One major theme of the House select committee’s investigation into the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol is that Donald Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election, but still perpetuated the lie that it had been stolen from him.
It has come up in testimony, of which transcripts are now available, as well as being covered by the public hearings.
In the committee’s final report, there is a section that includes testimony from Trump aide Hope Hicks sharing an anecdote about former president Trump laughing about one of the crazier election fraud conspiracies propagated by lawyer Sidney Powell.
The report states:
On November 19th, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis held a press conference at the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters in Washington, DC. Powell asserted that there was “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States.” She pointed a finger at Dominion, claiming its software was “created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election,” and Giuliani echoed her claims.
Hope Hicks told the Select Committee how that press conference was received in the White House. The day after the press conference, President Trump spoke by phone with Sidney Powell from the Oval Office. During the call, Powell repeated the same claims of foreign interference in the election she had made at the press conference. While she was speaking, the President muted his speakerphone and laughed at Powell, telling the others in the room, “This does sound crazy, doesn’t it?”
A few days later, the Trump Campaign issued a statement claiming Ms Powell was not part of their legal team.
Nevertheless, the report goes on to say that Mr Trump appeared to take the claims on board and tweeted and retweeted an OAN news segment captioned “Dominion-izing the Vote” just a few days later.
He also brought up the company and its voting machines in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business.
