January 6 Report Chapter 2: The Electoral College, and Trump's Attempts to Subvert It

Previous Chapter:
https://pardontheinsurrection.buzzsprout.com/2003879/13191754

You won't believe the startling lengths President Trump and his allies went to in an attempt to overturn the 2020 US election results. We're peeling back the layers on the relentless pressure campaign waged on state and local officials, examining the infamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and the broader perspective that paints a picture of a comprehensive effort to subvert democracy. Strap in for a journey through a historical event that shocked the nation.

We dig into the tactics employed by the Trump administration, including the 10-day plan for certifying President Trump's victory and the intense lobbying of Republican representatives in Congress and swing states. We also expose the personal consequences public servants faced in the wake of these efforts, from harassment to intimidation and even violent threats. The human toll of these actions is staggering, as we hear firsthand accounts from those directly targeted, like Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

In the rest of chapter 2, we turn the spotlight on Ruby Freeman, a woman who found herself on the receiving end of the Trump team's campaign to overturn the 2020 election results. Freeman's story gives us a raw and genuine insight into the personal impact of being targeted in one of the most shocking attempts to subvert a democratic election in the United States. Join us for this gripping and comprehensive dissection of an unprecedented chapter in American politics.

Chapters

• 0:00 Chapter 2: “I JUST WANT TO FIND 11,780 VOTES”
• 4:35 Ch 2.1 The Electoral College, and President Trump’s Attempt to Subvert It
• 7:50 Ch 2.2 The Plan Emerges
• 17:45 Ch 2.3 Outreach and Implementation of the Plan
• 1:05:45 Ch 2.4 An Outright Request for Victory
• 1:12:00 Ch 2.5 Some Officials Eagerly Assisted President Trump With His Plans
• 1:16:44 Ch 2.6 The Final Outreach to State Legislators
• 1:26:07 Ch 2.7 The Harm Caused by Demonizing Public Servants

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Chapter 2. I Just Want to Find 11,780 Votes. In a now infamous telephone call on January 2, 2021, president Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for more than an hour. President confronted him with multiple conspiracy theories about the election, none of which were true, one after another, during their call. Under Raffensperger's leadership, georgia had by that time already conducted a state-wide hand recount of all the ballots. That recount and other post-election reviews proved that there was no widespread fraud and the voting machines did not answer the outcome of the election. They should have put President Trump's allegations to rest. But, undeterred by the facts, the President and Badger Raffensperger to overturn the Georgia results. President Trump insisted that the ballots are corrupt and someone was shredding them. He issued a thinly veiled threat telling Raffensperger it is more legal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. Of course, the Georgia officials weren't doing anything illegal and there was nothing to report. Even so, trump suggested that both Raffensperger and his general counsel, ryan Germany, could face criminal jeopardy. That's a criminal. That's a criminal offense. You can't let that happen. The President said That's a big risk to you and of Ryan, your lawyer. I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen. And then the President made the demand. So look, all I want to do is this I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. President Trump told Raffensperger. It was a stunning moment. The President of the United States was asking the state's chief election officer to quote find enough votes to declare him the winner of an election he lost.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Raffensperger saw the President's warning to him on January 2nd as a threat. I felt then, and I still believe today, that this was a threat. Raffensperger wrote in his book, and this threat was multifaceted. First, the President notifying Raffensperger and his team of criminal activity could be understood as directing the law enforcement power of the federal government against them. While Raffensperger did not know for certain whether President Trump was threatening such an investigation, he knew Trump had positional power as President and appeared to be promising, to quote make my life miserable. But the threat was also of a more insidious kind. Thus, raffensperger wrote in his book. Others obviously thought it was a threat too, because some of Trump's more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out his threat.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Raffensperger's deputy held a press conference and publicly warned all Americans, including Trump, that President Trump's rhetoric endangered innocent officials and private citizens and fueled death threats against Georgia election workers. Sexualized threats directed towards Raffensperger's wife in harassment at the homes of Georgia election officials. The January 2nd call promised more of the same. The upshot of President Trump's message to Raffensperger was do what I ask or you will pay. President Trump's phone call with Secretary Raffensperger received widespread coverage after it was leaked. But Georgia was not the only state targeted by President Trump and his allies.

Speaker 1: 3:09

The call was one element of a larger and more comprehensive effort, much of it unseen by and unknown to the general republic, to overturn the vote's cast by millions of American citizens across several states. As Chapter 1 explained, the root of this effort was the big lie, president Trump and his allies publicly claiming that the election was right before they could have changed the results, even though the president's own advisors and the Department of Justice told the president time and time again that this was not the case. But in parallel with this strategy, president Trump and his allies erode in on key battlegrounds states that the president had lost, leading on Republican state officials to overrule voters, disregard valid vote counts and deliver the state's electoral votes to the losing candidate. Had the scheme worked. Trump could have, for the first time in American history, subverted the results of a lawful election to stay in power. This was a deeply anti-democratic plan To co-op state legislatures through appeals to debunk theories of election fraud or pure partisan politics to replace Biden electors with Trump electors, so President Trump would win the electoral vote count in the joint tension of Congress on January 6. And enough state officials going along with Trump's plot, his attempt to stay in power might have worked. It is fortunate that a critical mass of honorable officials withstood President Trump's pressure to participate in this scheme. They and others who stood up to him closed off avenues for thwarting the election so that by noon on January 6, president Trump was left with one desperate final gambit for holding on to power sending his armed, angry supporters to the United States Capitol.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Chapter 2, section 1 The Electoral College and President Trump's Attempt to Subvert It. When Americans vote for a presidential candidate on election day, they are actually casting votes for their candidates' proposed presidential electors to participate in the Electoral College. After a state certifies its election results and announces a winner, it also issues a certificate of ascertainment which contains the names of the duly chosen Electoral College electors, the electors whose names appear as having received the most votes on the certificate of ascertainment will go on to participate in the Electoral College, while the losing candidates' proposed electors have no role to play and no standing to participate in the Electoral College. This happens after every presidential election in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This process comes from a clause in the United States Constitution that gives states the power to choose Electoral College electors according to state law. That clause says that each state shall appoint Electoral College electors in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct. All 50 states have decreed that electors will be selected by popular vote.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Thursday, november 3, was the day established by federal law as Election Day in 2020. Each state's rules had been set and courts had weighed in on when certain rules were challenged. Polls opened around the country and votes came in with an in-person or via mail, according to each state's laws. Over 154 million voters cast votes according to the rules and place on Election Day. President Trump lost. He and his supporters went to court filing long shot legal challenges to the election, but they failed in courts around the country, before judges appointed by executives of both parties, including President Trump himself, and for those judges who were elected that are members of both parties.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Rather than abiding by the rule of law and accepting the court's rulings, president Trump and his advisors tried every which way to reverse the outcome. At the state level, they pressured local and state election officials to stop counting votes once it became clear the former Vice President Joe Biden would prevail in the final count. They pressured governors, secretaries of state and local officials not to certify the popular vote. In several swing states the former Vice President Biden had won. And when that didn't work, they pressured state legislators to disregard the vote counts and instead appoint Trump electors to vote in the electoral college. This fundamentally anti-democratic effort was premised on the incorrect theory that, because the Constitution assigns to the state legislatures the role of directing how electoral college electors are chosen which every state legislature had done before the election, giving power to the people at the ballot boxes then the state legislators could simply choose Trump-Pin's electors after seeing the election results. In effect, president Trump and his advisors pushed for the rules to be changed after the election, even if it meant disenfranchising millions of Americans.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Number 2, section 2, the Plan Emerges. More than a month before the presidential election, the media reported that the Trump campaign was already developing a fallback plan that will focus on overturning certain election results at the state level. An article published on September 23, 2020 in The Atlantic explained, according to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states or Republicans hold the legislative majority. Ominously, the same reporting predicted almost exactly what would later come to pass. With the justification based on claims of rampant fraud, trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. Numerous senior Trump campaign advisors, including campaign manager William Steppian, deputy campaign manager and senior counsel Justin Clark, and President Trump's lead attorney, rudy Giuliani, all told the select committee that there was indeed a state-focused strategy or track to challenge the outcome of the election, which included pressing state legislators to challenge results in key swing states and to appoint new electoral college electors. You know, in the days after election day, later in the first week, bleeding into the second, as our numbers and data looked bleaker internally, we knew that Steppian told the select committee, as the Associated Press called the race. I think some surrounding the president were looking for different avenues to pursue. That's when Steppian remembered the concept first coming up. Those around President Trump were pushing this idea and pushing it hard.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Just two days after the election, trump's son, donald Trump Jr, forwarded to the White House chiefs of staff, mark Meadows, a suggestion that state assemblies can step in and vote to put forward the electoral slate. As Republicans control Pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, north Carolina, etc. We get Trump electors And so we either have a vote we control and we win, or it gets kicked to Congress. On January 6th, chiefs of staff Meadows responded, working on this for Pennsylvania, georgia and North Carolina. Already Within one week after the election, meadows also sent or received several other messages. The state legislature can turn over the electoral process. Mark Meadows texted Georgia State Senator Marty Harbin Agreed. Mark Meadows texted to a different senator who suggested that the Trump administration should get out there if they were seriously considering the state legislature's strategy. I'll tell him. Mark Meadows texted with senator who suggested President Trump starts building momentum for the state legislatures. I love it. Mark Meadows texted Representative Andy Beggs who relayed what he acknowledged as a highly controversial idea to have the Republican legislatures appoint electors, spelled appoint a look doors. Why can't the states of Georgia, north Carolina, pennsylvania and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS, where conflicts and elections not called that night and just send their own electors. I wonder if Otis knows this. Former Secretary of Energy, rick Perry, to Mark Meadows.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Another White House official exploring such a plan less than a week after the election was Vince Haley, deputy Assistant to the President for Policy Strategy and Speechwriting. He suggested imagine if every red state legislature has slated zero electors. It will reveal that we are a red country. To do this, we could have to jack this to the nth degree as a battle of the tribes. Haley pushed this strategy in several texts and emails, including to Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel, johnny McInty, and individual Haley characterized as a very trusted lieutenant for President Trump, a direct conveyor to the boss with ideas and at his side almost all the time.

