Former Trump aide Hope Hicks describes conversation with Trump saying the only thing that matters is winning
From CNN's Clare Foran
Hope Hicks, a former aide to former President Donald Trump, is displayed on a screen during the House select committee hearing on Monday. (Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
In a new video clip played by the House Jan. 6 committee, Hope Hicks, who previously served as a top aide to former President Donald Trump, referenced the baseless claims of election fraud and said: “I was becoming increasingly concerned that ... we were damaging his legacy.”
Trump "said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning,’” Hicks said in the clip.
The committee played the clip after Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Trump was repeatedly told there was no evidence to back up his false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and the panel “has obtained testimony from new witnesses who have come forward to tell us about their conversations with ex-President Trump on this topic.”
“Donald Trump knowingly and corruptly repeated election fraud lies, which incited his supporters to violence on Jan. 6. He continues to repeat his meritless claim that the election was stolen even today, and continues to erode our most cherished and shared belief in free and fair elections,” Lofgren later continued.
2:18 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Kinzinger calls out fellow Republicans for their role in Trump’s DOJ schemes
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, center, speaks during the last hearing of the House select committee on Monday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the the Jan. 6 committee, accused former president Donald Trump of trying to abuse the powers of the Justice Department so he could stay in office.
“It’s of the utmost importance that our Department of Justice operates as a fair and neutral body, that enforces our federal laws without fear or without favor,” Kinzinger said during Monday's public meeting. “It is this critical function that President Trump sought to corrupt, as he sought to use the Department to investigate and prosecute purported election fraud, and to help him convince the public that the election was stolen.”
Kinzinger described how Trump wanted top Justice Department officials to publicly endorse his false claims about massive voter fraud. As part of the plan, Trump wanted them to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” according to committee testimony.
A retiring Republican, Kinzinger called out his fellow GOP lawmakers. He also specifically name-dropped Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who was involved with some of Trump’s scheming at the Justice Department.
When then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen refused to go along with Trump’s plan, Trump almost fired him and replaced him with Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist at DOJ who embraced his election lies.
“It was only after the threat of mass resignations that President Trump rescinded his offer to Mr. Clark,” Kinzinger said.
Members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol sit on Monday beneath a video of former President Donald Trump talking about the results of the 2020 election. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Former President Donald Trump “oversaw” an effort to obtain and transmit false Electoral College certificates, tying him directly to a core tenet of the broader plot to upend Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in key swing states, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection said Monday.
The panel highlighted Trump’s personal involvement in the legally dubious effort to put forward fake slates of electors in seven states he lost, arguing that the evidence shows he actively worked to “transmit false Electoral College ballots to Congress and the National Archives.”
Those certificates, which surfaced publicly earlier this year, helped spark criminal investigations into the Trump team’s attempt to subvert the Electoral College.
As part of its closing message Monday, the select committee emphasized that these “false ballots” were created despite concerns among Trump’s election lawyers and White House counsel that doing so may be “unlawful.”
“The false ballots were created by fake Republican electors on December 14th, at the same time the actual, certified electors in those States were meeting to cast their votes for President Biden. By that point in time, election-related litigation was over in all or nearly all of these states, and Trump Campaign election lawyers realized that the fake slates were unjustifiable on any grounds, and may be unlawful,” committee member Rep. Adam Schiff said.
“In spite of these concerns, and the concerns of individuals in the White House Counsel’s Office, President Trump and others proceeded with this plan,” he added.
The committee has evidence that shows these “intentionally false” Electoral College certificates were “transmitted to multiple officers of the federal government,” according to Schiff.
Evidence collected by the committee also shows these documents “were intended to interfere with the proper conduct of the joint session, where the existence of so-called ‘competing slates’ of electors would serve as a pretext for legitimate electoral votes to be rejected,” he added.
2:18 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Trump misled donors to raise "hundreds of millions of dollars," Rep. Lofgren says
From CNN's Devan Cole and Hannah Rabinowitz
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House select committee, said the panel “found that Mr. Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars with false representations made to his online donors. The proceeds from this fundraising, we have learned, have been used in ways that we believe are concerning.”
“In particular, the committee has learned some of those funds were used to hire lawyers,” the California Democrat said.
One such lawyer told a witness that the individual “could, in certain circumstances, tell the committee that she didn’t recall facts when she actually did recall them,” Lofgren added, but did not name the witness or the lawyer.
The same lawyer, Lofgren said, declined to answer questions from that witness about who was paying for the lawyer’s representation.
