-The January 6th hearings
have provided a mountain of new evidence
about the relentless, all-encompassing plan
by Donald Trump and his cronies to overturn the 2020 election,
but maybe the biggest revelation, so far,
has been the degree to which the people involved in the scheme
all had criminal intent
and knew what they were doing was against the law.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
Look, I'm not especially hopeful that the January 6th hearings
are going to magically change the minds
of any hardcore Trump fans in the Republican Party.
I mean, I hope they do, but we've been
through a seven-year-long onslaught of Trump scandals,
including two impeachments; a violent coup;
and a sex scandal, in which he paid hush money,
during a presidential campaign,
to cover up an affair with a porn star
and lied about it,
up until the point where the actual check
he personally wrote to make the payment surfaced
with his signature on it.
[ Laughter ]
And the way you know that's Donald Trump signature is
that he looks like he signed it with a giant Sharpie
while he was white water rafting.
[ Laughter ]
Remember that whole thing? Looking back now,
I have to say I always imagined hush money
would be paid in a more covert way
than writing and signing a check.
That was more like yell money.
[ Laughter ] I just assumed, from movies,
it would be an envelope full of unmarked bills
passed between parked cars down at the docks.
I never would've imagined Trump sitting down
to balance his checkbook,
going through all the hush money payments.
[ Laughter ] [ As Trump ] Alright, let's see.
$150 for the cable bill.
That's fair. I watch a lot of cable.
[ Laughter ] $300 for groceries.
Eat a lot of groceries.
Let's see, $130,000 to adult film star
to cover up sex scandal. More than fair.
[ Laughter ] Mel!
Mel, honey, do you have any hush money payments
you need me to make?
[ Laughter ]
No, because I'm doing the bill
and, if you have hush money, I'd love to --
Why? Because I don't want to pay late fees.
[ Laughter ] Mel, I don't want to be
the only frugal one in this relationship, Mel.
None of that really seemed to move the needle
with Republicans, so I'm not optimistic
the January 6th hearings
are going to seriously influence the GOP.
But I am hopeful the hearings will influence
prosecutors in the Justice Department
because one area where these hearings
have been shockingly successful
has been establishing criminal intent
and a consciousness of guilt
among Trump and his gang of pro-coup weirdos,
as they were planning and orchestrating the coup.
Take disgraced former national security advisor Michael Flynn,
who participated in discussions where, among other things,
he pushed Trump to use the military
to seize voting machines.
Flynn invoked the Fifth Amendment
during a series of what you would think
would be pretty straightforward questions,
for any nonfascists.
-Do you believe the violence on January 6th
was justified morally?
[ Laughter ] -You believe the violence
on January 6th was justified legally?
General Flynn, do you believe
in the peaceful transition of power
in the United States of America?
[ Laughter ] You're pleading the Fifth
over a hypothetical that has nothing to do with the law?
The Fifth Amendment doesn't work like that.
It's not "Family Feud."
It doesn't say...
[ Laughter ]
It protects you from self-incrimination.
And, look, I'm generally very opposed
to drawing conclusions about someone's guilt,
just because they plead the Fifth.
It's a constitutional right and it's in there for a reason.
These are just benign hypotheticals.
This is like if your spouse said,
"How do you feel about monogamy?"
And your answer was, "I'm invoking
my Fifth Amendment right not to answer
any questions about your sister."
[ Laughter ]
It's not going to end the conversation.
That's how aware these guys were that they were in legal trouble.
They wouldn't even answer questions
about whether they believe
in the peaceful transfer of power.
In fact, at almost every turn, key White House officials
made it very clear that they knew they were
in significant legal jeopardy. For example, on Tuesday,
former Trump White House official Cassidy Hutchinson
recounted, in a damning comment
from Trump's White House counsel Pat Violoncello,
after he found out that Trump wanted
to go to the Capitol himself and lead the armed mob
in overthrowing the election results.
-We understand, Ms. Hutchinson,
that you also spoke to Mr. Cipollone
on the morning of the 6th,
as you were about to go to the rally on the Ellipse,
and Mr. Cipollone said something to you like,
"Make sure the movement to the Capitol does not happen."
Is that correct?
-That's correct.
I saw Mr. Cipollone right before I walked out
onto West Exec that morning
and Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of,
"Please make sure we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy.
Keep in touch with me.
We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable,
if we make that movement happen."
-And do you remember which crimes
Mr. Cipollone was concerned with?
-In the days leading up to the 6th,
we had conversations
about potentially obstructing justice
or defrauding the electoral count.
-It's amazing. "We're going to get charged
with every crime imaginable."
It's truly mind-boggling to me
that none of these guys are in jail, yet,
when they themselves were expecting to end up in jail.
Merrick Garland's still poring over transcripts,
looking for a smoking gun.
Meanwhile, on January 6th,
Trump aides were all on Pinterest, searching for...
[ Laughter ]
"Oh, cool!
It says you can bedazzle your handcuffs!"
And, crucially, that comment from Cipollone
was not just a one-time freak-out on January 6th.
As Hutchinson made clear in that clip,
there were conversations even before January 6th
about the likelihood that Trump aides were committing,
among other crimes, obstruction of justice
or defrauding the electoral count.