Speaker 1: 11:47

For Haley, however, reported election fraud was a way to justify President Trump-friendly legislatures changing the outcome of the election. But there were other reasons for doing so too. Election fraud was only one rationale for slating Trump electors, haley told McInty, and we should baldly assert that state legislators have the constitutional right to substitute their judgment for a certified majority of their constituents if that prevents socialism. Haley added independent of the fraud, or really? along with that argument, harrisburg, madison and Lansing did not have to sit oddly by and submit themselves to rule by Beijing and Paris, proposing that radio hosts rally the grassroots to apply pressure to the weak-need legislators in those states. Mcinty replied yes, and then let's find the contact info for all those people. Now Haley sent him names, in most cases cell phone numbers, for top GOP legislators in six states, suggesting for voters to invite them down for a White House meeting. The president would later call several names in that message, including Russie Bowers, incaren Finn and Arizona, lee Chaffield and Mike Scherke and Michigan and Jake Corman and Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Others weighed in with the president about a state-focused plan too. Some were already looking ahead to January 6. On November 8, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich met with Trump at the White House. Two days later he sent a follow-up note to the president's executive assistant entitled Please Give to Podus Newt. He suggested that the only way Trump loses his rigged system and added that President Trump could encourage GOP legislators elect not to send in electors, enforcing a House vote by state delegations. On January 6, the Gingrich expected President Trump would win. Medals replied. Thanks, speaker.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Newsmax CEO Christopher Roddy had President Trump's ear and reportedly spoke with him by phone at least four times. Before December He forwarded a memo to other close advisors to President Trump recommending that the Trump team persuaded one or more Republican-led chambers in Arizona, georgia, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin and even Minnesota to pick a separate competitive slate of state electors, which the memo predicted might turn January 6 into a catfight in Congress wherein Vice President Pence is presiding. Attorney and conservative activist Cleta Mitchell was recruited by Mark Meadows immediately after the election to assist the Trump campaign's legal work. By November 5, she emailed Dr John Eastman of Chapman University, who would later play an outsized role, pushing a theory about what Vice President Pence could or couldn't do during the January 6 joint session of Congress. That is detailed in chapter 5 of this report. In her email, mitchell asked Eastman to write a memo, just to find the idea that state legislators reclaimed the power to pick electors and asked rhetorically Am I crazy? Fourth Wall break here. Yes, yes, she's crazy. Dr Eastman wrote the memo entitled The Constitutional Authority of State Legislators to Choose Electors and sent it along for sharing widely.

Speaker 1: 14:55

According to the Office of Presidential Scheduling, president Trump was scheduled to meet in the Oval Office on November 10 with Morgan Warsler and John Robinson, texas entrepreneurs close to former Governor Rick Perry. The next day Warsler tweeted that he was just in the Oval Office yesterday and months later wrote that I told whole Trump team in Oval that state legislators can choose the electors, no matter what current state law or state courts say. After this apparent meeting, john Robinson sent the White House an email entitled Urgent follow up to our Tuesday meeting with POTUS That he asked be printed out for the President to explain the move forward plan for what was discussed. The email stated President Trump liked the plan we presented to use a parallel path of state legislators In the attached memo propose hundreds of briefings for state lawmakers by President Trump's surrogates and members of the Freedom Caucus. The email envisioned President Trump's hosting four plus monster rally trials with tens of thousands of Trump voters staring up at the GOP state legislators from their districts who alone control which slate of electors their state will submit A proposal that seemed to foreshadow the state hearings that Rudy Giuliani and President Trump championed. Less than a month later, rudy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino called Robinson's message that shit crazy. But the President's executive assistant who was asked to print it, for the President wrote printed and may have shared it with the President anyway By then Trump was enraged.

Speaker 1: 16:28

According to Stepien, his campaign manager, the state focus strategy came up at a November 11 meeting among close advisors as something to consider. At that point the election had been called, but the President was very interested in keeping pathways to victory open. So Stepien believed the President found the concept of tringing. Then the plan just started happening, even though it was something Stepien honestly kind of dismissed at hand. Characterizing. It is one of the crazier, crazier ideas that was thrown out in and around the time, but not everyone was convinced.

Speaker 1: 17:03

On November 19, the prior Republican presidential nominee, senator Mitt Romney, issued a harsh public condemnation that President Trump's open and notorious efforts to overturn the election Having failed to even make a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before a court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It's difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting President. Senator Romney was right to identify and decrypt President Trump's actions. Yet in hindsight it is clear that the effort to pressure state and local officials by Trump team was only just getting started. Chapter 2, section 3 Outreach and Implementation of the Plan.

Speaker 1: 18:05

Just one day after the state-focused plan came up in the Oval Office with the President and his top lieutenants, president Trump started taking concrete steps aimed at state legislators And in the weeks that followed, the President had it outreached, aimed at numerous officials in states he lost but that had GOP-led legislatures, including in Michigan, pennsylvania, georgia and Arizona. The select committee estimates that in the two months between the November election and the January 6th insurrection, president Trump or his inner-circle engaged in at least 200 appearing acts of public or private outreach, pressure or condemnation targeting either state legislators or state and local election administrators to overturn state election results. This included at least 68 meetings, attempted or connected phone calls or text messages, each aimed at one or more state or local officials, 18 instances of prominent public remarks with language targeting one or more such officials, and 125 social media posts by President Trump or senior aides targeting one or more such officials, either explicitly or implicitly, and mostly from his own account. Furthermore, these efforts by President Trump's team also involved two other initiatives that tried to enlist support from large numbers of state legislators all at once. The Trump campaign contacted, or attempted to contact, nearly 200 state legislators from battleground states between November 30th 2020 and December 3rd 2020 to solicit backing for possible state House resolutions to overturn the election. At least some messages said that they were on behalf of the president. Nearly 300 state legislators from battleground states reportedly participated in a private briefing with President Trump, rudy Giuliani, john Eastman and others on January 2nd. The president reportedly urged them to exercise what he called the real power to choose electoral votes before January 6th because, as President Trump said on the call, i don't think the country is going to take it. It may be impossible to document each and every meeting, phone call, text message or other contact that Trump and his allies have with state and local officials in various battleground states. What follows is a summary that focuses on four states and that demonstrates the lengths to which President Trump would go in order to stay in power based on lies, the big lie about the election, president Trump's Early Pressure on Public Servants To carry out his plan.

Speaker 1: 20:30

President Trump, rudy Giuliani and other surrogates of President Trump publicly and privately sought assistance from state and local officials who they assumed would help as a Republican. On the same team with the same goal. Some helped, others didn't. On November 12th, us Representative Tim Wahlberg, a Republican from Michigan, sent an email to President Trump's executive assistant, molly Michael, describing a request that he received earlier that day. During my conversation with the president this morning, he asked me to check with key leadership in Michigan's legislature as to how supportive they could be in regards to pushing back on election irregularities and potential fraud. He wanted me to gauge their willingness to talk with him about efforts to bring about transparency and integrity in Michigan's election and report back to him. Representative Wahlberg added that he had already acted on this request, saying quote I've had conversations with Michigan Speaker Lee Chatfield, senate Majority Leader Mike Sharkey and the Senate President Pro Temporary, eric Nespid. They all assured me that they would look forward to speaking with the president to report on their continuing efforts related to overseeing the election and receiving any suggestions from President Trump. The president was soon host Chatfield, sharkey Nespid and four other Michigan state lawmakers at the White House In Arizona.

Speaker 1: 21:47

On November 13th 2020, the day after officials finished counting ballots casting, maricopa County Chairwoman Kelly Ward of the Arizona Republican Party texted Mark Meadows as she had just talked to POTUS and that he may call the chairman of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, clint Hickman Ward also left a message for Hickman that said I just talked to President Trump and he would like me to talk to you and see if he needs to give you a call to discuss what's happening on the ground in Maricopa. Give me a call back when you can. According to Hickman, ward was unusually active after the election, even for a party chair, and was the first person to ever pressure him. One of her first messages to Hickman, before trying to connect him with Trump, was we need you to stop the counting In Georgia. The president initially took a more public approach After the Associated Press called the race there.

Speaker 1: 22:35

On November 12th, trump tweeted harsh criticisms of Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Often, those tweets called for them to take specific actions that would have shifted the election results in his favor, such as rejecting a court settlement which he referred to as a consent decree. The dictated the procedures for verifying signatures on absentee balance, and he was relentless. In November alone, trump tweeted that Raffensperger was the so-called Rhino and asked where is Brian Kemp? before suggesting that they knew they were going to cheat. He called to break the unconstitutional consent decree and urged stricter signature matches with the demand to get it done. He called Kemp hapless and asked why he wouldn't use the emergency powers to overrule Raffensperger on the signature verification procedures, declaring that Georgia Republicans are angry. President Trump also retweeted posts asking who needs Democrats when you have Republicans like Brian Kemp and why bother voting for Republicans if what you get is doocy and Kemp.

Speaker 1: 23:37

Pennsylvania was an early, but not unique, example of how President Trump's state pressure campaign affected the lives of public service running this country's elections. On November 7th, rudy Giuliani headlined a Philadelphia press conference in front of a landscaping business called Four Seasons Total Landscaping near Crematorium and down the street from a sex shop. Being in front of former New York police commissioner and recently pardoned convicted felon Bernard Carrick, giuliani gave opening remarks and handed the podium over to his first-opposite eyewitness to election fraud, who turned out to be a convicted sex offender. Giuliani claimed that at least 600,000 ballots are in question in Pennsylvania and falsely suggested that large numbers of ballots in the state have been cast for dead people, including boxer Joe Frazier, an actor, will Smith's father. In days, republican Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt and others publicly debunked Giuliani's specific allegations of election fraud, including the claims about dead people voting in Pennsylvania elections. In reaction, trump tweeted on the morning of November 11th that a guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia commissioner and so-called Rhino, is being used big time by the fake news media to explain how honest things were with respect to the election in Philadelphia. He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption and dishonesty. We win.

