Thank you very much, Mr Chairman.
At this point, our committee has just begun to show America the evidence
that we have gathered
There is much more to come.
Both in our hearings and in our report.
But I'd like to take just a moment to put everything we have seen
in context.
We have already seen how President Trump falsely declared victory
on November 3rd 2020
How he and his team launched a fraudulent media campaign that persuaded
tens of millions of Americans that the election was stolen from him.
Donald Trump intentionally ran false ads on television and social
media.
Featuring allegations that his advisers and his Justice Department
repeatedly told him were untrue.
We have also seen how Donald Trump launched a fraudulent fundraising
campaign that raised hundreds of millions of dollars again based
on those same false election fraud allegations.
We have seen how President Trump and his allies corruptly attempted
to pressure vice president Pence to refuse to count lawful electoral
votes and obstruct Congresses proceedings on January 6th.
And how he provoked a violent mob to pursue the vice president and
others in our capital.
We have seen other president oversaw and personally participated
in an effort in multiple states to vilify, threaten and pressure
election officials and to use false allegations to pressure state
legislators to change the outcome of the election.
We've seen how President Trump worked with and directed the Republican
National Committee and others to organize an effort to create fake
electoral slates.
And later to transmit those materially false documents to federal
officials again as part of his planning for January, 6th
We have seen how President Trump persuaded tens of thousands of his
supporters to travel to Washington, D. C for January, 6th.
And we will see in far more detail how the president's rally and
march to the capital were organized and choreographed.
As you can tell. These efforts were not some minor or ad hoc enterprise
concocted overnight.
Each required planning and coordination.
Some required significant funding. All of them were overseen by President
Trump.
And much more information will be presented soon regarding the president's
statements and actions on January 6th.
Today. As chairman, Thompson indicated we turned to yet another element
of the president's effort to overturn the 2020 election.
This one involving the Department of Justice.
A key focus of our hearing today will be a draft letter that are
witnesses here today refused to sign
This letter was written by Mr Jeff Clark with another department
of Justice lawyer Ken Krukowski.
And the letter was to be sent to the leadership of the Georgia state
legislature.
Other versions of the letter were intended for other states.
Neither Mr Clark nor Mr Krukowski had any evidence of widespread
election fraud.
But they were quite aware of what Mr Trump wanted the department
to do.
Jeff Clark met privately with President Trump and others in the White
House and agreed to assist the president without telling the senior
leadership of the department who oversaw him.
As you will see. This letter claims that the U. S. Department of
Justice's investigations have quote identified significant concerns
that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states.
Including the state of Georgia.
In fact, Donald Trump knew this was a lie.
The Department of Justice had already informed the president of the
United States repeatedly.
That its investigations had found no fraud sufficient to overturn
the results of the 2020 election.
The letter also said this quote
In light of these developments, the department recommends that the
Georgia General Assembly should convene in special session.
End quote and consider approving a new slate of electors.
And it indicates that except pret quote
Fake slate of electors supporting Donald Trump has already been transmitted
to Washington, D. C.
For those of you who have been watching these hearings. The language
of this draft Justice Department letter will sound very familiar.
The text is similar to what we have seen from John Eastman and Rudy
Giuliani.
Both of whom were coordinating with President Trump to overturn the
2020 election.
When one of our witnesses today Mr Donohue first saw this draft letter
he wrote this quote.
This would be a grave step for the department to take and it could
have tremendous constitutional, political and social ramifications
for the country end quote.
This committee agrees Had this letter been released on official Department
of Justice letterhead, it would have falsely informed all Americans,
including those who might be inclined to come to Washington on January
6th.
The President Trump's election fraud allegations were likely very
real.
Here is another observation about this letter. Look at the signature
line.
It was written by Jeff Clark and Mr Kukowski, not just for clerk's
signature, but also for our witnesses today, Jeff Rosen and Richard
Donohue.
When it became clear that neither Mr Rosen nor Mr Donahue would sign
this letter. President Trump's plan necessarily changed.
As you will hear. Today, Donald Trump offered Mr Clark the job of
acting attorney general, replacing Mr Rosen.
With the understanding that Clark would send this letter to Georgia
and other states and take other actions the president requested.
One other point
Millions of Americans have seen the testimony of Attorney General
Bar before this committee.
At one point In his deposition, the former attorney general was asked
why he authorized the Department of Justice to investigate fraud
in the 2020 election at all. Why not just follow the regular course
of action and let the investigations occur much later in time after
January, 6th
Here's what he said.
Felt the responsible thing to do was to be to be in a position to
have a view as to whether or not there was fraud. And frankly, I
think the fact that I put myself in the position that I could say
that we had looked at this and didn't think there was fraud was really
important to moving things forward. I sort of shudder to think what
the situation would have been. If the effort the position of the
department was, we're not even looking at this until after Biden's
in office.
I'm not sure we would have had a transition at all.
I want to thank each of our witnesses before us today.
For your role in addressing and rebutting the false allegations of
fraud at the root of January, 6th.
And thank you for standing up for the Constitution and for the rule
of law.
Of course, not all public officials behaved in the honorable way
Our witnesses did.
At the close of today's hearing, We will see video testimony by three
members of Donald Trump's White House staff.
They will identify certain of the members of Congress who contacted
the White House after January 6th to seek presidential pardons for
their conduct.