Ivanka Trump and Kayleigh McEnany planned for next steps when litigation on alleged election fraud concluded
Many other Trump White Houseofficials shared the view thatonce the litigation on alleged voting fraud ended andthe Electoral College met, theelection was over, including Ivanka Trump and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, according to Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney.
When the litigation concluded "waswhen I began to plan for lifeafter the administration," McEnany said in her taped testimony to the committee.
When Ivanka Trump was asked if the conclusion of the Electoral College vote affected her planningin terms of the end to the Trump administration, she said,"I think so.I think it was my sentimentprobably prior as well."
Cipollone says he pushed for evidence in tense White House meeting with Powell and Flynn
In a "heated and profane clash" on Dec. 18, 2020, at the White House, there was a meeting that lasted over six hours. The select committee spoke to six of the participants,"as well as staffers who couldhear the screaming from outsidethe Oval Office," according to Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone said he walked into a meeting with attorney Sidney Powell — who repeatedly pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election — former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Overstock founder Patrick Byrne.
Cipollone expressed his displeasure with seeing them in the White House in video footage from the committee.
Derek Lyons, former White House staff secretary, said the meeting was tense.
"At times, there werepeople shutting out each other, throwing insults at each other.It wasn't just people sittingaround on a couch chitchatting," he said.
Powell told the committee that Cipollone and former senior adviser Eric Herschmann were "showing contempt and disdain" for Trump.
Cipollone told the committee they were verbally attacking him.
"We were pushing back and we're asking one simple question as a general matter: Where is the evidence?" he said.
Former attorney general says Trump asked to seize voting machines
In response to baseless claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies thatvoting machines were beingmanipulated by foreign powersin the 2020 election, former Attorney General Bill Barr called those allegations "complete nonsense," according to his video testimony played during today's hearing.
"I saw absolutely zero basisfor the allegations, but theywere made in such a sensationalway that they obviously wereinfluencing a lot of people,members of the public, thatthere was this systemiccorruption in the system andthat their votes didn't countand that these machinescontrolled by somebody elsewere actually determining itwhich was complete nonsense andit was being laid out there andI told them that it was crazystuff and they were wastingtheir time on that.And it was doing a gravedisservice to the country," Barr said.
Trump's former White Housecounsel Pat Cipollone agreed with Barr and theDepartment of Justice, the committee said. During his interview last week, Cipollone told the committee"Isupported that" conclusion by Barr that there was no election fraud.
Another clip of Barr's testimony played today by the committee revealed that Trump asked Barr to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.
"My recollection is thePresident said something like,well, some people say we could get, you know,to the bottom of this if thedepartment sees the machines.It was a typical way of raisinga point," Barr said.
The former AG said he responded: "Absolutely not,there is no probable cause andI'm not going to seize anymachines."
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin said that even after Barr's refusal, Trump and his allies continued to push this plot to seize voting machines, including drafting an executive order that would appoint attorney Sidney Powell as a special counselwith the power to seize machines. At the time, Powell was "makingoutlandish claims aboutVenezuelan and Chineseinterference in the election," Raskin said.
Asked about the potential appointment of Powell, Cipollone said in his interview with the committee, "I don’t think Sidney Powell would say that I thought it was a good idea to appoint her to special counsel. I was vehemently opposed. I didn't think she should be appointed to anything."
Raskin says Giuliani's legal team knew there wasn't evidence to support election fraud claims
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin cited emails from Rudy Giuliani's legal team, which shows that they did not have sufficient evidence of widespread voter fraud ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.
"Even Rudy Giuliani's own legalteam admitted that they did nothave any real evidence of fraudsufficient to change the election results," Raskin said.
Raskin then cited an email from Giuliani's lead investigator Bernie Kerik to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows from Dec. 28, 2020 which stated, "We can do all the investigations we want later, but if the president plans on winning, it's the legislators that have to be moved and this will do just that."
Raskin added that in November 2021, Kerik's lawyer later wrote to the select committee the following, "It was impossible for Mr. Kerik and his team to determine conclusively whether there was widespread fraud or whether that widespread fraud would have altered the outcome of the election."