Speaker 1: 25:02

That statement targeting Schmidt led to a deluge of threatening and harassing phone calls and emails by people who heard Trump and falsely held out hope that Schmidt or someone else could overturn the results of Pennsylvania's election. As a public official, schmidt was no stranger to threats. The being targeted by the president of the United States was different. In Schmidt's public testimony to the select committee, he described why. Prior to that, the threats were pretty general in nature Corrupt election officials in Philadelphia are going to get what's coming to them and other similar threats. After the president tweeted at me by name, calling me out the way he did, schmidt explained the threats became much more specific, much more graphic and included not just me by name, but included members of my family by name, their ages, our address, pictures of our home and just about every bit of detail that you could imagine, as the president continued to push the big lie and vilify public officials. Such threats multiplied Efforts to prevent state and local officials from certifying the election.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Some of President Trump's early outreach was part of an effort to prevent state and local officials from certifying his loss. One example comes from Michigan and the other from Arizona Wayne County. Michigan includes Detroit and its surrounding areas. On November 17, the county's Board of Canvassers met to certify election results, a process the Michigan Supreme Court described over a century ago as ministerial and clerical. The meeting started at 6 pm and lasted over three hours. The two Republican members, board Chair Monica Palmer and Board Member William Hartman, first voted to block the certification of the election. After a brief break, palmer and Hartman returned, changed their votes and certified the election results. Just over 20 minutes later, palmer and Hartman received a call from President Trump and RNC Chair Ronan McDaniel. Palmer claimed that the call was not pressure. Rather, she said it was genuine concern for my safety and there were general comments about different states, but we really didn't discuss the details of the certification. The select committee doesn't know exactly what President Trump privately said on that phone call, but by the next evening, however, palmer and Hartman had each issued signed affidavits, re-assuming their earlier position that Wayne County's results should not be certified. Palmer's affidavit even declared that, i quote, rescind my prior vote, though rescinding wasn't possible and her statement had no legal effect, and President Trump apparently knew before it was public that Hartman and Palmer would try to change their votes. It's almost eight hours before either of these affidavits were publicly released. President Trump tweeted that those two harassed Patriot canvassers refused to sign the papers.

Speaker 1: 27:41

Republicans in Arizona experienced similar treatment In the most populous and electorally significant county in Arizona. Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors met on November 20th to certify the county's election results. Their board, made up of four Republicans and one Democrat, carefully reviewed the official canvas, asked questions for approximately two hours, then unanimously voted to certify the results. Earlier that day, kelly Ward contacted two of the board's members, jack Sellers and Bill Gates, and asked them to delay the certification on the basis of supposed improprieties. According to Sellers and Gates, however, arizona law required certification that day and they had no information, neither then nor ever, to doubt the county's election results.

Speaker 1: 28:25

When Arizona certified its 2020 statewide election results on November 30th, it failed to Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, to sign the certification. While on camera. During his signing ceremony, governor Ducey's phone rang and played a rain tone for the song Hail to the Chief, which he immediately silenced. The governor later confirmed it had been President Trump calling and that he had returned the president calls shortly thereafter, but declined to say it was the two discussed, other than saying President Trump did not ask him to withhold certification. Select Committee does not know whether that is true, but that evening President Trump blasted Ducey on Twitter, accusing him of rushing to put a Democrat in office and warning that Republicans would long remember. The president also retweeted post bashing Ducey in his Georgia counterpart, brian Kemp, which asked who needs Democrats when you have Republicans like Brian Kemp and Doug Ducey? Why bother voting for Republicans if what you get is Ducey and Kemp And Brian Kemp? my state ran the most corrupt election in American history. Doug Ducey, hold my beer.

Speaker 1: 29:27

President Trump even commented true when retweeting a post that Governor Ducey has betrayed the people of Arizona. Governor Ducey pushed back writing on Twitter that I've been pretty outspoken about Arizona's election system and bragged about it quite a bit, including in the Oval Office. In Arizona. We have some of the country's strongest election laws in the country. The problems that exist in other states simply don't apply here. Governor Ducey explained the law for certifying elections in Arizona and pointed out that the certification now triggered a five day window for any elector to bring a credible challenge to the election results in court. If you want to contest the results, now's the time. Bring your challenges. And Governor Ducey referenced this Oval Office. That's the law. I'm sworn in over to uphold it and I take my responsibility seriously. President Trump and his allies never brought a credible challenge and instead lost every case that they brought.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Challenging the results in Arizona, efforts to replace electoral college electors and overturn the election. Once counties and states certified the election, or when it was nearly certain that they would, president Trump and his team focused largely shifted. President Trump and his team encouraged state legislators to meet in special sessions if necessary, and choose electoral college electors who would vote for the Trump PINs ticket. Ultimately, no state legislature took that step, but it was the basis for pressuring state officials from November through January 6th of 2021. Meetings with state legislators, the hearings, the concept of state legislators appointing their own electors featured prominently in a series of hastily arranged unofficial and official hearings quote-unquote with state legislators that the Trump team announced on November 24th of 2020.

Speaker 1: 31:16

On November 25th, trump called into an unofficial meeting with legislators in Gettysburg, pennsylvania. The meeting was set up to appear like an official hearing, but it was not. It took place in a hotel ballroom and those presenting arguments or purported evidence, like Giuliani, jenna Ellis and others, were not placed under oath. According to Jake Corman, the president pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate, he had initially been asked by state senator Doug Masriano to hold a hearing about the election. Corman responded that any formal hearing should be official, with sworn testimony and open in both parties. That was not what senator Masriano ultimately convened. President Trump had originally made plans to attend the Pennsylvania gathering in person, but he canceled after several advisors tested positive for COVID-19.

Speaker 1: 32:05

When Trump called in and spoke to those gathered in the hotel ballroom, his false claims were met with cheers and he made the purpose clear The election has to be turned around. Why wouldn't they overturn an election? Certainly overturn the election in your state. We have to turn the election over. President Trump made the ask and Giuliani told the legislators how to carry it out. Giuliani told the assembled legislators that it was their power and responsibility to pick Pennsylvania's presidential electors and if they have to convince the rest of their members, republican and Democrat, they owe that to the people of Pennsylvania. Jenna Ellis told them that, although Pennsylvania law dictates that electors are chosen by popular vote, you can take that power back at any time. You don't need a court to tell you that. Trump invited some of the lawmakers to come meet him in the White House that evening and, according to Giuliani, it was a large group that went. Special assistant to the president, cachity Hustleson. Her text messages with Bernard Kier concluded the guest list and descriptions of the vehicles that would need access to the White House grounds. Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Maseriano drove one car. A hired driver drove a van with most of the state legislators and carried drove an SUV with attorney Catherine Fries in election conspiracy proponent Phil Waldron. Hustleson estimated that at least 29 visitors traveled from Pennsylvania to the White House that day and she explained that their conversations with the president touched on holding a special session of the state legislature to appoint Trump electors.

Speaker 1: 33:36

Just a few days later, on November 30th 2020, trump also called into another one of Giuliani and Jenna Ellis's hotel hearings, this time in Arizona. Several Arizona state lawmakers hosted the meeting at a Hyatt Regency in Phoenix after they did not receive permission to organize an official hearing at the state Capitol. Before the hearing started, state GOP rep Mark Fincham promised information to show that the state's 11 electoral votes should not go to Democrat Joe Biden and argue that the United States Constitution empowers lawmakers to decide on their own whether the election was valid and, if not, select the electors of their choice. Giuliani told the assembled legislators that the official certified Arizona's election results, have made no effort to find out that the results of the election were accurate, which seems to me gives the state legislature a perfect reason to take over the conduct of this election, because it's being conducted irresponsibly and unfairly. Likewise, jenna Ellis said it was not just a choice but the actual duty and obligation of the legislature to step in and make sure that you don't certify false results During a recess. She also took to Twitter writing the certification of Arizona's false results is unethical and knowingly participating in the corruption that is disenfranchised Arizona voters. But this in no way impacts the state legislature's ability to take back the proper selection of delegates.

Speaker 1: 35:02

When it Trump's turn will address his handful of lawmakers over the phone. He called them legends for taking this on and used the opportunity to criticize Governor Ducey. You have to figure out what that's all about with Ducey. He couldn't certify fast enough, and Arizona will not forget what Ducey just did. We're not gonna forget. That night, giuliani joined President Trump and criticized Governor Ducey, at the same time making basis allegations about voting machines in Arizona and calling for a special legislative session to change the outcome of the election. Governor Ducey of Arizona refuses to meet with me. He doesn't want to explain that he selected a foreign, corrupt voting machine company to count the vote. I understand his reluctance, but just call a special session. Let's find out how crooked your election really was.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Michigan was next. Giuliani's team announced that the Michigan legislature would hold a hearing on December 1st, but the relevant committee chair excluded Giuliani because it was only open to witnesses with firsthand knowledge That chairman, michigan State Senator Edward McBroom, had already held Senate oversight hearings by then in an effort to evaluate claims of fraud in the 2020 election, which ultimately resulted in a comprehensive report that concluded that the Republican led committee found no evidence of widespread or systemic fraud in Michigan's election. Michigan's House oversight committee, however, did allow Giuliani to testify in a hearing on December 2nd. Before the hearing, giuliani joined the state's GOP chairwoman to give what was billed as a legal briefing and in the online presentation, giuliani told the audience there's nothing wrong with putting pressure on your state legislators to pick new electors, and that you have got to get them to remember that their oath to the Constitution sometimes requires being criticized. Sometimes it even requires being threatened.

Speaker 1: 36:53

When Giuliani appeared for the hearing in Michigan, he was not placed under oath. He used his time to refer to Michigan's election as a con job and urged legislators to have the courage to say that certification that was to be done by your state is a complete phony. The information presented was baseless and sometimes racist conspiracy theories. One witness wrote to criticize Michigan's voter certification, even said I think Chinese all look alike, so how would you tell? if some chow shows up, you can be anybody and you can vote. And as he had promised in a legal briefing the day before, giuliani then called on the legislators to do what the Trump campaign had reportedly been discussing since before election day. He said that the state legislature could still single-handedly decide the election results anytime you want to. Anytime. You could take it back tonight. You could take it back the day before the electors go down to Washington. Jenna Ellis also participated, insisting that no honest person can hear these citizens of your own state today and can let this proceed. What the Constitution obligates you to do is to take back your plenary power. Finally, georgia.

