JAKARTA - Former United States President Donald Trump has been told by his top advisers that claims of widespread election fraud are unfounded and will not reverse his 2020 election loss, but he has not listened, according to testimony at a hearing on the committee investigating the Capitol Hill riots, Washington DC. on January 6, 2021.
Close aides and family members said they had told Trump there was no benefit in the bizarre allegations that surfaced after his election defeat, including reports of "suspicious suitcases" containing fake ballots, trucks transporting ballots to Pennsylvania and computer chips being swapped. with a voting machine.
"I think, son, if he really believes this, he's lost touch, he's become detached from reality," said William Barr, who served as attorney general in the Trump era, long known to be loyal to the Republican president.
In the video testimony, Barr bluntly dismissed the claims of fraud as nonsense and insanity.
"There was never any indication of interest in the facts," he said.
The Democratic-led US House of Representatives Select Committee, which is investigating the attack on the US Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters, is presenting its findings in the second of six months, following a nearly year-long investigation into the unrest.
Committee members argued Trump's repeated fraudulent claims, known to Democrats as the "Big Lie," convinced his followers to attack the Capitol.
"He and his closest advisers knew the claims were false, but they sold them anyway, until moments before mobs of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol," said Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren.
Democrats say Trump raised about $250 million from supporters to advance fraud claims in court, but instead directed much of the money elsewhere.
"The Big Lie is also the Big Lie," Lofgren insisted.
Donald Trump himself denies any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly insisted he didn't lose, dismissing the Elected Committee's investigation as a political hunt.
However, polls show many Trump supporters still believe his false claims about the election. Some are now running for office, where they will oversee future elections. Meanwhile, Trump has hinted at running for president again in 2024, but has yet to announce any decision.
Separately, Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager, said he recommended on election night that Trump avoid declaring victory and instead, said votes were still being counted.
"He thought I was wrong. He told me, and that they were going, that he was going in a different direction," Stepien said in the testimony recorded on video. Stepien was scheduled to testify in person, but was canceled at the last minute when his wife gave birth.
It is known that Trump appeared on television to first declare victory at the urging of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. Campaign adviser Jason Miller testified that Giuliani was unconscious at the time.
"The mayor must be drunk but I, um, don't know how drunk he was when he was talking to the president, for example," Miller said in video testimony.
Meanwhile, Byung J. Pak, who resigned as a US attorney in Atlanta, when the Trump camp questioned Georgia's election results said he had found no evidence of fraud in the state.
Referring to the suspicious briefcase suspected of containing fake or altered ballots, Pak said, sitting at the witness table: "Allegedly the black suitcase pulled from under the table is the official key box."
According to The Washington Post, former senior Justice Department official Richard Donoghue said when Trump was briefed on the allegations he made, Trump would move on to another topic.
Take, for example, the claim that a suitcase full of fake ballots was under the table at a vote counting facility in Georgia.
"We saw the footage, we interviewed the witnesses. And I said, 'no sir, no suitcases. You can watch the video over and over again. No suitcases,'" Donoghue said.
Yesterday's trial was a continuation of Thursday's hearing, in which testimony showed close Trump allies, including daughter Ivanka, rejected his false claims of election fraud.
To note, four people died in the riot. One was shot dead by the police and the other was of natural causes. About 140 police officers were injured, and one person died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.
In total, nearly 850 people have been arrested for riot-related crimes, including more than 250 charged with assault or obstruction of law enforcement.
Separately, Attorney General Merrick Garland again declined to address legal or factual questions surrounding January 6, noting that there are hundreds of ongoing cases and the department has a general policy of not discussing investigations. He added, however, that prosecutors were keeping an eye on the committee's hearing.
"I'm watching, I'm going to watch all of the trials. I may not be able to watch all of them live, but I'm sure I will be watching them all, and I can assure you, that the January 6 prosecutors are also watching all of the trials," Garland said.
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