Former President Donald Trump’s top advisers warned the Republican that his allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were baseless and would not reverse his defeat, but the then-president refused to listen to them, according to testimony given on Monday. (13) to the committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
Close aides and family members of the former president said they warned Trump that they found no merit in a wide range of allegations that emerged after his election defeat, including reports of a suspicious suitcase containing fake ballots, a truck transporting votes to Pennsylvania and cash chips. computer exchanged for ballot boxes.
For William Barr, who served as attorney general in the Trump administration and was considered loyal to the former president, the Republican “has lost touch with reality”.
“I thought, boy, if he really believes these things, he’s lost touch, he’s disconnected from reality,” he said, in a deposition in which he called the allegations of fraud “bullshit” and “crazy.” “There was never any hint of any interest in what the real facts were,” he said.
The testimonies were given at the second of six sessions that the Chamber of Deputies committee is due to hold this month to present the results of nearly a year of investigations into the riot. Last Thursday (9), another session showed that close allies of the former president, including his daughter Ivanka, also rejected the allegations of fraud. Nearly 20 million Americans watched the hearing, which was broadcast on prime-time television.
This Monday, the collegiate pointed out that Trump ignored the warnings of his own advisers when he alleged fraud and still convinced his supporters to attack the Parliament building. “He and his closest advisers knew these allegations were false, but they continued to uphold them at any cost, right up until moments before a crowd of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill,” it said.
According to the collegiate, Trump raised about $250 million from supporters to bring the fraud allegations to justice, but instead funneled much of the money toward other purposes. Trump denies wrongdoing, has repeatedly insisted he did not lose the election, and calls the legislative investigation a witch hunt.
Opinion polls show that many of the former president’s supporters still believe the false claims about the 2020 election — some of them are currently running for supervising positions in future elections. Trump has suggested running for president again in 2024 but has not announced any decisions.
Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, told the committee that, on election night, he suggested that the former president avoid any pronouncements of victory and just say that the count was under way. “He thought I was wrong. He told me that, and that they would, that he would go in a different direction,” he said in videotaped testimony.
Trump went on television to preemptively declare victory at the request of Rudolph Giuliani, his attorney and former New York mayor. Campaign consultant Jason Miller stated in deposition that Giuliani was not sober at the time. “O [ex-]mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I didn’t know his level of intoxication when he spoke to the president,” Miller said in videotaped testimony.
Four people died on the day of the Capitol attack, one of them shot by police. About 140 police officers were injured and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide. Nearly 850 people were arrested for riot-related crimes, including more than 250 accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