Speaker 1: 38:04

There, giuliani and others appeared in multiple hearings, the first of which was held on December 3rd 2020. In that hearing, giuliani was direct and called on Georgia legislators to overturn the election results. You are the final arbiter of who the electors should be based on the false premise that there is more than ample evidence to conclude that this election was a sham. Then, at a separate hearing on December 10th, he told state legislators that Georgia's governor, lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State were engaged in a cover-up of a crime in plain sight and that it failed to the state legislature to vindicate the honor of the state. Giuliani used yet another appearance on December 30th to call the 2020 election the most crooked election, the most manipulated election in American history, and implore the Republican legislators to hold a special session to vote on appointing new electors, something he said that they could do right up until the last moment before January 6th.

Speaker 1: 39:03

More perniciously, giuliani used these hearings to advance conspiracy theories that falsely accused Fulton County election workers of rigging Georgia election results. His delegation to the December 3rd hearing played clips of election night surveillance footage from the state former Rita that showed election workers scanning ballots, sometimes after partisan poll watchers had gone home. Although the poll watchers should have been near the entire time while election workers counted the votes, there was nothing nefarious about the circumstances and no question about the end result. In fact, the FBI, the Department of Justice and Georgia Bureau of Investigation were determined that these ballots were legitimate ballots and the observers were not illegally ejected, and that the ballots were scanned and counted properly, contrary to claims by President Trump and his attorneys. And yet Giuliani basically declared at the December 3rd hearing that to him the video was a powerful smoking gun that proved that those votes are not legitimate votes.

Speaker 1: 40:00

But Giuliani's claim took a more ominous turn during the December 10th hearing. There he publicly named two of the election workers shown in the video Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wondria Arshab, as in Shea Moss, and accused him of vote tampering and engaging in criminal conduct. He sees on a clip of Freeman passing Morgan a ginger mitt, claiming that the two women, both black, were smuggling USB drives as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. He also suggested that Freeman and Moss should be jailed and that they deserve to have their home searched. Not only were Giuliani's claims about Freeman and Moss reckless, racist and false, they also had real-world consequences that turned both women's lives upside down. In further heightening the personal impact of these basis attacks, president Trump supported and even repeated them, as described later.

Speaker 1: 40:50

In the end, the hearings were wildly panned. In Michigan alone, current and former Republican lawmakers publicly questioned the hearings and implored President Trump and his team to stop. Us Representative Paul Mitchell implored on Twitter please just stop. And he wondered why the Republican leaders allowed testimony that he said was driving the party into a ditch. Similarly, former Michigan lawmaker Martin Howellick said that he was embarrassed by the hearing, and former Michigan senator Ken Sigma said that the way the committee was run was atrocious. Later, trump promoted a tweet calling a Democratic lawmaker a hashtag POS for speaking out at the Michigan hearing. Months later, giuliani's license to practice law in New York was suspended for, among other reasons, the false claims he made on various states, including during the hearings in Michigan, pennsylvania, arizona and Georgia.

Speaker 1: 41:47

The Trump campaign's barrage of phone calls to state legislators Not only was replacing electors a theme during the official and unofficial state hearings, it was also a critical component of Trump's plan both before and after the hearings took place. In fact, while the hearings were happening, the Trump campaign set up an operation to contact hundreds of state legislators and asked them to support an effort to appoint electoral college electors for the Trump Pence ticket in states that President Trump had lost. On the same day as Giuliani's hearing in Michigan, trump campaign staff contacted dozens of Republicans in Michigan state legislature. A Trump campaign supervisor sent text messages to his team directing them to reach out to lawmakers to explain the process for legislative address and to tell them how to send representatives to the electoral college. He added we're gonna be lobbyists, woot. According to a campaign staffer spreadsheet produced to the select committee, the Trump campaign apparently tried contacting over 190 Republican state legislators in Arizona, georgia and Michigan alone.

Speaker 1: 42:54

One voicemail left as part of this initiative was leaked to the press on December 1st 2020. In it, a Trump campaign staffer said I did want to personally reach out to you on behalf of the president. Her main point came later in the message We want to know, when there is a resolution in the house to appoint electors for Trump, if the president can count on you to join in support. Another message from this effort that reach reporters made the same as can claim that after a roundtable with the president, he asked us to reach out to you individually to whip support for a joint resolution from the state house and Senate that would allow Michigan to send electors for Donald J Trump to the electoral college and save our country. Soon after the voicemail leaked, the campaign staffer who left this message got a text message from one of our supervisors who wrote honest to God, i'm so proud of this because they unwittingly just got your message out there. He elaborated you use the awesome power of the presidency to scare a state rep into getting a statewide newspaper to deliver your talking points.

Speaker 1: 43:59

Outreach by President Trump and senior aides. While campaign aides blanketed state officials with these calls, some state officials received more personalized outreach directly from President Trump, giuliani and their allies through the post-election period about this issue. Michigan, as discussed earlier, walburg, reached out to state legislators in Michigan at the president's request in November, including Senate Majority Leader Mike Scherke and House Speaker League Chadfield. By November 18, president Trump called Chadfield and Scherke to invite them to what would become a meeting for a group of Michigan lawmakers in the Oval Office. Although President Trump didn't tell Scherke what the meeting would be about, the president was focused on the election and asked Scherke what he and others were doing to investigate election fraud. The meeting happened on November 20. In Scherke's words, there wasn't a mystery about why the group was at the White House once the meeting started.

Speaker 1: 44:56

When the president mentioned several basis claims of election fraud in Wayne County, scherke told the president that he had lost the election and that it had nothing to do with Wayne County, where he had actually performed better than he had in 2016. From the president's body language, scherke concluded that wasn't what he wanted to hear. But the meeting continued and the president dialed in Giuliani, who delivered a long monologue presiding a litany of allegations about supposed fraud that was short on substance. Scherke challenged Giuliani asking where are you going to file a lawsuit? in Michigan, which he said Giuliani did not answer, although Scherke says he did not recall the president making any precise ask.

Speaker 1: 45:40

Chadfield recalled President Trump's more generic directive for the group to quote have some backbone and do the right thing. Chadfield understood that to mean they should investigate claims of fraud and overturn the election by naming electors for President Trump. Scherke told the president that he was not going to do anything that would violate Michigan law. After the meeting ended, scherke and Chadfield issued a joint statement. We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and, as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election. That was not the end, however.

Speaker 1: 46:22

Chadfield and Scherke received numerous calls from the president in the weeks following the election. Chadfield told the select committee that he had received approximately five to ten phone calls from President Trump after the election, during which Trump would usually ask him about various allegations of voter fraud. Chadfield said that he had repeatedly looked into the president's claims but never found anything persuasive that could have changed the outcome of the election. President Trump's calls were not enough, so he turned to the public. On January 3, 2021, the Trump campaign posted a tweet that urged supporters to contact Speaker Lee Chadfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Scherke to demand a vote on decertification.

Speaker 1: 47:06

While President Trump thought the Michigan legislature would convene to decertify the election in a matter of hours, when it had refused to do so early in November, it's not clear, but that didn't stop Trump from making things personal. The president's January 3 tweet included Scherke's personal cell phone number, as well as a number for Chadfield that turned out to be wrong. As a result, scherke said he received nearly 4,000 text messages, and another private citizen reported being inundated with calls and texts intended for Chadfield, pennsylvania. On November 21, mark Meadows texted a number apparently belonging to Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania and asked Can you send me the number for the Speaker and Leader of the Pennsylvania legislature? POTUS wants to chat with them? Hours later, meadows received a response of Yes, sir.

Speaker 1: 47:56

At the time, the Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate was Jay Corman and the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House was Brian Cutler. Corman told the select committee that he received a call on Thanksgiving Day 2020 from Giuliani urging him to call the legislature into a special session to replace Biden electors with Trump electors. This idea was anew to Corman. Trump and his allies had gone public about their intentions before then, including during the Pennsylvania Hotel hearing, but Corman had braced himself for this even before the election. Before Election Day in 2020, a reporter from the Atlantic interviewed Corman and other prominent Republicans in Pennsylvania about the possibility that President Trump would try to circumvent the popular vote in suing states by asking the legislators to appoint Trump Pence electors. After the article, corman dropped an op-ed, making clear that the PA legislature did not have the legal authority to appoint Trump Pence electors in contravention of the popular vote, a position that he would generally maintain through the 2020 presidential election cycle.

Speaker 1: 48:59

During that call, giuliani first tried pumping Corman up as a patriot, before asking the senator to call the Pennsylvania legislature into a special session. Corman told Giuliani that he did not have the authority to do that, a position with which his own lawyers agreed. Giuliani's reply was that Corman must have bad lawyers. Corman said he offered to connect Giuliani with his legal team. His legal team spoke with Giuliani and a lawyer working with him, jenna Ellis, the following day, reiterating their view that such a move by the legislature would be illegal. That same day, or possibly the next, giuliani and Ellis called him back to renew their request for a special legislative session into demeaning Corman's attorneys, calling them terrible, bad and wrong. Corman, however, held his ground and into the call.

Speaker 1: 49:48

While packing to return to Pennsylvania for his Thanksgiving visit to Florida, corman says he received a call from an unknown number with the Washington DC area code, which he let go to voicemail. It turned out to be a White House operator calling on behalf of President Trump. Corman called back and spoke to President Trump, who insisted that he had won the election in Pennsylvania and said something to the effect of Jake, this is a big issue, we need your help. Corman told the president that he couldn't do it with. The Trump team was asking. President Trump replied I'm not sure your attorneys are very good. Corman wanted to end the call and offered to have his lawyers speak again with President Trump's, but they never had another call with the president's lawyers.

Speaker 1: 50:29

Pennsylvania House Speaker Brian Cutler was another main target for the president's team. He received voicemails in late November for four days in a row from Giuliani and or Ellis, which he provided to the select committee. Cutler explained that he did not feel comfortable talking with the president's team in case he ended up having to preside over a legislative session about the election, and he had his attorneys relay that to the president's team. Giuliani received the message but continued to call Speaker Cutler nonetheless. In the first of these voicemails on November 26, giuliani asked to get together quietly to discuss the amount of fraud that went on in your state and said that Giuliani and Ellis had also just spoken to Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff.

