>> Before the break, you heard
talk about the false claims that
Mr. Trump and his supporters
made about suitcases of fake
ballots in Georgia.
We have a witness today who
investigated that issue.
I want to thank you for
appearing before us today.
You were appointed by president
trump to serve as U.S. Attorney
for the northern district of
Georgia and you served from 2017
until January of 2021.
You were the lead federal
prosecutor and worked for the
department of justice under then
attorney general bill Barr.
Were you ever asked by attorney
general Barr to investigate
claims of voter fraud in the
2020 election?
If so, what were those claims?
Mr. Pak: Thank you for the
question.
Approximately December 4, 2020,
attorney general Barr and I had
a conversation about an
unrelated case.
At the end of the conversation,
Mr. Barr had asked me if I had
seen a certain videotape being
reported in the news where Mr.
Giuliani in a senate
subcommittee hearing held to day
before, may 3, showed a
videotape of a purportedly --
security tape at the marina in
Atlanta and Fulton county, in
the city of Atlanta -- yes.
At the time, Mr. Barr asked me
-- he had made a public
statement that he had not seen
any widespread election fraud
that would question the outcome
of the election.
Because of the videotape and
serious allegation Mr. Giuliani
was making in respect to these
suitcases full of ballots
purported in the video, he asked
me to find out what I could
because he had envisioned that
he was going to have to go to
the white house for a meeting
and that issue might come up.
He asked me to make it a
priority to get to the bottom --
to try to substantiate the
allegation made by Mr. Giuliani.
Rep. Lofgren: I understand the
Georgia secretary of state's
office investigated those state
farm allegations and did not
find allegation -- evidence of
fraud.
What did you find when your
office conducted its
investigation?
Mr. Pak: We found that the
suitcase full of ballots, the
alleged black suitcase being
pulled from under the table was
actually an official lockbox
where ballots were kept safe.
We found there was a mistake in
terms of a misunderstanding that
they were done tallying ballots
for the night and the partisan
watchers signed by each of the
parties were sent home.
When they realized the mistake,
someone from the secretary of
state's office indicated we are
not done for the night, you need
to continue counting.
Once they packed the lock box
full of ballots, they brought
back the official ballot box
again and continued to tally the
ballots from the lockbox.
Unfortunately, during the senate
hearing, Mr. Giuliani only
played a clip that showed them
pulling out the official ballot
box from under the table and
referring to that as a smoking
gun of fraud and Fulton county,
when in actuality interview of
the entire video it showed that
was an official ballot box kept
underneath the table.
We saw them pack up because they
announced they thought they were
done for the night.
Once they announced you should
continue counting, they brought
the ballot box back out and
continued to count.
We interviewed -- the FBI
interviewed the individuals
depicted in the videos that
purportedly were triple counting
the ballots and determined
nothing irregular happened in
the counting and the allegations
made by Mr. Giuliani were false.
Rep. Lofgren: I would like to
play again testimony from Mr.
Donahue, who appeared before the
committee before today.
>> We talked about whether the
president was informed about a
report.
On the result of the
investigation and interviews
that have gone on and Fulton
county, how would those results
have been communicated to the
white house comment to the
president?
>> I do not know how they were
initially communicated.
I know they came up in
subsequent conversations and we
essentially told him we looked
into that and it is not true.
>> So he was informed.
>> I told the president myself
several times that these
allegations about ballots being
smuggled in in a suitcase and
run through the machine was not
true, that we had looked into
video and interviewed witnesses.
Rep. Lofgren: After you left the
U.S. Attorney's office, did the
next U.S. Attorney there, Bobby
Christine, did he investigate
any remaining claims of fraud?
If so quantity find evidence
that supported the president?
Claims of voter fraud?
Mr. Pak: It is my understanding
that Mr. Christine continued any
investigations pending at the
time of my departure but was
unable to find any evidence of
fraud that affected the outcome
of the election.
Rep. Lofgren: So after
investigating claims about voter
fraud in Georgia, is it your
view today that there was no
evidence of widespread fraud
sufficient to undermine
confidence in the outcome of the
election in Georgia?
Mr. Pak: That is correct.
Rep. Lofgren: Thank you, and I