The House committee investigating the violence at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 will continue its hearing on Monday with the testimony of Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign manager as the panel delves deeper into the former president’s “big lie”.
The panel will hold the second hearing at 10am ET on Monday, 13 June, with live witnesses. The hearings by the panel began last week with bombshell revelations by representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney.
Bill Stepien, who was the final chairman of Mr Trump’s election campaign, is expected to be questioned about all details the campaign and the former president knew about the claims of widespread election fraud.
He would appear alongside Chris Stirewalt, the former political editor at Fox News who was sacked in 2021 after he incurred the former president’s wrath for authorising the network to correctly project that Mr Trump would be just the second-ever Republican to lose Arizona and the first since Bill Clinton carried the state in 1996.
Mr Stirewalt is expected to be questioned about Mr Trump’s actions as Fox declared various states being won by Joe Biden.
Mr Stepien, who was described in the 8 November subpoena letter by Committee chairman Mr Thompson, had allegedly spread the message which “included the promotion of certain false claims related to voting machines despite an internal memo in which campaign staff determined such claims were false”.
Mr Thompson also said that Mr Trump’s campaign officials “reportedly” asked the state and other officials to affect the results of the November 2020 presidential election, including by means of delaying or denying certification of electoral votes.
It comes as a select committee aide briefed reporters on the panel’s plan for Monday’s hearing, saying it will zoom in on Mr Trump’s attempt to advance outright falsehoods about the conduct of the elections, including his attempts to pressure election officials as well as news outlets into supporting his lies in the days leading up to the 6 January attacks on the Capitol.
“Tomorrow hearing is focused on the Big Lie — the decision by the former president to ignore the will of voters, declare victory on election night, spread claims of fraud and then decide to ignore the rulings of the courts when the judgement of courts didn’t go his way,” said the panel’s aide.
The second hearing “will reveal information about how the former president’s political apparatus use these lies about fraud, about a stolen election, to drive fundraising, bring in hundreds of millions of dollars”.
The second group of witnesses on Monday will include election officials, investigators and experts who will discuss how Mr Trump diverged from US normals and details about dozens of failed court challenges.
The group would include election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg, former Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt, who voiced out against Mr Trump’s lies, and BJay Pak, a former US attorney in Atlanta.
Mr Pak resigned abruptly after he refused to further Mr Trump’s claims that widespread voter fraud has been found in Georgia.