Speaker 1: 51:12

On November 27, ellis called and said in a second voicemail that they had just talked to Pennsylvania House Member Russ Diamond and were very grateful to the state legislature for doing your Article 2 duty. On November 28, giuliani left the third voicemail and claimed to have something important that really changes things and said that the president really wanted to make sure I got it to you. And then, on November 29, giuliani left the fourth message and said I understand that you don't want to talk to me now, but still sought the courtesy of being able to talk to you as the president's lawyer and a fellow Republican, because you're certifying what is blatantly a false statement. I can't imagine how that's in your interest or in the interest of our party. Giuliani and Ellis didn't get through, but the president did. If we wanted to do something, what were the options? The president asked Cutler. Cutler explained to President Trump that he could file a legal challenge contestant in the election and asked the president why his team had never requested a state-wide recount. Cutler was also clear about the constitutional peculiarities in Pennsylvania, where the state constitution specifically prohibits retroactive changes to how electors are chosen.

Speaker 1: 52:29

Practically, president Trump's call achieved nothing. The president wasn't getting what he wanted in his calls to leaders in Pennsylvania A special session of the legislature to appoint Trump's electors. Unfortunately undeterred, trump invited several leaders of the Pennsylvania legislature to the White House for Christmas gatherings. Senator Corman decided not to go, although Speaker Cutler did. President Trump spoke with Cutler on December 3rd while Cutler, his chief of staff and their wives were at that White House Christmas store.

Speaker 1: 52:58

The issue of overturning the results of Pennsylvania's election came up again, as did the possibility of a special session of the state legislature to appoint Trump electors. Cutler told President Trump that the state legislature could not reconvene without an order from the governor and a petition from a super majority of legislators, neither of which was likely to happen. Cutler also told Trump that they could not appoint new electors without a court order. In Cutler's opinion, trump seemed to understand, and that was clear. The president's apparent understanding, however, did not result in any meaningful changes to his public rhetoric.

Speaker 1: 53:36

On December 3rd, the same day that Cutler met with Trump, cutler Corman, house Majority Leader Benninghoff and State Majority Leader Kim Ward issued a three-page single-spaced joint statement asserting that, in no uncertain terms, the Pennsylvania's General Assembly lacks the authority to overturn the popular vote and appoints our own slate of legislators, since doing so would violate our election code and constitution, particularly a provision that prohibits us from changing the rules for election contests of the president after the election. In response, president Trump retweeted a December 4th post-budget Bernard Carrick, which tagged all four of the state legislators with the hashtag Traders and declared that there are four cowardice Pennsylvania legislators that intend to allow the Democratic machine to hashtag steal the vote hashtag cowers, hashtag liars, hashtag traitors. Five days later, president Trump publicly thanked Cutler for signing on to a December 4th letter that encouraged members of Congress and Pennsylvania to object to their state's electoral votes. On January 6th, trump tweeted Thank you to Speaker Cutler and all others in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who fully understand what went on in the 2020 election. It's called total corruption. When the select committee asked Cutler about this apparent change in his position, he said that he signed on to this letter not because of concerns that fraud or corruption meant the results of the election Pennsylvania were wrong, but rather because of concerns about programmatic changes or areas for improvement related to the election. In fact, cutler reiterated to the committee that he was not personally aware of any widespread election fraud that would have changed the results of the election. The pressure-facing state legislators during this period was significant. On December 9, the New York Times quoted Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Kim Roared, revealing that she too had received a call from Trump in which he pushed his election fraud narrative. Ward told the Times that she hadn't been given enough time to sign the same December 4th letter. The Cutler did, but commented that if she had taken a stand against it quote I'd get my house bomb tonight.

Speaker 1: 55:51

Arizona In late November, arizona House Speaker Russell Rusty Bowers, a longtime Republican who served 17 years in the state legislature, received a call from Trump and Giuliani. Giuliani alleged that Arizona's election results were skewed by illicit ballots cast by non-citizens or on behalf of dead people. Bowers demanded proof for these audacious claims on the call, and President Trump told Giuliani to comply, but the evidence never came. The point of the call, however, was different. Like in Michigan and Pennsylvania, trump and his allies were working the phones to get something. They wanted Bowers to hold a public hearing with the ultimate aim of replacing presidential electors for former Vice President Joe Biden with electors for President Trump. Bowers had never heard of anything like that before, and Giuliani acknowledged that it had never been done before. President Trump and Giuliani saw a potential opportunity. However, bowers saw a fundamental problem. As Bowers explained it. What they wanted him to do was counter to my oath when I swore to the Constitution to uphold it, and he said that to the President and Giuliani You are asking me to do something against my oath and I will not break my oath. Giuliani replied Aren't we all Republicans here? I mean, i think you would listen a little more open to my suggestions that we're all Republicans.

Speaker 1: 57:15

The pressure didn't start with that call. On December 1st, giuliani and Ellis got an audience with some of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Arizona, including Bowers, senate President Karen Fann, senate President Pro Tempori Vince Leach, house Majority Leader and Senator-elect Warren Peterson, senate Majority Whip Sonny Borelli, senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita and others. The select committee was unable to get Giuliani and Ellis' perspective on this outreach because Giuliani claimed that his communications with Bowers, who was not his client nor part of his legal team, were privileged, while Ellis invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Bowers, on the other hand, told the committee that Giuliani and Ellis asked lawmakers to deliver Arizona's electors for President Trump despite the certified popular vote count. To bolster their request, giuliani and Ellis raised numerous allegations of election fraud at the meeting, though they never produced evidence in support of their claims In live testimony before the committee. Bowers recalled Giuliani saying in this meeting that we've got lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence. At the time Bowers didn't know whether it was a gaffe or an example of Giuliani not thinking through what he had just said. In any event, bowers said he and others in his group made a particular note of that comment And it was borne out. Bowers testified no one provided me ever such evidence. In late December, in another phone call with President Trump, bowers reiterated that he would not do anything illegal for him.

Speaker 1: 58:52

Afterward, john Eastman joined the course of Trump allies attempting to change his mind. In a call on January 4th that included the Speaker's Chief Counsel as well as Arizona House Majority Leader Elect Ben Tomah, eastman urged Bowers to hold a vote to decertify Arizona's presidential electors. When Bowers told Eastman he couldn't unilaterally reconvene the legislature, eastman urged him to just do it and let the court sort it out. Bowers refused and the Arizona legislature took no such action.

Speaker 1: 59:23

Many of Trump's efforts in Arizona focused on state officials, but his team also continued to reach out to the Board of Supervisors for Maricopa County even after it certified the election. One focus was voting machines. According to the Arizona Republic, giuliani left the voicemail in mid to late December for Board Member Steve Chukri that said I see we're going to get a chance to take a good look at those machines. Give me a call as soon as you get a chance. The President also wanted me to pass on a few things to you too. On December 4th, giuliani also left a message for the Board's Chairman, clinton Hickman. I was very happy to see that there's going to be a forensic audit of those machines and I really wanted to talk to you about it a little bit. The President wanted me to give you a call. Alright, thank you, give me a call back. Hickman chose not to call back.

Speaker 1: 1:00:12

Then, on Christmas Eve, giuliani left voicemails for Board Members Bill Gates and Jack Sellers asking them to call him back. In his message for Gates, giuliani said It's Giuliani, president Trump's lawyer. If you get a chance, would you please give me a call? I have a few things I'd like to talk over with you. Maybe we can get this thing fixed up. You know, i really think it's a shame that Republicans sort of are both in this kind of situation, and I think there may be a nice way to resolve this for everybody. In his message for Sellers. Giuliani said I'd like to see if there is a way that we can resolve this so that it comes out well for everyone. We're all Republicans. I think we all have the same goal. Let's see if we can get this done outside of the Court. Jack Hickman knew the Gates nor Sellers returned Giuliani's calls, so President Trump made the call himself. On December 31st, board Chair Clinton Hickman received a voicemail from the White House switchboard asking him to call back for President Trump. Hickman said that he did not return the call, in part because the country was still facing litigation over the election. Another call from the White House came through on January 3rd with a request that Hickman call back for the President. but by then the President's call from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger described below it leaked and Hickman didn't want to walk into that space.

Speaker 1: 1:01:35

Georgia On December 5th President Trump traveled to Georgia to headline a rally and mobilize voters in advance of a January Senate runoff. But the President's day started off with a morning call to Governor Brian Kemp, during which they discussed reconvening the legislature in a special session. After the call, kemp took to Twitter He acknowledged that he had spoken to President Trump and that he told him that he supported the idea of, and had already called for, a signature audit in Georgia. Trump responded later that night by complaining that Georgia had not yet done a signature verification audit and instead insisted that the governor should at least immediately ask for a special session of the legislature. The following day, governor Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Duncan issued a definitive statement rejecting President Trump and his allies' calls to overturn the results in Georgia.

Speaker 1: 1:02:28

While we understand, four members of the Georgia Senate are requesting the convening of a special session of the General Assembly, doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law. State law is clear. The legislature could only direct an alternative method for choosing presidential electors if the election was not able to be held on the date set by federal law. In the 1960s, the General Assembly decided that Georgia's presidential electors will be determined by the winner of the state's popular vote. Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change their process for the November 3rd election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoyed by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution.

Speaker 1: 1:03:18

President Trump responded by directing his ire at Georgia officials and throughout the month of December, president Trump grew even more relentless in his social media attacks against Kemp than he had been the previous month. He retweeted Attorney Lynn Wood calling on Georgians to call and urge the FBI to focus more on election fraud and tell them to also investigate Kemp, duncan and Raffensperger. He retweeted another post by Lynn Wood that depicted Governor Kemp and Secretary Raffensperger wearing masks digitally altered to show the Chinese flag and warned that they would quote soon be going to jail. Even without his many retweets, president Trump posted an average of about one tweet per day in December 2020, either criticizing Governor Kemp or pressuring him, explicitly or implicitly, to take actions to help overturn the election.

