Takeaways from fourth day of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot hearings

By Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The fourth day of the hearings within the U.S. Congress on the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters featured testimony by election officers from the states of Arizona and Georgia.

Listed below are 5 takeaways from the fourth of the U.S. Home of Representatives Choose Committee on Jan. 6’s hearings this month:

TRUMP CLAIM REJECTED

About an hour earlier than the listening to began, Trump in an announcement attacked Arizona Speaker of the Home Rusty Bowers, a Republican who had been a Trump backer within the 2020 election. Trump misplaced Arizona to Biden.

Trump mentioned that in a November cellphone name, Bowers “informed me that the election was rigged and that I gained Arizona.”

Bowers, talking in forceful tones, rebutted Trump’s assertion.

“I did have a dialog with the president. That actually is not it,” Bowers informed the committee. “Anybody, wherever, anytime who mentioned that I mentioned the election was rigged, that might not be true.”

GIULIANI: THEORIES BUT NO EVIDENCE

Bowers additionally recounted makes an attempt to get state legislators to carry public hearings into fraudulent voting.

Bowers mentioned that in a gathering with officers in Phoenix after Biden was licensed successful Arizona, Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani mentioned, “We have got numerous theories, we simply haven’t got the proof” to show election fraud.

An lawyer for Giuliani didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

“I didn’t really feel that the proof, in its absence, merited a listening to and I did not wish to be used as a pawn,” Bowers testified. He added, “You are asking me to do one thing towards my oath and I can’t break my oath,” he mentioned he informed Giuliani.

At one other level within the listening to, the committee performed video of Giuliani saying Trump’s camp had proof of unlawful immigrants and lifeless individuals casting ballots in Arizona.

Witnesses mentioned they by no means acquired proof backing up these allegations.

ELECTION WORKER TARGETED

Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia election employee, informed the committee she confronted repeated threats after Trump and his associates accused her of taking part in a cover-up of the “stolen” election.

“Loads of threats, wishing dying upon me, telling me that I will be in jail with my mom … Be glad it is 2020 and never 1920. … Loads of them (the threats) had been racist. Loads of them had been simply hateful,” Moss mentioned.

She mentioned Trump used her identify 18 instances on a name with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “I felt horrible. I felt prefer it was all my fault,” she mentioned. She regretted having determined to be an elections employee.

TRUMP CRIMES?

One excellent query is whether or not the choose committee after the hearings will advocate prison costs towards Trump for his position within the occasions main as much as the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol.

In Tuesday’s listening to, the committee expanded its case about potential prison exercise, comparable to conspiracy to defraud.

It introduced testimony from Republican Nationwide Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recounted a dialog with Trump.

McDaniel mentioned Trump largely turned the decision over to John Eastman, a Trump adviser, who talked concerning the significance of the RNC serving to the marketing campaign collect “contingent electors” in states the place Trump was difficult outcomes. Committee members have characterised them as “faux” slates of electors.

“I believe extra simply serving to them attain out and assemble them, however my understanding is the marketing campaign did take the lead and we simply had been serving to them in that position,” McDaniel mentioned in describing the RNC’s position on behalf of Trump.

Consultant Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the panel, quoted federal choose David Carter as saying Trump probably violated a number of federal legal guidelines, together with conspiracy to defraud the USA.

DELIVERING FAKE ELECTORS?

The committee confirmed texts from an aide to Republican Senator Ron Johnson to an aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence saying that the senator needed to hand-deliver a faux elector certificates to Pence.

Requested for a remark, Johnson spokesperson Alexa Henning referred to a tweet she wrote:

“The senator had no involvement within the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our workplace,” Henning mentioned on Twitter.

U.S. Consultant Bennie Thompson, chairperson of the Jan. 6 committee, mentioned “pressuring public servants into betraying their oath was a basic a part of the playbook” to safe a Trump victory.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu, Rose Horowitch and Karen Freifeld; Enhancing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)