Jan. 6 panel scheduled to hear from Raffensperger, others Trump pushed
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House 1/6 committee is set to hear from the caretakers of American democracy — elections workers and local officials — who fended off Donald Trump's pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election, at times despite frightening personal attacks.
The hearings investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol resume Tuesday with a focus on Trump's efforts to undo Joe Biden's victory in the most local way — by leaning on officials in key battleground states to reject ballots outright or to submit alternative electors for the final tally in Congress. The pressure was fueled by the defeated president's false claims of voter fraud which, the panel says, led directly to the riot at the Capitol.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is to testify about Trump's phone call asking him to "find 11,780" votes that could flip the state to prevent Biden's election victory.
Raffensperger, with his deputy Gabe Sterling and Arizona's Republican state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, are to be key witnesses, along with Wandrea "Shay" Moss, a former Georgia election worker who, with her mother, have said they faced such severe public harassment from Trump allies they felt unable to live normal lives.
"I'm appalled at what I saw," Bowers said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press after arriving in Washington. "I think it illuminates something we need to see big time, and take stock of ourselves. And I hope it would sober us."
The public hearing, the fourth by the panel this month, stems from its yearlong investigation into Trump's unprecedented attempt to remain in power, a sprawling scheme that the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee has likened to an "attempted coup."
Tuesday's focus will review how Trump was repeatedly told his pressure campaign could potentially cause violence against the local officials and their families but pursued it anyway, according to a committee aide. And it will underscore that fallout from Trump's lies continues to this day, with elections officers facing ongoing public harassment and political challengers trying to take over their jobs.
While the committee cannot charge Trump with any crimes, the Justice Department is watching the panel's work closely. Trump's actions in Georgia are also the subject of a grand jury investigation, with the district attorney expected to announce findings this year.
"We will show during a hearing what the president's role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislatures would reconvene and bless it," Rep. Adam Schiff, DCalif., told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Schiff, who will lead much of Tuesday's session, said the hearing will also dig into the "intimate role" the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had in the plot to pressure Georgia state legislators and elections officials.
Trump defended himself on social media, describing his phone call as "perfect," similar to the way he described his 2020 call with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy that resulted in his first impeachment.
Raffensperger, Georgia's top election official, rebuffed Trump's request that he "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's win in the state — a request caught on tape during a phone call days before the Jan. 6 attack.
During the call, Trump repeatedly cited disproven claims of fraud and raised the prospect of a "criminal offense" if Georgia officials did not change the vote count. The state had counted its votes three times before certifying Biden's win by a 11,779 margin.