Speaker 1: 1:04:09

President Trump seemed consumed with his plans to overturn the election and, based on documents obtained by the select committee, it appears that Trump received input from many outside donors or advisors who had access to his staff's email addresses. On December 7, a Trump donor named Bill White emailed senior Trump advisors, including Dan Scavino and Rudy Giuliani, to say that he just spoke to Georgia Senator William Burton Jones, who asked if voters can retweet this now, along with the tweet by Senator Jones in red, georgia Patriot called an action call your state Senator Ann House reps and ask them to sign the petition for a special session. President Trump and Giuliani retweeted Senator Jones' tweet an hour later. Bill White also emailed Molly, michael, dan Scavino and Giuliani on December 8 with information that he said Protus asked me last night to send right away. He recommended the presidential tweet criticizing Georgia's Lieutenant Governor Duncan, as well as tweets to put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan and Senate President Pro Temporary Butch Miller. He wrote that President Trump will be calling Dugan and Miller to ask them to call a special session and strategize with them why they are keeping this from happening. Dugan later confirmed that he had received a call from Trump's office, but that the two of them were not able to connect. On the following day, steve Bannon revealed on his podcast that President Trump spoke to Georgia House Speaker Raulston and Speaker Pro Temporary Jan Jones. Speaker Raulston confirmed that he spoke to Trump on December 7 about the election, during which he told the president that Georgia law made a special legislative session very much an uphill battle. Chapter 2, section 4, an Outright Request for Victory no-transcript.

Speaker 1: 1:06:07

Beyond asking state officials to not certify, to decertify or to appoint Trump electors for consideration during the joint session, president Trump and some of his closest advisors, inserted themselves directly into the counting of ballots and asked outright for enough votes to win White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did this. Not only did he place calls on behalf of the president to election officials in Georgia, meadows traveled there to personally visit election officials and volunteers, coordinated with members of Congress and even suggested that presidents send election workers Trump memorabilia like presidential challenge coins and autographed MAGA hats, a suggestion that his assistant, cassidy Hudsonson, thought could be problematic and ultimately did not act on. When Meadows made a visit on short notice to examine the audit of absentee ballots in Cov County, georgia, he spoke to Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs and Francis Watson, the Secretary of State's Chief Investigator. Ultimately, meadows connected Watson with the president, who claimed that he had won the election and pressed her to say that he had won. The select committee obtained a copy of their recorded call, which is detailed below. The president, who had told Watson that he had won Georgia by a lot, told her you have the most important job in the country right now and suggested when the right answer comes out, you'll be praised. Four days later, meadows texted Deputy Secretary of State Fuchs in which he asked is there a way to speed up Fulton County's signature verification in order to have the results before January 6th, if the Trump campaign assists financially. Fuchs wrote in response that she will answer ASAP.

Speaker 1: 1:07:52

Meadows also played a central role in the lead-up to the president's January 2nd 2021 with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger. In fact, it was Meadows who originally sent text messages to Raffensberger and requested to speak. On November 19th he texted Mr Secretary, mark Meadows, here, if you could give me a brief call at your convenience. Thank you. And on December 5th, meadows texted Mr Secretary, can you call the White House switchboard for a phone call? Your voicemail is full. Then, on December 11th, meadows texted thanks so much to a number that apparently belongs to United States Representative Jody Heiss, republican Representative from Georgia, after Heiss told him that he had just made a statement quote regarding a recall on Raffensberger. If this is something POTUS wants to know and help push, all of that led to the remarkable January 2nd call between President Trump and his advisors on one side and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and his advisors on the other. By January 2nd, the president had tried to speak by phone with Raffensberger at least 18 times. Raffensberger, for his part, had avoided talking to the president because of ongoing litigation with the president's campaign. Despite Raffensberger's reluctance, two spoke with their respective lawyers on the line On the call, president Trump went through his litany of false election fraud claims and then asked Raffensberger to deliver him a second term by finding just enough votes to ensure victory.

Speaker 1: 1:09:27

The president said I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. He reiterated it several different ways Fellas, i need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know we have that in spades already, or we could keep going. But that's not fair to the voters of Georgia, because they're going to see what happened.

Speaker 1: 1:09:51

When it was clear that Raffensberger and his advisors would not agree to the president's request, the president ramped up the pressure by accusing them of committing crimes. The ballots are corrupt and you're going to find that they are, which is totally illegal. It is more legal for you than it is for them, because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a criminal offense and you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen.

Speaker 1: 1:10:25

The president would stop at nothing to win Georgia, separate from asking Raffensberger to alter without justification the election results in Georgia also attacked election workers. In that call, president Trump mentioned Ruby Freeman's name 18 times, referred to her daughter, shea Moss, several of those times and accused them of crimes. Raffensberger and his aides rebutted President Trump's false claims of fraud on the call and explained why they were wrong, but they did not deliver the one thing President Trump wanted most the 11,780 votes he asked for. The next day, president Trump tweeted about his phone call with Raffensberger false the claiming that Secretary Raffensberger was unwilling or unable to answer questions such as the ballots under table scam. He has no clue. He added that Raffensberger, governor Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Duncan are a disgrace and have done less than nothing about rampant political corruption, even though Raffensberger and his team repeatedly told the president why specific allegations of election fraud in Georgia were wrong. President Trump met the next day with top leadership of the Justice Department in an effort to convince them to send a letter false the claiming that the department had identified significant concerns affecting the election results in Georgia and calling on Governor Kemp, speaker Rauston and Senate President Protan Perry Miller to convene a special session. It was only after a showdown in the Oval Office described in Chapter 4, during which the White House counsel and others threatened to resign, that President Trump decided against replacing the Department of Justice leadership in issuing that letter. Chapter 2, section 5 Some officials eagerly assisted President Trump with his plans.

Speaker 1: 1:12:20

While many state officials resisted President Trump's demands, some eagerly joined the president's efforts. President Trump routinely coordinated with Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Moseriano, whose request led to the November 25, 2020 hotel hearing in Gettysburg, who traveled to Washington to meet with the president afterward. Senator Moseriano would later charter and pay for buses to Washington for the president's stop to steal rally on January 6 and was near the Capitol during the attack, quickly rose to favor with the president On November 30, president Trump called Moseriano, interrupting him during a radio interview and telling listeners that Doug is an absolute hero and people are really angry in Pennsylvania. On December 5, senator Moseriano sent an email to President Trump's executive assistant, molly Michael, with the Supreme Court Amicus brief for the president. That the pair discussed yesterday related to a case bought by Representative Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania against his own state, which the Supreme Court rejected. Just a few days later, on December 14, president Trump's assistant sent Moseriano an email from POTUS with talking points promoting a conspiracy theory about election machines. And on December 21, moseriano sent another email for President Trump in which he wrote Dear Mr President, attached, please find the killer letter on the Pennsylvania election that we discussed last night that I only just completed. This letter recapped the Gettysburg Hotel hearing on November 25 and claiming there is rampant election fraud in Pennsylvania that must be investigated, remedied and rectified. President Trump sent that letter to John Eastman, acting Attorney General, jeffrey Rosen, acting deputy Attorney General, richard Donahue, rush Limbaugh, former Florida Attorney General, pam Bondi, lou Dobbs and others As January 6 approached Senator Moseriano and his involvement in attempts to overturn the election only grew On December 23, he had led a second group of Pennsylvania senators for a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, which Julianne claimed has swayed about 20 of them.

Speaker 1: 1:14:15

Neither Speaker Kotler nor Senate President Corman participated. Moseriano also sent emails indicating that he spoke with President Trump on December 27, 28, and 30, along with files that President Trump requested or that he had promised to him. One of these was a pair of letters from state senators asking US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to reject Pennsylvania's electoral votes on January 6. President Trump's executive assistant notified the White House Director of Legislative Affairs that the president would like the below-attached letters to be sent to Mitch and Kevin in all GOP House and Senate members, but was told in reply given the political nature of the letters, would you mind sending them? On January 5, president Trump spoke again with Moseriano and then notified the White House operator that Moseriano will be calling for the vice president soon. That evening, senator Moseriano sent two more emails for the president. One was a letter addressed to Vice President Pence on behalf of nearly 100 legislators from various states. The other was a letter directed to McConnell and McCarthy from Pennsylvania lawmakers, this time asking Congress to postpone acting on the 6th. President Trump tweeted the letter that night, captioning it Big News in Pennsylvania, and after midnight he retweeted that Pennsylvania is going to Trump. The legislators have spoken. As described elsewhere in this report, that letter and letters like it were used in an effort to convince Vice President Pence that he could and should affect the outcome of the joint session of Congress on January 6.

Speaker 1: 1:15:43

The select committee subpoenaed Senator Moseriano to testify about these interactions with Trump and his advisers, among other matters. Unlike numerous other witnesses who complied with subpoenas and provided deposition testimony to the select committee, moseriano did not. He logged into a virtual deposition at the appointed time, but logged out before answering any substantive questions or even taking the oath to tell the truth. The president apparently got what he wanted in state officials like Senator Moseriano, but not those who dared question or outright reject his anti-democratic efforts to overturn the election. In some cases, those who questioned him made the president and his advisers dig in and push harder. On January 1, campaign senior adviser Jason Miller asked for a blast text and Twitter blast out that would urge President Trump supporters to contact House Speaker Brian Cutler and Senate President Pro Tem Jay Cormitt to demand a vote on certification. Senator campaign attorneys, however, replied that this might violate Pennsylvania's very stringent lobbying laws and get them prosecuted or fined. Instead, they agreed on a similar call to action aimed at Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, rather than Speaker Cutler and President Pro Tem Bore Cormitt in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1: 1:16:58

Chapter 2, section 6, the Final Outreach to State Legislators. The efforts to overturn the election through state legislatures continued throughout the final two weeks before the joint session of Congress on January 6,. Based on actual events and documents obtained by the select committee, president Trump's campaign team, outside advisers and motivated volunteers generally acted in accord with what was written down in a strategic communications plan when engaging with, and sometimes demonizing, state officials. Activities that occurred thereafter were in accord with that plan. The plan was explained in a document that was presented to the White House. The plan contemplated pressuring Republican legislators both in Congress and in six key swing states. The document itself purports to be the product of the Giuliani presidential legal defense team and declared that we have 10 days to execute this plan and certify President Trump.

