“Even before the election, Mr. Trump had decided that, regardless of facts and truth, if he lost the election, he would say it was rigged,” said Zoe Lofgren, elected Democrat member of this commission seeking to shed light on the responsibility of the Republican billionaire in the attack on the United States Congress by his supporters, January 6, 2021.
After nearly a year of investigation, this group of elected officials has delivered a meticulous account of the maneuvers of the former president between the evening of the presidential election and the assault on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s lawyer ‘intoxicated’
A few hours following the polls closed on November 3, 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are neck and neck. “It was becoming clear that the election would not be decided that night,” said Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and at the time one of his closest advisers, in testimony released Monday by the commission. .
However, shortly before 2:30 a.m., Donald Trump appears in front of American television from the living rooms of the White House. “Honestly, we won the election,” he says, despite the count still in progress.
“It was far too early to make this kind of decision,” said Bill Stepien, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, before this group of elected officials.
One of the only ones to encourage the president in his approach that evening? His personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who according to one of the president’s advisers testifying before the commission, was “clearly intoxicated”.
The ‘angry’ president
On November 7, 2020, just before 11:30 a.m., Joe Biden was declared the winner. That same day, Donald Trump’s campaign manager attended a meeting with the outgoing president. “We told him what we thought was his chance of winning at this stage (…), that there was maybe a 5 or 10% chance” that he would win, explains Bill Stepien.
The president “was more and more angry”, says Mr. Stepien. The leader decides to change his teams to surround himself with people who support him in his crusade.
On November 19, this new legal team held a most confusing press conference. Sidney Powell, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, accuses Venezuela, Cuba and the Democrats of having hatched an electoral plot.
At his side, Rudy Giuliani, denounces “a scandalous iron curtain of censorship”. Under the heat of the spotlights, a brown liquid, hair dye, begins to drip down her temples.
“Nonsense”
Four days later, Attorney General Bill Barr visits the White House. “It was a bit embarrassing,” says the minister in a video broadcast Monday by the commission.
On several occasions, he said, the two men together examined alleged election fraud advanced by Donald Trump. “Nonsense”, according to the Minister of Justice who will resign on December 14.
In the month that will follow, Donald Trump and his entourage will continue to convey “these lies” regarding electoral fraud to collect donations, argued the commission. Flooding her supporters with dozens of emails a day, her campaign team will raise $250 million between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, she revealed.
“The big lie was also a big scam,” lambasted Zoe Lofgren, known for having worked on the impeachment before Congress of three presidents: Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton … and Donald Trump.
The former tenant of the White House has once once more denounced this parliamentary investigation, calling it a “witch hunt”, which according to him “shames America”.
During four upcoming hearings, the so-called “January 6” commission will continue to present its conclusions on its year of investigation, placing Donald Trump at the heart of “an attempted coup”.
The American Minister of Justice Merrick Garland, who assured follow “all the hearings” of this commission, promised Monday to hold all the actors of January 6, 2021 to account, “whatever their rank, their position, and that whether they were present or not” during the storming of the Capitol.
