1/6 Committee Digest

Country First presents the next edition of The Digest to highlight the important work of the 1/6 Committee. Our aim is to make this available to our members within 24 hours after each hearing.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE NEXT HEARING:

TENTATIVELY TUESDAY, JULY 12

In Case You Missed It: 

• Rep. Kinzinger speaks to CNN's Jake Tapper directly following the Thursday's hearing.
• Rep. Kinzinger’s compelling closing remarks.

Who Gave Testimony on Wednesday:

• Brad Raffensberger, Georgia Secretary of State
• Gabe Sterling, Georgia Deputy Secretary of State
• Rusty Bowers, Arizona House of Representatives Speaker
• Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, Election worker in Atlanta in 2020

Who Gave Testimony Thursday

• Jeffrey Rosen, Former Acting Attorney General
• Richard Donoghue, Former Acting Deputy Attorney General
• Steve Engel, Former Assistant Attorney General

Here are the major developments from the committee: 

Kinzinger’s Remarks, A Stark Warning to the American People

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on the 1/6 Committee, led the fifth public hearing Thursday, sharing his fears for the future of the nation. In opening remarks, the Air Force pilot spoke directly to his Republican colleagues, urging them to face the facts and think about the consequences of their actions.

"I want to take a moment now to speak directly to my fellow Republicans, imagine the country’s top prosecutor, with the power to open investigations, subpoena, charge crimes and seek imprisonment, imagine that official pursuing the agenda of the other party instead of that of the American people as a whole. If you’re a Democrat, imagine it the other way around." 

Kinzinger, a decade-long Congressman, focused on the former President's high pressure campaign to make the DOJ bend to his will. Kinzinger outlined late-night meetings, cryptic text messages, and stunning revelations surrounding the Attorney General and the Department of Justice’s refusal to break their oaths as the former President pressured them to knowingly do so.

As Congressman Kinzinger said Thursday, and on January 6, 2021 on the House floor following the violent coup attempt: "The bottom line: If we ask men and women to be willing to give their lives for this nation, and we talk about their service with tears in our eyes, shouldn’t we be willing to give up our jobs to uphold the Constitution?"

Former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue describes conversations with election lie proponent Jeffery Clark 

Testifying at the fifth 1/6 hearing, Richard Donoghue, the former acting Deputy Attorney General, recalls combatting Jeffery Clark’s off-grid investigations into the baseless election claims advanced by the former President. 

Clark, the former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, was approached by Donoghue and former Acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen. They made it clear to Clark that "to suggest or dictate to state legislatures how they should select their electors" was not the DOJ’s role, nor was it even remotely appropriate. 

However, Donoghue and Rosen’s attempts to quell Clark's conduct were unsuccessful, and Clark continued to conduct investigations into dubious claims of voter fraud. 

Seeing this, Donoghue confronted Clark again, asserting that his conduct constituted "nothing less than the Justice Department meddling in an election," to which Clark responded, "I think a lot of people have meddled in this election."

Former President Told DOJ Officials to Lie 

Then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, told his Department of Justice, often called the "people’s lawyer," to say that the election was corrupt, when the same Department of Justice had advised him this was an outright lie. In compelling testimony given by former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, Mr. Donoghue recalled a December 27th meeting where Trump was growing more frantic, even asking for the DOJ to seize voting machines.

"He responded very quickly, and said, essentially, 'That’s not what I’m asking you to do, what I’m asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest up to me and the Republican congressmen'," Donoghue recalled Trump telling top DOJ officials in the meeting. 

The former President called a meeting to discuss options for overturning the legitimate election results of the 2020 election. Despite pressure from the former President inside the Oval Office, the nation’s top lawyers remained steadfast in their oath, opposing the President and threatening to step down.

"He had this arsenal of allegations that he wanted to rely on," said Donoghue, "these allegations were simply not true."

Giuliani and other Trump henchmen wanted the Justice Department to be led by someone not worried about a 'reputation' 

In his private testimony to the committee, Rudy Giuliani, the now-suspended attorney formerly serving as Trump’s personal lawyer, mentioned that he suggested finding a new Attorney General who was not worried about his reputation. He and other Trump allies attempted to aggrandize former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Jeffery Clark to run the Justice Department. 

As former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified at the fifth 1/6 Committee hearing on Thursday, the attempt to elevate Jeffery Clark by Trump's underbosses evolved into a secret meeting with Clark and the former President. This meeting broke the long-standing precedent that contact between the White House and the Justice Department be largely limited to higher-ranking senior officials, a status not held by Clark. 

Along with Donoghue and Rosen, Steven Engel, the former Assistant Attorney General, expressed the concerns about such a meeting, stating that the precedent Clark and Trump defied was intended to ensure investigations are "free from either the reality or any appearance of political interference."

Top DOJ Officials Call Trump’s Plan a "Murder-Suicide Pact"

In stunning new testimony given by top DOJ officials inside a packed committee hearing room, the once former-President’s allies, revealed the intricate plan to overturn the election. The plan included installing an unqualified environmental lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, as the Attorney General of the United States. From there, Clark, under the direction of Trump, planned to send a drafted letter to state officials, alleging voter fraud. Donoghue said he told Clark, "You're an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there's an oil spill."

"I said, good f--cking — excuse me, sorry, f'ing a-hole, congratulations, you just admitted your first step or act you would take as Attorney General would be committing a felony and violating Rule 6(e)," former White House lawyer, Eric Herschmann, recalled in his taped deposition. 

Sitting Members of Congress Begged for a Pardon After January 6 Insurrection

Republican members of Congress asked for pardons from the former President in the days and weeks following the deadly attack on the Capitol. Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, recalled Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Scott Perry (R-PA) asking the former President and his staff for pardons due to their involvement in the events leading up to the attack on January 6th. Perry’s text messages to Mark Meadows were also revealed, where he pushed for an unqualified DOJ lawyer sympathetic to the President's fraud claims to be elevated to Attorney General. 

Hutchinson, in video testimony shown today, focused in on Gaetz, saying the conspiracy theory-peddling member from Florida was personally asking for a pardon as early as December. Congressman Brooks acknowledged that he did ask for a pardon. The other members, except for Gaetz, who refused to comment, denied asking for or inquiring about a presidential pardon. 

"The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime," noted Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

Giuliani: "We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence."

Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of Arizona’s House of Representatives, stated he resisted pressure from Trump and his lieutenants to overturn Trump’s loss in the state. "I didn’t want to be used as a pawn.”

He told the panel that he had refused attempts from Trump and his legal advisers who said they had evidence of fraud sufficient to reverse the election outcome yet never produced any.

The committee focused on the fact that Mr. Trump and his lawyers knew they didn’t have evidence of widespread election fraud. Mr. Bowers testified that Trump lawyer Giuliani admitted he had not uncovered evidence of widespread fraud. Bowers recalled Giuliani saying: "We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence."

Mr. Bowers questioned the legality of participating in such a scheme, to which he testified Mr. Eastman responded: "Just do it and let the courts work it out."

The panel played a video showing Mr. Trump’s lawyers, including Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Eastman, and Cleta Mitchell, as they worked to overturn the election. Mr. Giuliani held hearings and made calls to Republican lawmakers around the country. The scheme to use fake electors is the subject of a Justice Department investigation.

Compelling Testimony Given by Georgia Election Workers

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman were Georgia election workers for the 2020 election. They gave testimony on Tuesday discussing how former President Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani targeted the mother daughter pair claiming they had engaged in fraudulent behavior in order to overturn the election results. 

Video evidence of Moss and Freeman moving a box of regular ballots and passing a mint between one another had been twisted by conspiracy theorists and Trump supporters into evidence of a suitcase containing false ballots and USB drives containing heroin or cocaine. This footage was then used by Guliani to target Moss and Freedman, labeling them as responsible for rigging the election in favor of Biden. 