Speaker 1: 1:17:49

Carrick told the select committee that pieces of the plan had been in place for some time before the document was actually created, and that he thought that the catalyst for actually memorializing the plan was the approaching deadline of January 6. In fact, the 10-day plan to help certify President Trump has been the subject of continual discussions for six weeks and was being discussed every day at some point prior to the 10 days that we're talking about. So it was a continuous thing that went on. Ultimately, the Giuliani team shared the strategic communications plan and urged its implementation. Carrick sent the plan to Mari Meadows via email on December 28, with this note in part There is only one thing that's going to move the needle and force the legislators to do it with their constitutionally obligated to do, and that is apply pressure. We can do all the investigations we want later, but if the president plans on winning, it's the legislators that have to be moved, and this will do just that. We're just running out of time.

Speaker 1: 1:18:42

Either Giuliani nor Carrick told the select committee that they were called officially implementing the plan, and Giuliani said that he thought Meadows even rejected it, but there is no doubt that President Trump's team took certain actions consistent with it. The document described his goal as a nationwide communications outreach campaign to educate the public on the fraud numbers and inspire citizens to call upon legislators and members of Congress to disregard the fraudulent vote count and certify the duly elected President Trump. The focus of the campaign was swing state Republican senators in Arizona, georgia, michigan, nevada, pennsylvania and Wisconsin, republican members of the House and Republican members of the Senate. Among the steps that it recommended were rallies in protest and six key swing states, including protests at governor's mansions, lieutenant governor's homes, secretary of state's homes and weak members' homes. Although the plan did not mention specific individuals by name, an apparently related document produced to the select committee by Giuliani did, naming state legislators' leaders as targets under a header of key target state points, including Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

Speaker 1: 1:19:46

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, incorrectly described as state Senate's majority leader. Georgia House Speaker David Rauston. Georgia Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan. Georgia Senate President Pro Temporary Butch Miller, as a possible backup. Michigan House Speaker Lee Chadfield. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Scherke. Pennsylvania House Speaker Brian Cutler. Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff. Pennsylvania State President Pro Temporary Jay Corman. Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward. Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Voss and Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Speaker 1: 1:20:21

Insistent with these proposals, giuliani appeared as a guest on the Steve Bannon podcast on New Year's Eve and told him that we have a weak element to our party, a cowardly element, and now I think every Republican knows maybe this is worse. This election was stolen. Now the question is can they live up to their oath of office? We've got to start working on the leadership. Giuliani also described President Trump's objective in this effort. For the president, the way forward is really it's in the hands of the leaders of those legislatures and the members of Congress, and what our people can do is let them know what they think and that they're not going to get away with pushing this aside. That the consequences of turning your back on a massive voter fraud are going to be dire for them and historically, these people are going to become enemies of the country.

Speaker 1: 1:21:05

A key component of this plan was to call out Republican officials who rejected President Trump and his team's efforts or claims of fraud. Kerry and numerous other members of the campaign's legal team did just that. On December 27th, kerry suggested that Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania was corrupt and said that for any Pennsylvania official to certify their vote it's malfeasance and criminal. That was entirely consistent with Kerry's past tweets about the election, one of which appeared to call public officials who betrayed President Trump spineless to the sloyal maggots. It wasn't just rhetoric, however, because, as described below, people showed up outside certain officials' homes, sometimes menacingly, and, of course, showed up at the Capitol on January 6th. The pressure in those final days did not stop with the type of activities outlined in the Strategic Communications Plan.

Speaker 1: 1:21:52

January 2nd 2021 was a busy day for a Saturday at the Trump White House. That was the day President Trump called on Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger to find enough votes for victory in Georgia and participated in a call with Lindsey Graham and members of the Freedom Caucus to plan for the joint session on January 6th. It was also the day that the President joined in a virtual briefing for nearly 300 Republican legislators from swing states. The event was hosted by a short-lived organization called the Gap Freedom that elisted Jenna Ellis among its leadership team and included Giuliani Eastman and Peter Navarro as the program's featured speakers. A press release by Gap Freedom said that the meeting was hosted by Philip Kline, a former attorney general of Kansas, who was disbarred in 2013. It indicated that purported proof of voter fraud should serve as an important resource for state legislators as they make the call for state legislators to meet to investigate the election and consider decertifying their state election results.

Speaker 1: 1:22:50

According to the Washington Examiner, when Trump joined the call, he told the participants You know that we won the election and you were also given false numbers to certify. It. Quoted him saying You are the real power because you're more important than the courts. You're more important than anything because the courts keep referring to you and you're the ones that are going to make the decision. When asked about that quote specifically, giuliani, who was on the call, said he didn't recall the exact words that the president used, but told the select committee That would be the sum or substance of what he had been saying and what he believed.

Speaker 1: 1:23:23

During the call, trump reportedly referenced the planned protest in Washington just days later, on January 6, and told the group I don't think the country is going to take it. When reporting on the call, the Washington Examiner also provided details about what Giuliani told the assembled state legislators Working with the team's strategic communications plan. Giuliani said We need to put excessive pressure on your leadership, where the real weakness in cowardice is mostly located, and the report quoted Navarro telling them that your job, i believe, is to take action, action, action. That evening, navarro stated on Fox News that these legislators, they're hot, they're angry, they want action, and we explained exactly how the Democratic Party, as a matter of strategy, stole this election from Donald J Trump.

Speaker 1: 1:24:09

Officials from Gap Freedom sent a follow-up email that evening to participants on behalf of Phil Klan, in which they described the event as an important briefing for legislators who hold the power to decertify the results of their state elections. It emphasized the following As elected officials in the House and Senate of your respective states, professor Eastman laid out the constitutional imperatives for you Assert your plenary power. Demand that your laws be followed as written If your law-attainment results. Unless and until your laws are followed, insist on enough time to properly meet, investigate and properly certify results to ensure that all lawful votes, but only lawful votes, are counted. The email also recommended that they sign on to a joint letter from state legislators to Vice President Mike Pence to demand that he call for a 12-day delay on ratifying the election on January 6. The letter ultimately garnered more than 100 signatures by state legislators from Arizona, georgia, michigan, pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Doug Mastriano forwarded a copy of the letter via email to President Trump's executive assistant in the National Archives, produced to the select committee a printed version with a stamp at the top indicating the president has seen.

Speaker 1: 1:25:21

But this plan would fail to sway its intended audience. In its discussion, chapter 5, the vice president rejected this and numerous other attempts to convince him to act unlawfully on January 6. The election had been decided and certified by the state. It was the vice president and Congress' job to open and count the legitimate electoral college votes. And in the early morning hours of January 7, after a day unlike any scene in American history when a mob of angry insurrectionists attempted to violently upend the presidential election, the vice president and members of Congress, shaken but steady, delayed but resolute, regrouped and reconvened and did their constitutional duty to certify Joseph R Biden as the next president of the United States.

Speaker 1: 1:26:05

Trump's plot to pressure state legislators to overturn the vote of the electoral college failed, but only barely. Even so, the consequences of Trump's effort to overturn the state election results were significant. Chapter 2, section 7, the Harm Caused by Demonizing Public Servants. Many of the people who refused to be pushed into manipulating election results governors, secretaries of state, state legislators, state and local election officials and front-line election workers just doing their jobs found themselves subjected to public demonization and subsequent spamming, doxing, harassment, intimidation and violent threats. Some of the threats were sexualized or racist in nature and targeted family members. President Trump never discouraged or condemned these tactics and, in fact, he was an active participant in directing his supporters, through tweets and speeches, to apply pressure to public servants who would not comply.

Speaker 1: 1:27:04

President Trump and his team were not above using incendiary rhetoric or threats to achieve their goal of overturning the election. Giuliani said so before the purported hearing in Michigan in December. Recall that he told an online audience. There's nothing wrong with putting pressure on your state legislators, and you have got to get them to remember that their oath to the Constitution sometimes requires being criticized. Sometimes it even requires being threatened.

Speaker 1: 1:27:29

That pressure came privately and publicly in the post-election period. Privately, for example, president Trump called Michigan Senate Majority Leader, mike Scherke three times after their White House meeting November 21, november 25, december 14. Scherke did not recall many specifics of those calls and he claimed that he did not remember the president applying any specific pressure. The day after one of those calls, however, scherke tweeted that our election process must be free of intimidation and threats and it's inappropriate for anyone to exert pressure on them. From this and other public statements, it is clear that Scherke was sensitive to outside forces pressuring people with roles in the election. In fact, the same day that the electoral college met and voted for former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, scherke received another call from President Trump and issued another public statement. Scherke's statement that day, december 14, 2020, read Michigan's democratic slate of electors should be able to proceed with their duty free from threats of violence and intimidation, and it is our responsibility as leaders to follow the law.

Speaker 1: 1:28:39

Publicly, president Trump used both Twitter posts and paid social media and cable television ads to advance his pressure campaign. In Arizona, for example, trump used social media to both praise and criticize legislators. When Speaker Bowers and Senate President Karen Fann requested an audit of Maricopa County's election software and equipment, trump publicly commended them, retweeting a press release about their announcement and commenting Thank you to Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Russell Bowers and all for what you are doing in Arizona. A fast check of signatures will easily give us the Senate. But just days later, president Trump has sailed Bowers for opposing a special session to appoint new electors. He retweeted a post by campaign lawyer Christina Bobb that accused Bowers of intentionally misleading the people of Arizona and that included a demand by a stop to steal organizer Ali Alexander for 50,000 phone calls to Rusty Bowers. Right the heck now. To threaten him with a primary challenge.

Speaker 1: 1:29:37

And as his efforts to change the outcome of the election continue to meet resistance, president Trump personally approved a series of advertisements that the campaign ran on cable television and social media in several important states. One advertisement in Arizona called for pressure on Governor Ducey in particular, alleging the evidence is overwhelming. Call Governor Ducey and your legislators and demand that they inspect the machines and hear the evidence. Another claimed that illegal aliens voted in here in Arizona. Trump votes were discarded. It's an outrage. Call Governor Ducey and your legislators at 602-542-4331. Demand they inspect the machines and hear the evidence. Call Governor Ducey. Stand up for President Trump. Call today Paid for by Donald J Trump for President Inc.

