in great detail from the vice president, former general counsel. witnesses in these hearings will explain how the former vice president and his staff informed president trump over and over again,

that what he was pressuring mike pence to do was illegal. as you will hear, president trump engaged in a relentless effort to pressure pence, both in private and in public. you will see the evidence of that pressure from multiple witnesses live and on video, vice president pans demonstrated his loyalty to donald trump consistently over 4 years. but he knew that he had a higher duty to united states constitution. this is testimony from the vice president, chief of staff mckuddle. i think the vice president was proud of is 4 years of service. and he felt like a much has been accomplished in those 4 years. and i think he was proud to those 2 beside the president for all that has been done. but i think he ultimately knew that his fidelity constitution was his 1st and foremost of them. and that's, that's what he articulated properly, and i think that's what he felt is fidelity to the constitution was more important

than civility to president trauma, his desires, he took us. you'll also hear about a lawyer named john eastman. mister eastman was deeply involved in president trump's plans. you'll hear from former 4th circuit. federal judge mike alluded, a highly respected leading conservative judge. john eastman clerk for judge luke. judge luda provided counsel to the vice president's team and the days before january 6. the judge will explain how eastman quote was wrong at every turn. and you will see the email exchanges between eastman and the vice president's counsel. as the violent attack on congress was underway. mister jacob said this to me, mister eastman. thanks to your bullshit we are under siege. you will also see evidence that john eastman did not actually believe the legal position he was taking. in fact,

a month before the 2020 election eastman took exactly the opposite view on the same legal issues. in the course of the select committees work to obtain information from mister eastman, we have had occasion to present evidence to a federal judge. the judge evaluated the facts and he reached the conclusion that president trump's efforts to pressure vice president pants to act illegally by refusing to count electoral votes likely violated to federal criminal statutes. and the judge also said this if dr. eastman and president trump's plan had worked. it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power undermining american democracy and the constitution. if the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the court fears, january 6th will repeat itself. every american should read what this federal judge

has written. the same judge, judge carter issued another decision on tuesday night, just this week indicating that john eastman and other trump lawyers knew that their legal arguments had no real chance of success in court. but they relied on those arguments anyway to try to quote, overturn a democratic election. and you will hear that while congress was under attack on january 6th and the hours following the violence, the trump legal team in the willard hotel war room continued to work to halt the count of electoral votes. in our 5th hearing, you will see evidence, the president, trump, corruptly. pressured state legislators and election officials to change election results. you will hear additional details about president trump's call to georgia officials, urging them to quote, find $11780.00 votes votes that did not exist. and his efforts to get states to resend certified electoral slates without factual basis and contrary

to law, you will hear new details about the trump campaign and other trump associates efforts to instruct republican officials and multiple states to create intentionally false electoral slates and transmit those slates to congress, to the vice president and the national archives. falsely certifying that trump one states he actually lost. in our final, to june hearings, you will hear how president trump summoned a violent mob and directed them illegally to march on the united states capital. while the violence was underway, president trump failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the capital. as we present these initial findings, keep 2 points in mind. first, our investigation is still ongoing. so what we make public here will not be the

complete set of information we will ultimately disclose. and 2nd, the department of justice is currently working with cooperating witnesses and has disclosed to date only some of the information. it is identified from encrypted communications and other sources. on december 18th, 2020, a group including general michael flynn, sydney pal, rudy giuliani and others visited the white house. they stayed late in the evening. we know that the group discussed a number of dramatic steps including having the military seas voting machines and potentially re run elections. you will also hear the president trump met with that group alone for a period of time before whitehouse lawyers and other staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene. a little more than an hour after miss pal, mr. juliani, general flynn and the others. finally left the white house president trump sent the

tweet on the screen. now telling people to come to washington on january 6. be there, he instructed them. will be wild. as you will see, this was a pivotal moment. this tweet initiated a chain of events. the tweet led to the planning for what occurred on january 6th, including by the proud boys who ultimately led the invasion of the capital and the violence on that day. the indictment of a group of proud boys alleges, as they planned, quote, to oppose by force the authority of the government of the united states. and according to the department of justice. on january 6th, 2021, the defendants directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd on to the capital grounds and into the capital leading to the dismantling of metal barricades, the destruction of property, the breaching of the capital building. and the assaults on law enforcement.

although certain former trump officials have argued that they did not anticipate violence on january 6th, the evidence suggests otherwise. as you will see in our hearings, the white house was receiving specific reports in the days leading up to january 6th, including during president trump's ellipse rally, indicating that elements in the crowd were preparing for violence at the capitol. and on the evening of january 5th, the president's close advisor, steve bannon said this on his podcast all hell is going to break loose to morrow. just understand that all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. is part of our investigation. we will present information about what the white house and other intelligence agencies knew and why the capital was not better prepared. but we will not lose sight of the fact that the capital police did not cause the crowd to attack. and we will not blame the violence that

day violence provoked by donald trump on the officers who bravely defended all of us. in our final hearing, you will hear a moment by moment account of the hours long attack. for more than half a dozen white house staff both live in the hearing room and via videotape testimony, there is no doubt the president, trump was well aware of the violence as it developed. whitehouse staff urged president trump to intervene and call off. the mob. here is a document written while the attack was under way by a member of the white house staff advising what the president needed to say. quote, any one who entered the capital without proper authority should leave immediately. this is exactly what is supporters on capital hill and nationwide were urging the president to do he would not. you will hear that leaders on capitol hill,

