CNN
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In December 2020, after then-Attorney General William Barr publicly refuted President Donald Trump’s allegations that the election was rigged, White House staff called for the dismissal of anyone who opposed Trump’s allegations. Transcript from the House Select Committee reviewing the new January 6, 2021, date of drafting the release.
The draft testimony ended with, “Anyone who thinks there was no massive fraud in the 2020 election should be fired.”
A draft of the statement was never sent and was not revealed until Friday, according to the paper, but was brought up when the committee filed a deposition against President Trump’s White House adviser, Pat Cipollone. A congressional investigator told him they likely obtained the statement from the National Archives, which turned over documents from President Trump’s White House.
The committee also said in an interview with Cipollone that White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson previously testified that Mark Meadows gave her a draft statement, a handwritten note. The statement doesn’t seem to explicitly name the bar.
The commission claimed Hutchinson testified that he had been instructed by Meadows to seek Cipollone’s approval before the statement was posted on social media. He said he testified that it was no. Cipollone said he had no recollection of the draft statement or episode.
“I wasn’t fired, by the way,” Cipollone quipped to the committee.
The Cipollone Deposit is one of about 50 additional transcripts released Friday night by the January 6th Commission. The latest batch included interviews with key witnesses, including Trump’s White House insiders and lawyers who worked for the Trump campaign.
Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary, said she had no recollection of discussing the 25th Amendment after the riots, according to a transcript of the Jan. 6 depositions to the committee released on Friday.
Asked by congressional investigators if he had any concerns about Trump’s mental state, Chao said he did not attend many White House meetings until after Trump’s term ended. I was careful not to overdo it. She said she hadn’t seen him in a while.
“By that time, I had no personal contact with him,” Chao said. I have never been.”
Chao, who resigned on Jan. 6, said she resigned after realizing “the actions some people took and the full repercussions of the consequences.” , said, “I wish he had acted differently.”
Asked about the inner workings of Trump’s White House and who he trusts among his aides and advisers, Chao said, “I don’t know if he trusted anybody.” Stated.
Chao said she doesn’t remember talking to any other ministers that day — even though Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told the committee he spoke to her.
Ivanka Trump, who served as her father’s senior White House adviser, handed a text message to the committee on Jan. 6, a newly released transcript of her testimony reveals.
It was not previously known that she provided text messages to the committee, but a video clip of the April deposition was featured at the committee hearings this summer.
The content of the text message remains unknown.
The commission’s series of questions didn’t delve into the content of her text messages, but rather focused on her father’s cell phone habits, including whether he ever sent and received text messages. Ivanka Trump said she “never” exchanged texts with her father “on any device.”
Still, this is the latest example of how the commission obtained a wealth of evidence, including previously unknown material.
Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist attorney who helped Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, said Trump and his allies held his mass “rallies,” according to a transcript of the deposition. He said he believed he could not lose because of “common sense”. to the committee on January 6, announced on Friday.
She said it was the consensus in a White House meeting room she attended with Trump just days after the election. Rudy Giuliani said he was also there with a White House aide.
“He wanted to know the truth,” Powell said, referring to Trump. “And our general consensus was that the majority of people poured in to support the president. And the numbers we saw on election night were simply insane.”
She also claimed that a “mathematical genius” contacted her and told her that Joe Biden’s victory was statistically impossible.
This testimony shows that the fraud theories emanating from Trump’s orbit were indeed paper-thin.
Despite her allegations, there is no evidence that the results of the 2020 election were tainted by widespread fraud or voter fraud. Many of the conspiracies Powell promoted over the election were thoroughly debunked.
During the presidential transition, Trump almost appointed Powell as a special counsel to use federal powers to investigate her baseless voter fraud theories. I objected and it never happened.
“It would have been a disaster,” Cipollone told the committee on Jan. 6 if Trump appointed Mr. Powell as special counsel.
