Lofgren.
Rep. Lofgren: Last week, we
presented the testimony of
former attorney general bill
Barr, who testified before this
committee.
Today, we present additional
evidence, including his
testimony that former president
trump started making claims of
election fraud immediately after
the election and that Barr
concluded the claims were
untrue.
Due to the length of his
testimony, we are only going to
include relevant portions at the
hearing today, so let's play the
video.
>> The department, when re--- we
received credible allegations of
fraud, in an effort to look into
it to satisfy ourselves that
they were without merit, and I
was in the posture of trying to
figure out -- there was an
avalanche of all these
allegations of fraud that built
up over a number of days, and it
was like playing walkable
because something would come out
one day and the next date would
be another issue.
Also I was influenced by the
fact that early claims that I
understood were bogus and silly
and usually based on
misinformation, so I did not
consider the quality of claims
right out of the box to give me
any feeling there was substance
here.
Rep. Lofgren: For the first time
since the election, the attorney
general spoke personally with
the president on November 23.
This was at the white house.
Let's play the video, please.
>> On November 23, I had not
spoken to the president since
the election and in fact since
the middle of October.
It was getting awkward because
obviously he had lost the
election and I had not said
anything to him.
Cipollone he said it is time you
come over here.
I came over to me with the
president in the oval office and
meadows and Cipollone were
there.
The president -- this is leading
to this conversation with
Kushner.
President said there had been
major fraud and that as soon as
the facts were out the results
of the election would be
reversed.
He went on on this for quite a
while, as he is prone to do.
Then he got to something I was
expecting, which is to say
apparently the department of
justice does not think it has a
role of looking into these fraud
claims.
I said, that has to be the
campaign that raises that with
the state.
The department does not take
sides in elections and the
department is not an extension
of your legal team.
Our role is to investigate
fraud.
If we look at something, if it
is credible and could have
affected the outcome of the
election -- we are doing that
and they are just not minute --
meritorious.
They are not panning out.
As a looked at the oval office,
Jared was there with dansk amino
-- Dan, who I thought was a
reasonable guy and believe is a
reasonable guy.
I said, how long is he going to
carry on with this stolen
election stuff?
Where is it going to go?
I that time, meadows had caught
up with me leaving the office
and caught up to me and said,
look, I think he is becoming
more realistic and knows there
is a limit to how far he can
take this.
Jared said, we are working on
this.
We are working on it.
Rep. Lofgren: Even after his
attorney general told him his
claims of election fraud were
false, president trump continued
to promote these claims.
>> I felt things continued to
deteriorate between the 23rd and
the 29th and on November 29 he
appeared on a show, Sunday
futures, and said the department
was sing in action.
>> -- Missing in action.
Pres. Trump: We had glitches
where they moved thousands of
votes from my account to Biden's
account, so these are not
glitches.
They are fraud.
They did dumps, massive dumps in
Michigan and Pennsylvania and
all over.
How the FBI and to apartment of
justice -- maybe they are
involved, but how people are
allowed to get away with this
stuff is unbelievable.
Rep. Lofgren: Spurred by what he
saw, he told the associated
press there was no evidence of
election fraud.
Immediately after his statement
went public, Mr. Trump berated
and nearly fired bar.
Bar persisted in telling the
president that there was no
evidence to support the fraud
claims.
>> This got under my skin, but I
also felt it was time to say
something.
I set up a lunch with the ap
reporter and told him at lunch
-- I made this statement that to
date we have not seen fraud on a
scale that could have affected a
different outcome in the
election.
I had a later meeting scheduled
at the white house at 3:00 with
meadows.
I knew this was going to come up
and I went over there.
I told my secretary I thought I
would probably be fired and said
you might have to pack up for
me.
When I got over there, I met
with the chief of staff.
He said the president was angry.
He did not really go into the
issue of the fraud and then I
went up to Cipollone's office
and we were talking with each
other.
Word came down that he wanted us
both to go to the oval, and the
president was as mad as I have
ever seen him and trying to
control himself.
The president said, this is
killing me.
You did not have to say this.
You must have said this because
you hate trump.
Then he raised the big vote dump
, as he called it, in Detroit.
He said people saw boxes coming
into the counting station at all
hours of the morning and so
forth.
I asked point to him -- at that
point I knew the exact number of
precincts in Detroit, I think
630 something.
I said, Mr. President, there are
630 precinct inter-troy.
They centralize the counting
process, so they are not counted
in each precinct.
They are moved to counting
stations, so the normal process
would involve boxes coming in at
all different hours.
Did anyone point out to you that
all the people complaining about
it -- you actually did better in
Detroit than you did last time?
There is no indication of fraud
in Detroit.
I told him the stuff that is
people were shoveling to the
public was --, that the claims
of fraud were --.
He was indignant about that.
I reiterated that they wasted a
month on these claims on the
dominion voting machines and
they wereid -- and they were
idiotic claims.
I raised the issue of the
dominion voting machines, which
I found to be one of the most
disturbing allegations in the
sense that I saw zero basis for
the allegations, but they were
made in such a -- in such a
sensational way that they
obviously were influencing
members of the public that there
was this systemic corruption in
the system and that their votes
did not count and that these
machines controlled by somebody
else were determing it, which
was nonsense here and it was
being laid out there.
I told him it was crazy stuff
and they were wasting their
time.
It was doing a grave disservice
to the country.
Rep. Lofgren: The next day, the
president released a video
rehashing some of the same
claims that his chief law
enforcement officer had told him
were nonsense.
Pres. Trump: Here is an example.
This is Michigan.
At 6:31 in the morning, a vote
dump of 149,000 -- 149,772 votes
came in unexpectedly.
We were winning by a lot.
That batch was received in
horror.
We have a company that is very
suspect.
Its name is dominion.
With the turn of a dial, with
the change of a trip, you can
press a button for trump and the
boat goes to Biden.
What kind of a system is this?
Rep. Lofgren: Four -- Barr told
the president there was nothing
to these claims on December 14.
Mr. Barr when I walked in and
sat down, he went off on a
monologue, saying there was no
definitive evidence involving
fraud through the dominion
machines and a report had been
prepared by a reputable
cybersecurity firm, she
identified as allied security
operations group.
He held up the report and asked
that a copy of it be made for me
.
While a copy was being made, he
said, this is proof that the
dominion machines were rigged.
The report means I am going to
have a second term.
Then he gave me a copy of the
report.
And as he talked more about it,
I sat there flipping through the
report and looking through it.
To be frank, it looked
amateurish to me.
It did not have the credentials
of the people involved.
I did not see any real
qualifications and statements
were made very conclusory, like
these machines were designed to
engage in fraud or summing to
that effect, but I did not see
any supporting information for
it.
I was somewhat demoralized
because I thought if he really
believes this stuff he has lost
contact -- he has become
detached from reality if you
really believes this.
On the other hand, I went into
this and would tell him how
crazy some of these allegations
were.
There was never an indication of
interest in what the actual
facts were.
My opinion then and now is that
the election was not stolen by