Speaker 1: 1:30:26

Several days earlier, trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller had explained the intention for this round of advertisements in an email. He wrote that the president and Mayor Giuliani want to get back up on TV ASAP and Jared Kushner has approved in budgetary concept. So here's the game plan In order to motivate the GOP base to put pressure on the Republican governors of Georgia and Arizona and the Republican controlled state legislatures in Wisconsin and Michigan to hear evidence of voter fraud before January 6. Miller anticipated a budget of $5 million in ads for the messaging to follow an earlier round of advertisements, but the endings needed to be changed to include phone numbers and directions to call the local governor a state legislature. On December 22, jason Miller texted Jared Kushner that POTUS has approved the buy.

Speaker 1: 1:31:13

References to anger and fighting were featured in some of the president's remarks during that period After the Georgia Secretary of State's Chief Operating Officer, gaye B Sterling, made an impassioned public plea and accurately warned that some would be dies as a result of the threatening election-related rhetoric the President Trump failed to condemn. President Trump dismissively tweeted in response Rigged election show signatures and envelopes expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State Brian Kemp afraid of? They know what we'll find. The president also tweeted that between Governor Ducey and Arizona and Governor Kemp in Georgia, the Democratic Party could not be happier because of the Republicans fight harder against us than they do the radical left and were single-handedly responsible for losing him. Both states, something that Republicans will never forget. Regarding Kemp, he asked what's wrong with this guy? What is he hiding? And he alleged that Rhinos, governor Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Duncan and Secretary Raffensperger will be solely responsible for Senators Loughler and Perdue losing their Senate runoff because they won't call a special session or check for signature verification. People are angry. President Trump's spoken remarks were not much different. After the president wrapped up a November 26 public phone call to wish US service members a happy Thanksgiving, he answered the reporter's question about election integrity in Georgia by lashing out ex-Secretary Raffensperger in particular. Trump made several basis claims of election fraud in Georgia, declared that Raffensperger himself appeared to be complicit and labeled the Georgia Secretary of State an enemy of the people.

Speaker 1: 1:32:45

President Trump and his team's practice of naming and viciously criticizing people had real consequences. Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt's story recounted earlier is just one of many examples, and the consequences weren't just limited to high-profile public figures. Schmidt's deputy, for example, seth Bluestine, faced threats after being demonized by a surrogate for President Trump, and many of the threats he received were anti-Semitic in nature. He received a Facebook message telling him that everyone with a gun is going to be at your house, americans. Look at the name. Another Jew caught up in United States voter fraud. Bluestine got a security detail at his home and the experience gave his three-year-old daughter nightmares.

Speaker 1: 1:33:27

Similarly, after Trump promoted online accusations that Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers had been intentionally misleading the people of Arizona, bowers' personal cell phone and home address were published, leading demonstrators to congregate at his home, honk horns and shoot insults until police arrived. Bowers told the select committee that this was the first of at least nine protestors at his home, sometimes with protestors shouting at the bull horns and calling him a pedophile. One protestor who showed up at his home was armed and believed to be a member of an extremist militia. Sadly, those are not isolated incidents. Stories similar to Smith and Bowers proliferated after Trump's loss in the election. Examples from each of the states discussed in this chapter are documented below, but this list is by no means exhaustive.

Speaker 1: 1:34:14

Arizona after Secretary of State Katie Hobbs' home address that son's phone number were publicly released, demonstrators congregated outside her home chanting We Are Watching You. A social media user at this time recommended let's burn her house down and kill her family and teach those fraudsters a lesson. Secretary Hobbs has continued to receive threats since then, reporting over 100 threats to the FBI in mid-2022, including a September 2021 voicemail that said You should be hunted and will never be safe in Arizona again. Also in Arizona, maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes testified before Congress that his family had go-backs packed in case they needed to evacuate and that, because of threats, he had moved his children out of their family home at least once for three days and awake a serious threat to his family's safety. Again in Arizona, paul Boyer, a Republican state senator, had to evacuate his family, get police protection and change his phone number. After he voted against jailing Maricopa County's supervisors over election disputes. Again in Arizona on January 5, 2021, a comment on the blog suggested some members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have earned a good old-fashioned necktie party as punishment for treason, according to board member Clint Hickman. The threats never abated and on January 6, police convinced Hickman and his family to leave their home.

Speaker 1: 1:35:31

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and her family were driven out of their home for several days. Up to dozens of protesters with bullhorns and firearms congregated outside, shouting obscenities and graphic threats. In the bullhorns, while she spent time with her son and got him ready for bed, secretary Benson said that she only feels safe sometimes as a result of continuing threats. Also in Michigan, several members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers received threats, as did Aaron Van Lengveld, a Republican member of the state board of canvassers. Van Lengveld was bombarded with communications and people began showing up at his family's home, forcing police to insure him and his family's safety and escort him across the state after he voted to certify Michigan's election.

Speaker 1: 1:36:13

Also in Michigan, detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, a Democrat, and a Rochester Hill City Clerk, tina Barden, a Republican, were both targeted. Barden had never before received a death threat and over a decade of work as an election official, but, as a result of the 2020 presidential election, was subject to a torn of threats and harassment, such as an anonymous caller who repeatedly threatened to kill her and her entire family. Winfrey was confronted outside her home by a man who indicated that he had been surveilling her and that you were going to pay dearly for your actions in this election. She started carrying a firearm because death threats against her continued. Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield confirmed that quote. I and my family have received numerous threats, along with members on both sides of the aisle. This included the top Democrat on Michigan's House Oversight Committee, representative Cynthia Johnson, who was threatened with lynching after she challenged the witnesses that Giuliani offered to her committee. One caller, who allegedly threatened to kill Rep Johnson and wipe out her family in December 2020, called the Capitol again on the morning of January 7, 2021 and said that everyone better get out of the building because it is going to fucking explode.

Speaker 1: 1:37:21

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth, kathy Buchvar, said she received so many threats that she didn't feel comfortable walking the dog on the street. This included a message in November 2020 threatening to murder her in her home at night, forcing her and her husband to flee for a week. Another voicemail she received after certifying Pennsylvania's election results threatened you crooked, fucking bitch. You're done Pennsylvania again. House Speaker Brian Cutler told the select committee that they were at least three protests outside either his district office or his home and that his then 15-year-old son was home by himself for the first one. Senator Jay Corman spoke person revealed in December 2020 that he, too, was being subject to violent threats, something Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward also received. Pennsylvania again Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir spent several nights evacuated from his home and continued to receive death threats a year after the 2020 election. Reflecting that, i feel anxiety every time I walk outside of the house. Commissioner Lisa Deely, another city commission colleague, also received death threats and said she suffers occasional anxiety attacks as a result.

Speaker 1: 1:38:28

Georgia After Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's email and phone number were published, he said that he and his wife received frequent hostile messages, some of which typically came in sexualized attacks. As a result, the secretary's wife canceled visits from the grandchildren out of fear of the kids' safety. That was not an overreaction, as that came after police found self-identified members of the oath keepers outside their homes and after someone broke into their daughter-in-law's house. Also in Georgia, on January 5th 2021, governor Kemp and Secretary Raffensperger reportedly named in a craigslist post, encouraging people to put an end to the lives of these traitors. Also in Georgia, fulton County elections director Richard Barron was named and depicted on screen in the video President Trump played as his December 5th rally. He said that this incident led to a spike in death threats targeted at election workers, including himself. His team's registration chief, ralph Jones, received death threats following the election, including one calling him a quote nigger who should be shot, and another threatening, to quote kill him by dragging his body around with a truck. In Georgia. Election offices in 10 Georgia counties received email threats of bombings that would quote make the Boston bombings look like child play and that the death and destruction would continue until Trump is guaranteed to be potis.

Speaker 1: 1:39:48

One of the most striking examples of the terror that President Trump and his allies caused came in Georgia, where election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, mother and daughter, were besieged by incessant, terrifying harassment and threats that often evoked racial violence and lynching instigated and incited by the President of the United States, as described earlier. In a state legislative hearing in Georgia, giuliani publicly and baselessly accused Freeman and Moss of engaging in criminal conduct. He showed a video of Freeman passing Moss a gingerman, before claiming that the two women, both black, were smuggling USB drives as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. Trump also seemed fixated on Freeman and Moss too. He played surveillance video showing them inside the state farm arena at a December 5th rally in Georgia. Freeman by name 18 times during the January 2nd call to Secretary of State Raffensperger, in which he asked the secretary to simply find enough votes to ensure victory. Freeman's and Moss's lives were forever changed. After their contact information was published, they were besieged by the President's supporters.

Speaker 1: 1:40:49

In early December of 2020, freeman told police that she had received hundreds of threats at her home. Moss's son also started receiving threatening phone calls, including one stating that he should hang alongside his. Quote nigger mama. In the wake of President Trump's December 5th 2020 rally, freeman called 911 because strangers had come to our home trying to lure her out, sending threatening emails and text messages. She pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help after hearing loud banging on her door just before 10pm. Quote Lord Jesus, where's the police? She asked the dispatcher. I don't know who keeps coming to my door. Please help me. Ultimately, freeman fled from her own home based on advice from the FBI. She would not move back for months.

Speaker 1: 1:41:32

In her testimony to the Select Committee, freeman recounted how she received hundreds of racist, threatening, horrible calls and messages, and that now there is nowhere. I feel safe Nowhere. But it's not just a sense of security that the President and his followers took from Freeman. She told the Select Committee that she had also lost her name and reputation. My name is Ruby Freeman. I've always believed that when God says that He'll make your name great. But this is not the way it was supposed to be. I could have never imagined the events that followed the presidential election in 2020.

Speaker 1: 1:42:05

For my entire professional life, i was Lady Ruby. My community in Georgia, where I was born and lived my entire life, knew me as Lady Ruby. Now I won't even introduce myself by name anymore. I get nervous when I bump into someone I don't know in the grocery store who says my name. I'm worried about who's listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I'm always concerned of who's around me. I've lost my name and I've lost my reputation. I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with number 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shea to push their own lives about how the presidential election was stolen. Freeman's sense of dread is well founded. According to federal prosecutors, a member of the Oath Keepers Militia, convicted of multiple offenses for his role in the January 6th insurrection, had a document in his residence with the words Death List written across the top. His death list contained just two names Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss.