Here is Barr’s point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s fraud claims
Here is Barr’s point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s fraud claims
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb
Former President Donald Trump’s Attorney General William Barr provided the House Jan. 6 Committee with a detailed, point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s false claims about the election in his closed-door deposition.
In lengthy excerpts of Barr’s taped deposition played during Monday’s hearing, Barr told the committee there was an “avalanche” of fraud allegations coming into the Justice Department after the election that he likened to “playing whack-a-mole.
“There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were,” Barr said. “My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud. And I haven’t seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that.”
On December 1 2020, Barr told the Associated Press that the Justice Department did not find substantial evidence of voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election. Trump was furious at Barr during an Oval Office meeting later that day, Barr said in his deposition.
Among Barr’s rebuttals of fraud played at Monday’s hearing:
- Barr said that Trump claimed there was a “big vote dump” in Detroit, which Barr said wasn’t true. “I said, ‘Did anyone point out to you – did all the people complaining about it point out to you, you actually did better in Detroit than you did last time?’ I mean, there’s no indication of fraud in Detroit,” Barr said of his conversation with Trump.
- Barr said he reiterated “they wasted a whole month on these claims on the Dominion voting machines, and they were idiotic claims.” Trump’s outside lawyers and right-wing media made baseless claims that Dominion voting machines had been used to change votes in the election. “I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines, which I found to be among the most disturbing allegations – disturbing in the sense that I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people, members of the public,” Barr said.
- During their December 2020 Oval Office confrontation, Barr said that Trump gave him a report that claimed “absolute proof” the Dominion voting machines had been rigged. Barr said that the report “looked very amateurish to me,” and he “didn’t see any supporting information” for the fraud claims. “I was somewhat demoralized, because I thought, ‘Boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with – he’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff.’”
- Barr criticized the movie “2,000 Mules” — a conservative film Trump has embraced that falsely claimed to have uncovered fraud in the 2020 election. In referencing the movie during his taped deposition, Barr laughed derisively. “When the movie came out, I think the photographic evidence in it was completely – I mean, there was a little bit of it, but it was lacking,” Barr said of the movie. “It didn’t establish widespread, illegal harvesting.”
The Jan. 6 committee hearing is back from recess
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is back after taking a short break.
Here’s who is testifying next:
- Conservative election attorney Ben Ginsberg, who is expected to speak about the failed court cases pursued by Trump’s team.
- US attorney for the North District of Georgia BJay Pak, who was pressured to embrace Trump’s fraud claims and resigned.
- Former Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt, who debunked false claims about election fraud in Philadelphia.
Stepien says advisers told Trump odds of winning election were “5 to 10%” as votes continued to be counted
From CNN’s Kate Sullivan
Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien told the House Jan. 6 committee that as votes continued to be counted in the days after Election Day in 2020 he and other advisers told former President Donald Trump that the odds of him winning the election were “5 to 10%.”
Stepien also said that his assessment at the time was that things were looking “very, very, very bleak.”
“With each day that wore on, I mean the trajectory of the race on Election Night — Trump ahead in many states — and as that week wore on, as the third became the fourth became the fifth and so on and so forth, and the vote by mail ballots were tabulated, you know, Trump’s lead, you know, grew more narrow. And in, and in some places Biden surpassed, you know, Trump in the vote totals,” Stepien said in a video the committee showed.
Stepien continued, “So as the week wore on, as we paid attention to those numbers, every single — multiple times a day, you know, internally, you know, I was feeling less confident for sure.”
On the tape, Stepien was then asked, “What was your view on the state of the election at that point?”
“You know, very, very, very bleak. You know, I, we told him, the group that went over there, outlined, you know, my belief in, in chances for success at this point and then we pegged it at, you know, 5, maybe, maybe, 10% based on recounts that were, you know, either were automatically initiated or could be initiated based on, you know, realistic legal challenges, not all the legal challenges that eventually were pursued,” Stepien said.
“My belief was that it was a very, very — 5 to 10% is not a very good, optimistic outlook,” Stepien said.
Stepien did not appear in person before the committee on Monday after his wife went into labor, but the committee showed video from Stepien’s previous closed-door deposition.
White House doesn’t intend for Biden to weigh in on incremental developments of Jan. 6 hearings
From CNN’s MJ Lee
As the House Jan. 6 committee’s hearing plays out this morning, the White House is continuing to watch and monitor closely.
However, as far as President Biden himself is concerned, White House officials do not intend on the President weighing in on the day-to-day, more incremental developments of the committee’s hearings. Instead, the hope is that when Biden does weigh in, those moments are more reserved for significant developments in the hearings, according to a source familiar with the White House’s thinking.
The bigger context here is that there are certain things that White House officials want to be careful to try to avoid – including the perception that the White House is injecting politics into an ongoing congressional investigation, as well as handing former President Donald Trump and his allies more ammunition to accuse Biden and his team of politicizing the Jan. 6 committee’s work. (All of this, of course, doesn’t mean that there’s no chance that we see Biden – when confronted with questions from reporters in the coming days and weeks – engage on the topic of the Jan. 6 hearings more than his aides would like.)
Asked last week whether he had watched that day’s hearing, Biden shrugged as he told CNN’s Kevin Liptak that he “didn’t have time” to do so.
Peter Navarro refused to testify and now faces federal charges
From CNN’s Dan Berman
Donald Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon testified that Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro accused him of being an agent of the “deep state” after Cannon dismissed various 2020 election fraud claims.
But there’s no evidence from Navarro — who refused to cooperate with the select committee’s subpoena — saying that he can’t violate Trump’s executive privilege.
He was arrested last week on contempt of Congress charges.
Navarro’s next court appearance is Friday, but he’s so far argued that he was mistreated by the FBI upon his arrest at Reagan National Airport and denied a post-arrest phone call. The FBI, on the other hand, say Navarro had wanted to call the media, rather than an attorney.
The FBI also says Navarro called the arresting officers “kind Nazis.”
Barr said he thought he would be fired after telling AP there was no widespread election fraud
From CNN’s Clare Foran
In a video played at today’s hearing, former Attorney General Bill Barr said he thought that he would be fired after telling the Associated Press that there was no widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Here’s what Barr said in the clip:
“I felt it was time for me to say something — so I set up a lunch with the AP reporter Mike Balsamo and I told him at lunch, I made the statement, that to date we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election. I had a later meeting scheduled at the White House at 3 o’clock with Meadows, this was previously scheduled so I knew this was going to come up. I went over there and I told my secretary that I thought I would probably be fired and told not to go back to my office. I said you might have to pack up for me. So when I got over there, I met with the chief of staff, he said the President was angry.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, had this to say before playing the clip of the former attorney general: “Barr told the Associated Press on December 1, that there was no evidence of election fraud and immediately after Attorney General Barr’s statement went public, Mr. Trump berated and he nearly fired Barr, but Barr persisted in telling the President that there was no evidence to support the fraud claims.”
The AP published a story on Dec. 1 with the headline: Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud
Kushner and other Trump aides say they opposed Giuliani’s 2020 election lies
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
Some of then-President Donald Trump’s top aides were deeply uncomfortable with the conspiracy theories that his outside advisers were pushing about the 2020 election, according to new testimony revealed Monday at the Jan. 6 committee hearing.
In a videotaped deposition, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said he opposed Rudy Giuliani’s post-election activities, though based on Kushner’s own description of his pushback, it did not sound all that forceful.
“I guess, yes,” Kushner said, explaining that he told Trump that Giuliani’s strategy was “basically not the approach I would take if I was you.” Kushner said Trump responded by expressing “confidence in Rudy.”
Some lawyers who had been helping the Trump campaign also balked at what was happening.
“I had conversations with probably all of our counsel who are signed up to assist on election day…. the general consensus was that the law firms were not comfortable making the arguments that Rudy Giuliani was making publicly,” Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a videotaped deposition, a portion of which was played by the committee.
This dynamic was reported in real time, with some prominent GOP lawyers steering clear of the more unhinged voter-fraud claims emanating from Trump’s orbit. One major law firm that was involved in a Republican-backed lawsuit put out a statement in November 2020, distancing itself from Trump’s legal strategy, and another law firm that represented the Trump campaign in a Pennsylvania case abruptly withdrew after Trump ramped up his election lies.
Ex-Trump campaign manager describes Trump’s reaction on election night
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb
A video clip was played during Monday’s hearing featuring former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien describing a conversation he had with then-President Donald Trump on election night, in which Trump disagreed with Stepien’s recommendation to say it was too early to call the race.
The conversation is one of the first instances during the Jan. 6 congressional hearings where a witness has detailed what conversations they were having with Trump on election night.
The committee played video from Stepien’s deposition where he said that it was his recommendation to say it was “too early to tell” who won the race.
“The President disagreed with that,” Stepien said. “I don’t recall the particular words. He thought I was wrong, he told me so, and that they were going to go in a different direction.”
During Monday’s hearing, the committee also played a clip from Trump’s speech in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 2020, where he falsely said he had won.
“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,” Trump said at the time.
Stepien was supposed to testify in person at Monday’s hearing, but he was unable to appear after his wife went into labor. Instead, the committee used video from his previous deposition to help illustrate testimony.
“Better off to play the Powerball” than expecting a recount to change results, former Fox journalist says
After then-President Trump lost Arizona in the 2020 presidential election, his chances of reelection were “none,” said former Fox digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt.
Stirewalt, who was fired after backlash to the network after — correctly — calling Arizona for now-President Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, also explained why he didn’t think a recount could change the election results in Trump’s favor.
“Ahead of today, I thought about what are the largest margins that could ever be overturned by a recount,” he told the Jan. 6 committee today. “In modern history, you’re talking about 1,000-1,500 votes, at the way, way outside. Normally, you’re talking about hundreds of votes, maybe 300 votes that will change.”
“So the idea that through any normal process in any any of these states — remember he had to do it thrice. He needed three of these states to change … You’re better off to play the Powerball than to have that come in,” Stirewalt said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-june-13/h_61142d60da533a455a3058c7f1efb210