begged the president for help, including republican leader mccarthy, who was quote, scared, and called multiple members of president trump's family after he could not persuade the president himself. not only did president trump refused to tell the mob to leave the capital, he placed no call to any element of the united states government to instruct that the capital be defended. he did not call his secretary of defense on january 6th. he did not talk to his attorney general, he did not talk to the department of homeland security. president trump gave no order to deploy the national guard that day. and he made no effort to work with the department of justice to coordinate and discipline and deploy law enforcement assets of vice president pence did each of those things. for example, here is what general millie, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, testified to this committee to recall vice

president. he was very, very explicit. very direct, unambiguous. there was no question about that. and i can get you the exact quotes, i guess from some of our records somewhere, but he was very, very direct, very firm. and to get the military guy and get the dog down here. put down as situation by contrast, here is general. milly's description of his conversation with president trump, chief of staff, mark meadows on january 6th. he said, we have, we have to kill the narrative. the vice president is making all the decisions. we need to establish the narrative that you know that the

president is still in charge and things are steady or stable. i interpret that as politics, politics, politics. read play for me personally, no action, but i remember distinctly and you will hear from witnesses how the day played out inside the white house or multiple white house staff, resigned and discussed. and our president trump would not ask his supporters to leave the capital. was only after multiple hours of violence, the president trump finally released the video, instructing the riotous mob to leave. and as he did so, he said to them, quote, we love you, and you are very special. you will also hear that in the immediate aftermath of january 6, members of the presidents, family, whitehouse, staff, and others tried to step in to stabilize the situation. quote,

to land the plane before the presidential transition on january 20th. you will hear about members of the trump cabinet discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment and replacing the president of the united states. multiple members of president trump's own cabinet resigned immediately after january 6th. one member of the cabinet suggested that the remaining cabinet officers needed to take a more active role in running the white house. and the administration, but most emblematic of those days is this exchange of texts between sean hannity and former president, trump press secretary, kaylee mcinerney, sean hannity wrote in part key now no more crazy people, no more stolen election talk. yes. impeachment and 25th amendment are real, many people will quit. ms. mcinerney was find it in part,

love that that's the playbook. the white house staff knew the president trump was willing to entertain and use conspiracy theories to achieve his ends. they knew the president needed to be cut off from all of those who had encouraged him. they knew that president donald trump was too dangerous to be left alone, at least until he left office on january 20th. these are important facts for congress and the american people to understand fully. when a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union or worse, causes of constitutional crisis, were in a moment of maximum danger for our republic. some in the white house took responsible steps to try to prevent january 6, others eggs the president on others who could have acted, refused to do so. in this case, the white house council was so concerned about potentially lawless activity that he

threatened to resign multiple times. that is exceedingly rare and exceedingly serious. it requires immediate attention, especially when the entire team threatened to resign. however in the tromp white house, it was not exceedingly rare and it was not treated seriously. this is a clip of jared questioner addressing multiple threats by white house council pat, sip alone, he and his team of lawyers to resign in the weeks before january 6. jared, are you aware of the instances where i passed the bologna threatened to resign? i kind of like i said, my interest at that time was on trying to get as many important stuff. and i know that, you know, he was always to him and the team are always saying, oh, we're going to reside, we're not going to be here. this happens if that happens. so i kind of took it up

to just be wanting to be honest with you whining. there is a reason why people serving and our government take an oath to the constitution. as our founding fathers recognized democracy is fragile. people in positions of public trust are duty bound to defend it. to step forward when action is required in our country, we don't swear an oath to an individual or a political party. we take our own to defend the united states constitution. and that oath must mean something to night. i say this to my republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. there will come a day when donald trump is gone. you are dishonor will remain. finally, i asked all of our fellow americans as you watch our hearings over the coming weeks . please remember what's at stake. remember, the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of

law, not the rule of men. i ask you to think of the scene in our capital rotunda on the night of january 6 there and a sacred space in our constitutional republic. the place where our presidents lie and state watched over by statues of washington and jefferson lincoln and grant eisenhower, ford and reagan, against every wall that night. encircling the room, there were swat teams, men and women and tactical gear, with long guns deployed inside our capital building. there in the rotunda, these brave men and women rested beneath paintings, depicting the earliest scenes of our republic, including one painted in $1824.00, depicting george washington resigning his commission. voluntarily relinquishing power, handing control of the continental army back to congress. with this noble act, washington said the indispensable example of the peaceful transfer of power. what

president reagan called, nothing less than a miracle. the sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every amir president except one. as americans, we all have a duty to ensure that what happened on january 6th never happens again to set aside partisan battles to stay an together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic . thank you mister chairman. as we provide answers to american people about january 6, it's important that we remember exactly what took place that this was no tourist visit to the capitol. most of the footage we are about to play has never been seen. the select committee obtained it as a part of our investigation. this is an easy to what i want to warn

everyone that this video includes violence and strong language. without objection, i include in the record a video presentation of the violence of january 6th. 2 0, sure, where's the advisor? probably about 3 minor proud boys. their margin, eastbound, horner block of, um, kind of independent actually on the law towards the united capital. i am not allowed with everyone is going to have to watch me for that. it's going to have a

a what i hope i get to do the right thing, i hope so. i hope so. because if my fence does the right thing, we win the election, all vice president adventures to do is send it back to the state to re certify. and we become president and you are the ap is people like this is going to have to come through for us and to be doesn't that will be in a, with

a crowd search at each a my kids i hope you're going to stand up for the good of our constitution for the good of our country and if you're not going to be very disappointed and you, i will tell you right now i a

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