Watch:
2:12 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Cheney: Trump "is unfit for any office"
From CNN's Devan Cole
Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during the meeting on Monday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, issued a scathing rebuke of former President Donald Trump during her opening remarks on Monday, saying he is unfit for office based on his actions regarding Jan. 6 insurrection.
“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office,” the Republican from Wyoming said.
“At the beginning of our investigation, we understood that tens of millions of Americans had been persuaded by President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen by overwhelming fraud. And we also knew this was flatly false. We knew that dozens of state and federal judges had addressed and resolved all manner of allegations about the election,” Cheney said. “Our legal system functioned as it should. But our president would not accept the outcome. Among the most shameful of this committee's findings was that President Trump sat in the dining room off the Oval Office watching the violent riot at the Capitol on television.”
She went on to describe how Trump was unmoved by “urgent pleas” from people around him to “issue a public statement instructing his supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol," even as rioters attacked law enforcement officials and halted the electoral count.
“In addition to being unlawful as described in our report, this was an utter moral failure, and a clear dereliction of duty,” Cheney added.
1:34 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Rep. Liz Cheney: "At the heart of our Republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power"
House select committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during the public meeting on Monday, December 19. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, said the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power is "at the heart of our Republic."
"Members of Congress are reminded of this every day, as we pass through the Capitol rotunda. There, eight magnificent paintings detail the earliest days of our Republic," she said Monday at the final meeting of the committee. "One painted by John Trumbull depicts the moment in 1793, when George Washington resigned his commission, handing control of the continental army back to Congress."
She added: "Trumbull called this 'one of the highest moral lessons ever given the world.' With this noble act, George Washington established the indispensable example of the peace transfer of power in our nation."
She traced this orderly transfer of power through every president of the United States until former President Donald Trump refused his constitutional duty.
Watch:
1:29 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Thompson: It's up to the people of America to decide who deserves the public's trust
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee, speaks during their final meeting on Monday. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool/AP)
Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said that the future of democracy rests on the hands of the American public during his opening statement at Monday's public meeting.
"The future of our democracy rests in your hands. It's up to the people of this country to decide who deserves the public trust. Who will put fidelity to the Constitution and democracy above all else. Who will abide by the rule of law — no matter the outcome," Thompson said.
He also thanked the American public for tuning into the committee's hearings and said that he hoped that the evidence presented lived up to their expectations.
"I'm grateful to the millions of you who followed this committee's work. I hope we lived up to our commitment to present the facts — and let the facts speak for themselves," Thompson said.
He continued, "Let me say in closing, the women and men seated around me on this dais are public servants in the most genuine sense. They put aside politician and partisanship, to ensure the success of this committee, and providing answers to the American people."
Thompson specifically thanked Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for her participation. "I especially want to thank and acknowledge our vice chair, who has become a true partner in this bipartisan effort, Ms. Cheney of Wyoming."
3:54 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
America is still in a time of "reflection and reckoning" nearly 2 years after Jan. 6, chairman says
House select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson opens the last public session on Monday. (Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said the panel's findings show that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the insurrection at the US Capitol and that there is still "reckoning" left to do, nearly two years later.
"We remain in strange and uncharted waters," Thompson said, as the committee comes to the close.
“I believe nearly two years later, this is still a time of reflection and reckoning," he added. "If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again."
In opening statements to the committee's final public session, Thompson said Americans show faith in elected officials that they will abide by laws and uphold elected results.
“If the faith is broken, so is our democracy," he said. “Donald Trump broke that faith. He lost the 2020 election and knew it, but he chose to try to stay in office through a multi-part scheme to overturn the results and block the transfer of power."
“In the end, he summoned a mob to Washington,” he said, adding that their findings show Trump knew they were “armed and angry.”
Thompson said the committee intends to make the bulk of its results public in the form of its final report, expected to be released Wednesday.
Along with adopting its final report on Monday, the committee is also expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, CNN previously reported.
"There's one factor I believe is most important in preventing another January 6 — accountability," Thompson said.
"So, today, beyond our findings, we will also show that evidence we've gathered points to further action beyond the power of this committee, or the Congress, to help ensure accountability under law," he added.
"Accountability that can only be found in the criminal justice system. We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice," he said.
Thompson didn’t announce the criminal referrals in his opening statement but said that the panel has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”
CNN's Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.
1:12 p.m. ET, December 19, 2022
Jan. 6 committee's criminal referrals will be sent to DOJ shortly after meeting, chair says
From CNN's Manu Raju
House select committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told CNN that the Jan. 6 committee will send the criminal referrals to the Justice Department “shortly after we take care of business today.”
There are “no plans” as of yet to meet with special counsel Jack Smith, he added.
