Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
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On election night 2020, the election returns were reported in almost exactly the way that Stepien and other Trump Campaign experts predicted, with the counting of mail-in and absentee ballots gradually diminishing President Trump’s perceived lead. As the evening progressed, President Trump called in his campaign team to discuss the results. Stepien and other campaign experts advised him that the results of the election would not be known for some time, and that he could not truthfully declare victory.33 “It was far too early to be making any calls like that. Ballots—ballots were still being counted. Ballots were still going to be counted for days.” 34
Trump’s campaign did not believe he should have declared victory at any point primarily due to the amount of ballots that still needed to be counted.
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“I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost.” 99
Donald Trump admits to Mark Meadows that he lost the election after the Supreme Court denied hearing his request.
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Despite all that Donald Trump was being told, he continued to purposely and maliciously make false claims. To understand the very stark differences between what he was being told and what he said publicly and in fundraising solicitations, the Committee has assembled the following examples.
Statements from Trump’s staff about how the vote counts had no major anomalies.
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Sarah Matthews: When she got back, she told me that a tweet had been sent out. And I told her that I thought the tweet did not go far enough, that I thought there needed to be a call to action and he needed to condemn the violence. And we were in a room full of people, but people weren’t paying attention. And so, she looked directly at me and in a hushed tone shared with me that the President did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet and that it took some convincing on their part, those who were in the room. And she said that there was a back and forth going over different phrases to find something that he was comfortable with. And it wasn’t until Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase ‘stay peaceful’ that he finally agreed to include it.
Ivanka pressured Trump to say “Stay peaceful” in a tweet during the riot.
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Ivanka Trump is another example. Among other things, Ivanka Trump acknowledged to the Committee that: (1) she agreed with Attorney General Barr’s statements that there was no evidence of sufficient fraud to overturn the election; (2) the President and others are bound by the rulings of the courts and the rule of law; (3) President Trump pressured Vice President Pence on the morning of January 6th regarding his authorities at the joint session of Congress that day to count electoral votes; and (4) President Trump watched the violence on television as it was occurring.716 But again, Ivanka Trump was not as forthcoming as Cipollone and others about President Trump’s conduct. Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements. For example, Ivanka EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 125 Trump had the following exchange with the Committee about her attendance at her father’s speech on January 6th that was at odds with what the Committee learned from Radford:
Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, testified for the committee and despite agreeing with the committee with the claims they made, she still didn’t fully cooperate, implying she has no left bias against her father.
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In total, the Trump Campaign and allies of President Trump filed 62 separate lawsuits between November 4, 2020, and January 6, 2021, calling into question or seeking to overturn the election results.114 Out of 62 cases, only one case resulted in a victory for the President Trump or his allies, which affected relatively few votes, did not vindicate any underlying claims of fraud, and would not have changed the outcome in Pennsylvania.115 Thirty of the cases were dismissed by a judge after a hearing on the merits.
All the court cases involving voter fraud, with only one win by Trump and a 98% losing rate.
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On December 23, 2020, Eastman wrote a two-page memo summarizing ways to ensure that “President Trump is re-elected.”
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According to the Secret Service agent driving the vehicle, the President was “animated and irritated” about not going to the Capitol.110 According to Mr. Engel, he ultimately told the President that they would “assess what our options were and wait until we can get a plan in place before we went down there.” 111 We note that the driver’s account acknowledged President Trump’s anger to a greater degree than either Engel’s initial account in Spring 2022, or his more recent account in November 2022. Engel did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him.112 Engel did not recall being present when Ornato gave either Hutchinson or the White House employee with national security responsibilities an accounting of the events.113 The driver testified that he did not recall seeing what President Trump was doing and did not recall whether there was movement.114
Discussing that Hutchinson’s description of the events were not entirely accurate within Trump’s vehicle on January 6th, but still agreed with Trump’s overall reaction.
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“Sir, they cut it off because they’re rioting down at the Capitol,” the employee said. The President asked what he or she meant by that. “[T]hey’re rioting down there at the Capitol,” the employee repeated. “Oh really?” the President asked. “All right, let’s go see.” 123 A photograph taken by the White House photographer—the last one permitted until later in the day—captures the moment the President heard the news from the employee at 1:21 p.m.124 By that time, if not sooner, he had been made aware of the violent riot at the Capitol.
Trump first confirmed acknowledgment of the January 6th riot.
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President Trump walked through the corridor from the Oval Office into the Presidential Dining Room and sat down at the table with the television remote and a Diet Coke close at hand.125 For the rest of the afternoon—as his country faced an hours-long attack—he hunkered down in or around the dining room, watching television.
Trump upon hearing the news of the riot did not take any action for a couple hours while relaxing with a Diet Coke and TV.
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Giuliani began frantically calling the White House line the very minute that the President’s video went up on Twitter.292 Failing to get through, he called back, once every minute—4:17 p.m., 4:18 p.m., 4:19 p.m., 4:20 p.m.293 He managed to get through, briefly, to Mark Meadows at 4:21 p.m., and then kept calling the White House line: at 4:22 p.m., three times on two different phones at 4:23 p.m., 4:24 p.m., and once more at 5:05 p.m.294 He finally managed to speak with President Trump at 5:07 p.m., and the two spoke for almost 12 minutes.295 After he spoke with President Trump, Giuliani’s phone calls went nearly without fail to Members of Congress: Senator Marsha Blackburn, and then Senator Mike Lee.296 He made three calls to Senator Bill Hagerty, then two to Representative Jim Jordan.297 He called Senator Lindsey Graham,298 Senator Josh Hawley,299 and Senator Ted Cruz.300 Giuliani had two calls with Senator Dan Sullivan over the course of the evening.301 There were another three calls to Representative Jordan, none of which connected.302 After 8:06 p.m., when the joint session resumed, the calls to Members of Congress finally stopped.303 Shortly afterward, at 8:39 p.m., Giuliani had one final call of 9 minutes with the President.304