Think about that. They even named
the specific laws they were breaking.
They literally laid out a blueprint
for prosecutors to arrest them.
I mean, how much easier can you make it?
This is like if, on every page,
Waldo was holding up a giant sign that said...
[ Laughter ]
That was not the only time a White House lawyer
warned Trump cronies that they were breaking the law.
For example, there was also Eric Herschmann,
whose job, it seems like,
was basically to tell everyone in the Trump White House
they were constantly breaking the law.
Now, you might remember Herschmann
from previous hearings, as the guy
who has a baseball bat with the word justice written on it
[ Laughter ] hanging on his wall.
I like that it's not mounted on wood
or in a glass case or anything.
It's just right there on hooks at grabbing height.
[ Laughter ] I bet, when people
got their lunches out of the office fridge at his firm,
they triple-checked they had the bag right.
[ Laughter ] Herschmann was in a meeting
with another key figure in the attempted coup --
Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
Clark wanted Trump to make him attorney general
after the election, so that, as attorney general,
Clark could declare, without evidence,
that there was fraud in the election
and then overturn the results.
And Herschmann had very blunt words for Clark
when he found out about Clark's plan.
-When he finished discussing what he planned on doing,
I said, "Good [bleep]."
Excuse me. Sorry. "Effing a-hole,
congratulations, you just admitted the first step
or act you'd take as attorney general
would be committing a felony."
-I like that the guy has enough decorum
not to curse in a deposition,
but still keeps a baseball bat in the frame,
[ Laughter ] just to keep everyone on edge.
I wish I could've been a fly on the wall
for all his conversations in the White House.
[ As Herschmann ] If you break the law, I'm going to use this baseball bat
and beat the living [bleep] out of you.
Sorry! The living eff out of you.
[ Laughter ] Please,
please excuse my horrible manners,
you dumb [bleep] piece of [bleep].
[ Laughter ]
So, yet again, we have a Trump White House official
making it plain as day that the people planning the coup
knew they were breaking the law when they were doing it.
For example, we also know, from testimony given
by a former aide to Mike Pence, that John Eastman,
the pro-coup lawyer who wrote the memo
detailing how Pence was supposed to overturn the results
on January 6th, also knew his plan was illegal.
Eastman admitted, in the Oval Office, in front of Trump,
that his plan would violate the Electoral Count Act
and, after the whole thing descended
into violence and chaos on the 6th,
Herschmann -- the baseball bat guy --
[ Laughter ] again offered a very stark warning to Eastman.
I screamed...
-[ Laughs ]
-And I screamed --
[ Laughter ]
[ Laughter ] -Man, where did this guy get his law degree?
Does Yale Law School have a building on campus called...
[ Laughter ]
The only problem with that library -- it's great,
but as soon as you learn something there,
you fuhgeddaboudit.
[ Laughter ]
And, as we've also discovered, from these hearings,
Trump's cronies had such a clear consciousness of guilt
that a lot of them were asking for preemptive pardons.
They knew they could be prosecuted and they wanted Trump
to get them off the hook before that happened.
-Dr. Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani
and requested that he be included on a list
of potential recipients of a presidential pardon.
-Did Rudy Giuliani ever suggest that he was interested
in receiving a presidential pardon related to January 6th?
-He did.
-Ms. Hutchison, did White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
ever indicate that he was interested
in receiving a presidential pardon related to January 6th?
-Mr. Meadows did seek that pardon, yes, ma'am.
[ Laughter ]
[ Laughter ] -At this point, it's easier to ask
who wasn't looking for a pardon.
[ Laughter ] Mr. President, here's a list
of the people who want pardons...
[ Laughter ] and that kid who mow the lawn.
Do you remember him?
[ Laughter ] Yeah, he needs a pardon.
I guess he maybe stole that lawnmower.
[ Laughter ] I just love the fact
that Matt Gaetz was just going around,
telling people he asked for a pardon,
like it was cool and not incriminating.
Although, Gaetz does seem like a guy who doesn't know
what he says makes him look bad.
[ As Gaetz ] Hey, Jeff was saying cold water
makes his ween look small, but I was like, "Dude,
mine looks small, no matter what temperature the water is.
[ Laughter and applause ] Am I right? Am I right?
Herschmann, am I right?"
[ As Herschmann ] Shut the [bleep] up.
[ Laughter ]
Shut the eff up.
[ Laughter ]
These hearings have sent a clear message
to prosecutors in the Justice Department.
Not only is there sufficient evidence to charge Trump
and his cronies with multiple crimes,
there's also sufficient evidence that they were aware
they were potentially committing crimes at the time
that they were orchestrating the attempted coup.
If you're, say, a Republican or Trump supporter
watching these hearings and you come to the conclusion
that everything these guys did was legal and aboveboard,
then I'm sorry, you're a...
-Excuse me. Sorry. "Effing a-hole."
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look." [ Cheering and applause ]
♪♪
God's Love We Deliver cooks and brings
over two million meals a year
to men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS,
cancer, and other serious illnesses
and they need your help, now, more than ever.
If you're watching this online, you can hit the Donate button.
Stay safe. Get vaccinated. We love you.