Officials testify they never saw evidence from Giuliani backing up election fraud claims
Several officials, including those who were working on the Trump campaign, said they never saw evidence that backed up Rudy Giuliani's claims that there was election fraud.
When asked what evidence the campaign had seen from Giuliani's team, Jason Miller, a former senior advisor to Trump, told the committee it was "very general."
"There were some very, very general documents as far as... say for example, here are the handful of dead people ins several different states. Here are explanations on a couple of the legal challenges, as far as saying that the rules were changed in an unconstitutional manner," he said in a taped deposition.
"To say that it was thin is probably an understatement," Miller added.
Justin Clark, Trump's former deputy campaign manager, said he never saw evidence from Giuliani of the election fraud he was claiming.
Committee investigator: You never came to learn orunderstand that Mayor Giulianihad produced evidence ofelection fraud. Is that fair?
Clark: That's fair.
Rep. Rusty Bowers, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, previously testified that Giuliani made a point that they had a lot of theories, but no evidence.
Rep. Adam Schiff: At some point, did one of them make a comment that they didn't have evidence but they have a lot of theories?
Bowers: That was Mr. Giuliani.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone thought seizing voting machines was a "terrible idea"
Donald Trump-connected lawyer Sidney Powell's idea of having the federal government seize state voting machines was "a terrible idea," former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 riots on the US Capitol.
"To have the federalgovernment seize voting machines? It's a terrible idea for the country.That is not how we do things inthe United States. There's no legal authority to do that," he told the committee.
Cipollone added that once former Attorney General Bill Barr had reached a conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of election fraud to change the outcome of the election, he supported it.
"There was real question inmy mind and a real concern," he said. "When other people keptsuggesting that there was, theanswer is, what is it?And at some point, you have to put up or shut up.That was my view."
Watch former White House counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony before the January 6th committee:
Former White House counsel Cipollone told Jan. 6 committee that Trump should've conceded election
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, in the first aired footage of the 8-hour interview he had with members of the Jan. 6 select committee, said he agreed with other Trump officials that there was not sufficient evidence of election fraud.
Cipollone specifically testified that he believed former President Donald Trump should've conceded the election.
"I was the White Housecounsel.Some of those decisions werepolitical.... If your questions is did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time? Yes I did,” he said in video footage shown in the hearing.
He said his thoughts were "in line" with that of what Sen. Mitch McConnell first said about accepting the results of the election on the Senate floor.
Cheney says Trump and his allies deceived Americans about election fraud
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, said former President Donald Trump and his allies deceived the American public about widespread election fraud, when they "lacked actual evidence."
"As you watch our hearing today, I would urge you to keepyour eye on two specific points.First, you will see evidencethat Trump's legal team led byRudy Giuliani knew that theylacked actual evidence ofwidespread fraud, sufficient toprove that the election wasactually stolen.They knew it.But they went ahead withJan. 6 anyway," Cheney said during her opening statement. "And second, consider howmillions of Americans werepersuaded to believe whatDonald Trump's closest advisersin his administration did not," she said.
Cheney continued, "These Americans did not haveaccess to the truth like DonaldTrump did.They put their faith and theirtrust in Donald Trump.They wanted to believe in him.They wanted to fight for theircountry.And he deceived them.For millions of Americans thatmay be painful to accept but itis true."
White House meeting with Trump and advisers described as "unhinged," Rep. Raskin says
From CNN's Clare Foran
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a Jan. 6 committee member, referenced a meeting that took place on Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, at the White House that he says has been called "unhinged," "not normal," and "the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency."
Raskin said that a team of outside advisers to Trump visited him in the White House on that date. "The outside lawyers who had been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it. As we will see, however, they brought to the White House a draft executive order that they had prepared for President Trump to further his ends. Specifically, they proposed the immediate mass seizure of state election machines by the US military," the Maryland Democrat said.
Raskin said that the meeting ended after midnight "with apparent rejection of that idea."
"In the wee hours of Dec. 19, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a "large and wild crowd" on Wednesday, Jan. 6 — the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes," he said.