Death Threats, Racist Insults, and More Thrown at Election Workers for Simply Doing Their Job

The former President referred to Ruby Freeman as a “hustler,” claiming that she was a “professional vote scammer.” Freeman and her daughter were villainized by Trump supporters, received threats, and no longer felt comfortable going by their given names or being out in public. Ms. Freeman, an entrepreneur and beloved member of the community, was threatened into a reclusion because of the lies and actions of former President Trump and his allies. 

Shaye Moss, Freeman’s daughter, testified before the 1/6 Committee that in the wake of the hateful and racist threats and the false accusations that she gained sixty pounds, second-guesses all of her actions, and doesn’t feel safe anywhere.

"It’s turned my life upside down," Moss testified through tears and a shaky voice. Freeman voiced a similar experience saying that she has lost her name and reputation because Giuliani decided to use her and her daughter as a scapegoat. Freeman also testified that she was unable to leave her home for the two months following the election after FBI officials warned that leaving would jeopardize her safety.

"Donald Trump didn’t care about the threats of violence. He did not condemn them, he made no effort to stop them; he went forward with his fake allegations anyway," Rep. Cheney said.

Moss's mother, Ms. Freeman, who also worked the polls in Georgia during the 2020 election, expressed her disbelief with the former President’s conduct following his defeat to Joe Biden: "The president of the United States is supposed to represent everyone, not to target one. But, he targeted me."

Georgia Officials Detail Former President’s Pressure Campaign

Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, outlined the call heard around the world. In the days following the election, the former President called Raffensperger, begging and demanding that he find 11,000 votes from Trump. Despite the intense pressure by the former President and his team, Raffensperger resisted the demands and testified that the 2020 election in Georgia was fair and free.

Because of his refusal to harvest non-existent votes, Raffensperger and his family were targeted. Raffensperger testified: "And my wife started getting texts. They were typically sexualized texts which were disgusting," Raffensperger told the committee.  "They started going after her to get to me – why don’t you quit and just walk away. So that happened. And then some people broke into my daughter-in-law’s home," he said.

Georgia Official "Lost It" After Seeing Death Threats Coming From Trump Supporters

In testimony given on Tuesday, the Deputy Secretary of State, Gabe Sterling, recalled the infamous press conference he gave in December of 2020.

After seeing death threats, racist remarks, and threats of violence, Mr. Sterling, a Republican himself, looked into the TV cameras and directed his anger towards Trump and his team. He said he lost it after seeing a contracted election worker's name on Twitter with an image of a noose, with the text indicating treason had been committed and execution was warranted.

"It was the 'straw that broke the camel's back.' The young man's name, a very unique name, first generation American I believe. It said his name, 'You committed treason, may god have mercy on your soul,' with a slowly twisting GIF of a noose. And for lack of a better word I lost it."

In the press conference, Sterling said: "Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We are investigating. There is always the possibility. I get it. You have the rights to go to the courts. What you don't have the ability to do, and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed. And it's not right."

Republican Members of Congress Further Embroiled with New Text Messages

New text messages revealed for the first time further tied sitting members of Congress and their staff to the Big Lie, with plans to give false elector names to then-Vice President Mike Pence. The 1/6 Committee released text messages between Senator Ron Johnson’s aide and Pence’s legislative affairs director demanding that Pence be handed a slate of alternate electors for Wisconsin and Michigan. Pence’s staffer, Chris Hodgson, replied saying, "Do not give that to him." 

Despite the pressure campaign, the former Vice President and his staff refused to accept false electors. Johnson, who denied the allegations of scheming the people of his own state, continued to deny the allegations on Wednesday. Republicans in seven battleground states submitted themselves as electors, despite Biden winning those states.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE NEXT HEARING:

TENTATIVELY TUESDAY, JULY 12