This concludes our coverage of today's hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The next hearing will be held Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. Thanks for joining us and good afternoon.
The select committee wrapped up Monday's live hearing with several video clips of Trump supporters inside and outside the Capitol on the day of last year's riot..
"Today, we'll end things where we did on Thursday, back on January 6, hearing words of individuals who wanted to stop the transfer of power," Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said. "We know they were there because of Donald Trump."
The video clips featured multiple supporters of the 45th president who repeated his claims of massive voter fraud, with some echoing the false claim that Dominion voting machines were being used to rig the election.
Supporters of President Donald Trump clash with police at the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. James Keivom
"We're standing out. We're here. Whatever happens, we're not lying down," one woman said in a clip.
"I don't want to say that what we're doing is right," one man who appeared to be inside the Capitol building was heard saying. "But if the election is being stolen, what is it going to take?"
Former President Trump and his allies raised $250 million off his claim the 2020 election was stolen, with $100 million coming in the first week after Election Day, according to the select committee.
Senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick said in a video played by the panel that most of the money went toward Trump's newly created Save America PAC rather than "election-related litigation."
Amanda Wick, Senior Investigative Counsel
Most notably, $5 million of that money went to pay Event Strategies, the firm which helped organize the Jan. 6 'Stop The Steal' rally.
In her closing statement, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) accused the Trump White House of committing a "big rip-off" of its supporters and "misled donors as to where their funds would go."
Prominent Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg insisted Monday that the 2020 presidential election was "not close" on Monday, calling it a "basic problem" the Trump campaign had when challenging the election results across the country.
"In the normal course of things a campaign will analyze the reports that come in. [The] Trump campaign had a couple of basic problems however. Number one, the 2020 election was not close," Ginsberg testified to the House select committee investigating last year's Capitol riot.
Benjamin Ginsberg Reuters
"In 2000, that was 537 [votes] close," he said referring to the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
"In this election, the most narrow [state] margin was 10,000-something in Arizona, and you just don't make up those sorts of numbers in recounts."
Former Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt told the committee that he and his family received threats from Trump supporters after he countered Trump's claim that thousands of dead people had voted for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.
The 45th president called out Schmidt in a Nov. 11, 2020 accusing him of being a "RINO" -- or Republican in name only -- for not examining a supposed "mountain of corruption."
"As a result of that tweet, and the CNN interview you gave where you stated the dead voter claims in Pennsylvania were false, you and your staff were subjected to disturbing threats. Can you tell us about that?" asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)
Former Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt Reuters
"The threats prior to that tweet -- and on some level, it feels almost silly to talk about a tweet -- but we can really see the impact they have because prior to that the threats were pretty general in nature," said Schmidt, adding that the initial threats were along the lines of "Corrupt election officials in Philadelphia are gonna get what's coming to them," "You're what the Second Amendment is for," or "You're walking into the lions den."
"After the president tweeted at me by name, calling me out the way that he did, the threats became much more specific, much more graphic and included not just me, my name, but included members of my family, my name, their ages, our address, pictures of our home, just every bit of detail that you could imagine that would change with that tweet," Schmidt said.
Lofgren displayed two messages sent to Schmidt Nov. 12, 2020. One threatened the commissioner with "75cuts and 20bullets" while the other warned he would be "fatally shot" and added "cops can't help you."
After closing statements from Lofgren, Cheney and Thompson -- the last of which includes a clip of Capitol rioters parroting Trump's election fraud claims -- the chairman gavels the committee out at 12:51 p.m. after a hearing lasting a little more than two hours.
After a brief round of questioning from committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the second panel of witnesses has been dismissed from Monday's hearing.
The committee has moved on to the Trump campaign's efforts to fundraise off his election fraud claims.
As the committee continues its state-by-state debunking of former President Trump's election claims, a clip is played of Bill Barr calling the 45th president a "weak element" of the GOP candidate list in 2020.
"In Pennsylvania, Trump ran weaker than the Republican ticket generally," Barr said during his videotaped deposition. "He ran weaker than two of the state candidates, he ran weaker than the congressional delegation ...
Donald Trump, Joe Biden 2020 presidential debate
Former Attorney General William Bill Barr Reuters
"He generally was a weak element on the Republican ticket," Barr said. "So that does not suggest the election was stolen by fraud."
Former Georgia US Attorney BJay Pak reiterated Monday that a container Trump supporters claimed to be a "suitcase stuffed with ballots" by Atlanta election officials was actually an official lockbox.
A video showing vote counters retrieving the ballots became a focal point of claims by the 45th president that election fraud cost him the Peach State in 2020. But according to Pak, his investigators drew a different conclusion.
"We found that the suitcase full of ballots, the alleged black suitcase that was being seen pulled from under the table was actually an official lockbox where ballots were kept safe," Pak recalled, adding that there had been a misunderstanding of when the count was supposed to be done for the night.
BJay Pak Reuters
Pak revealed that the Georgia Secretary of State's office indicated counting needed to continue after the partisan watchers had been sent home.
"So once they packed up the lockbox full of ballots, they brought back the official ballot box again and continued to tally the ballots from that...lockbox."
"Unfortunately, during the [Georgia] Senate hearing, Mr. Giuliani only played a clip showing them pulling out the official ballot box from under the table and referring to that as a smoking gun fraud in Fulton County," Pak added. "And actually, in review of the entire video, it showed that that was actually an official ballot box that was kept underneath the tables."
The second group of witnesses in Monday's hearing on former President Donald Trump’s insistence that widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election have been sworn in before the House Select Committee investigating last year's Capitol riot.
The panel features GOP election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg, former Georgia US Attorney BJay Pak, and former Philadelphia Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt.
Benjamin Ginsberg, BJay Pak, and Al Schmidt Reuters
At 12:03 p.m., Chairman Thompson calls a 10-minute recess. When the panel comes back, we expect to hear from the second set of witnesses, including former Georgia US Attorney BJay Pak.