Cheney of Wyoming for any
opening statement she would care
to offer.
Rep. Cheney: Thank you very
much, Mr. Chairman.
Last week, as the chairman
noted, our committee began
outlining a seven-part plan
overseen by president trump to
overturn the 2020 election.
Today, we will begin looking at
the initial part of that plan.
President trump's effort to
convince millions of Americans
that the election was stolen
from him by overwhelming fraud.
A federal court has already
reviewed elements of the
committee's evidence on this
point and said this "In the
months following the election,
numerous credible sources from
the president's inner circle to
agency leadership and
statisticians informed president
trump and Dr. Eastman there was
no evidence of election fraud."
Sufficient to over certain the
-- to overturn the 2020
election.
The court methodically documents
each of the reasons for that
conclusion, and I would urge all
those wanting to read it.
Today we will begin to show the
American people some of our
evidence.
Today you will hear much more
from a former attorney general,
bill Barr's recorded testimony.
Annual here in greater detail
what others in the department
told president trump that his
claims of election fraud were
nonsense.
You will also hear much more
from president trump own
campaign experts who had also
concluded that his fraud claims
could not be supported.
Let me focus briefly on just
three points now.
First, you will hear first-hand
testimony that the president's
campaign advisors urged him to
await the counting of votes and
not declare victory on election
night.
The president understood, even
before the election, that many
more Biden voters had voted by
mail because president trump
ignored the advice of his
campaign experts and told his
supporters only to vote in
person.
Donald Trump new before the
election that the counting of
those mail-in ballots in several
states would not begin until
late in the day and would not be
complete for multiple days.
This was expected, reported, and
widely known.
You will also know -- your
testimony that president trump
rejected the advice of his
campaign experts on election
night and instead follow the
course recommended by an
apparently inebriated Rudy
Giuliani to just claim that he
won and insists the vote
counting stop, to falsely claim
everything was fraudulent.
He falsely told the American
people that the election was not
legitimate.
In his words, "A major fraud."
Millions of Americans believed
him.
Second, pay attention to what
Donald Trump and his legal team
said repeatedly about dominion
voting machines.
Far-flung conspiracies with a
deceased Venezuelan communist
allegedly pulling the strings.
This was "Complete nonsense" as
bill Barr said.
President trump own campaign
advisors, his department of
justice, his cyber security all
told him the same thing.
Here, for example, is white
house lawyer Eric Hirschman.
His view was shared by many of
the trump team whom we
interviewed.
>> I thought the dominion stuff
was -- I never saw any evidence
whatsoever to support those
allegations.
Rep. Cheney: Third, as Mike
pence's staff started to get a
sense of what Donald Trump had
planned for January 6, they
called the campaign experts to
give them a briefing on election
fraud and all the other election
claims.
On January 2, the general
counsel of the trump campaign,
Matthew Morgan, the campaign's
chief lawyer, summarized with
the campaign had concluded weeks
earlier, that none of the
arguments about fraud or
anything else would actually
change the outcome of the
election.
>> On that topic was whether the
fraud, administration, use or
regularities, if abrogated
favorably to the campaign, if
that would be outcome
determinate.
I think everyone's assessment in
the room, at least among the
staff, mark short, myself, Greg
Jacobs, was that it was not
sufficient to be outcome
determinate.
Rep. Cheney: As is obvious, this
was before the attack on the
capitol. The trump legal team
know
anything to overturn the
election, and yet, president
trump went ahead with his plans
for January 6 anyway.
Esther German, hundreds of our
countrymen have faced criminal
charges.
Many are serving criminal
sentences because they believed
what Donald Trump said about the
election, and they acted on it.
They came to Washington, D.C. At
his request.
They marched on the capital at
his request.
And hundreds of them besieged
and invaded the building at the
heart of our constitutional
republic.
As one conservative editorial
board put it recently, "Esther
trump betrayed his supporters by
counting them on January 6, and
he is still doing it."
Another conservative editorial
board that has long supported
president trump said last week,
"Donald Trump will not stop
insisting that the 2020 was
stolen, even though she has
offered no proof that is true."
And this, "Donald Trump now
clings to more fantastical
theories such as Dennis
Desousa's debunked 2000 meals,
even as recounts in Arizona,
Georgia, and Wisconsin confirmed
trump lost.
Those are the correct conclusion
to draw from the evidence of
this committee.
We have much more evidence to
show the American people on this
point that we can reasonably