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In December 2020, after then-Attorney General William Barr publicly refuted President Donald Trump’s claims that the election had been rigged, White House officials drafted a press release that would have called for the firing of anyone who disagreed with Trump’s claims, according to a new transcript from the House Select Committee investigation Jan. 6, 2021.
The draft statement concluded: “Anyone who believes there was not massive fraud in the 2020 election should be fired,” according to the statement.
The draft statement — which was never sent and was not disclosed before Friday — was raised during the committee’s deposition by Trump’s White House lawyer, Pat Cipollone, according to the transcript. Congressional investigators told him they likely obtained the statement from the National Archives, which turned White House documents over to Trump.
The commission also said during the Cipollone interview that White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson had previously testified that Mark Meadows gave her the draft of the statement — which was a handwritten note — after an Oval Office meeting on the same day that Barr made his public comments refuting Trump. The statement does not appear to specifically name Barr.
The commission said Hutchinson testified that she was instructed by Meadows to seek Cipollone’s approval before the statement was posted on social media. The commission said Hutchinson testified that Cipollone’s response was “God, no.” Cipollone said he had no recollection of the draft statement or the episode.
“I wasn’t fired, by the way,” Cipollone told the committee wryly.
Cipollone’s testimony was one of nearly 50 additional transcripts released Friday night by the Jan. 6 commission. The latest batch contains interviews with key witnesses, including Trump White House insiders and lawyers who worked for the Trump campaign.
Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary, said she did not recall discussing the 25th Amendment after the riot, according to a transcript of her Jan. 6 testimony before the committee released Friday.
Asked by congressional investigators whether she had concerns about Trump’s mental state, Chao said she did not attend many White House meetings until the end of Trump’s tenure. Chao was careful not to be overly critical of Trump in her interview. She said she hadn’t seen him in a while.
“I had no personal contact with him until then,” Chao said. “I didn’t go to the White House, there were no meetings, so I wasn’t in close proximity to him.
Chao, who resigned on Jan. 6, said she stepped down after realizing “the full implications of the actions that some people took and the results that occurred.” Asked about Trump’s behavior that day, she said: “I wish he would have acted differently.”
Asked about the inner workings of the Trump White House and which of his aides and advisers he trusted, Chao said, “I’m not so sure he trusted anyone.”
Chao said she did not recall speaking to any other cabinet members that day — although Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told the committee he had spoken to her.
Ivanka Trump, who was a senior White House adviser to her father, has turned over text messages to the committee since Jan. 6, a newly released transcript of her testimony reveals.
It was not previously known that she provided the text messages to the panel, although videos of her testimony in April were presented during the committee’s public hearings this summer.
The content of the text messages remains unclear.
The commission’s line of questioning did not delve into the content of her texts, but instead strayed from her father’s cellphone habits, including whether he ever sent and received text messages. Ivanka Trump said she “never” exchanged text messages with her father on “any device.”
However, this is the latest example of how the commission received a wealth of evidence, including material that was not previously known.
Sidney Powell, a conspiracy lawyer who helped Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said Trump and his allies believe he could not lose because of his big “rallys” and “common sense ,” according to a transcript of her Jan. 6 committee testimony released Friday.
She said that was the consensus in the room at a White House meeting she attended with Trump just days after the election. She told the committee that then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was also there along with White House aides, according to the transcript.
“He wanted to know the truth,” Powell said, referring to Trump. “And our general consensus was that the vast majority of people came out in support of the president. The rallies showed that. All the information we have listed. And the numbers we saw on election night just didn’t make sense.”
She also claimed that “mathematical geniuses” contacted her to tell her that a Joe Biden victory was statistically impossible.
The testimony shows just how thin the fraud theories emanating from Trump’s orbit really are.
Despite her claims, there is no evidence that the outcome of the 2020 election was tainted by widespread fraud or vote manipulation. Many of the conspiracies that Powell promoted about the election were completely debunked.
During the presidential transition, Trump almost appointed Powell as special counsel to use the federal government’s powers to investigate her baseless theories about voter fraud. Senior White House officials and lawyers fiercely opposed the idea, and it never happened.
Cipollone told the committee on Jan. 6 that “it would be a disaster” if Trump made Powell special counsel, according to a transcript of his testimony.
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