Next Jan. 6 committee hearings will focus on Trump's effort to pressure state officials like Brad Raffensperger
The January 6 select committee will present testimony on Tuesday on how former President Trump launched a campaign to pressure state election officials through lawsuits, political pressure and direct phone calls to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, (R-Ill.) said.
Kinzinger appeared Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous” to talk about the committee’s work, revealing that he — one of only two Republicans on the panel — and his family had received a death threat several days ago.
The committee meets next on June 21 at 1 p.m. to hear from witnesses who saw firsthand how the former president’s campaign tried to undermine the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th president.
The Tuesday forum will likely highlight testimony on how former Energy Secretary Rick Perry reportedly sent a text message to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to launch an “aggressive strategy” to keep Trump in office.
Perry’s plan was to have states with Republican-led legislatures that had not declared a winner install their own electors who would rule Trump the winner, according to a leaked text message.
“Why can t [sic] the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS,” according to the text obtained by CNN.
The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr. was also in on the gambit, according to texts revealed by the House committee.
“Republicans control 28 states Democrats 22 states. Once again Trump wins,” the president’s son texted to Meadows, “We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021.”
At the same time, the Trump campaign began to file a rash of lawsuits in state courts across the country, challenging the voting results. That effort, led in part by former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani failed almost immediately.
In addition to the litigation, the ex-president called Michigan lawmakers who had certified the election and asked them to rescind their votes. His campaign attempted to have Michigan voting machines seized.
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who oversaw that state’s election, fielded the now-infamous call from Trump in which he pressured the official to “find” him just enough votes to overtake Biden in the state.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump told him on a recorded call.
On “This Week,” Kinzinger said he believed the effort by Trump and his inner circle rose to the level of criminal acts.
“I certainly think the president is guilty of knowing what he did, seditious conspiracy, being involved in these,” he said.
Kinzinger said that next week the testimony will show “how much the president was involved in the lead-up to Jan. 6.”
“The president knew what he was doing. There was a plan,” the Illinois Republican said.
Last week, the January 6 Committee heard testimony regarding pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to halt the certification of the election by Congress.
There was testimony that in heated calls to the vice president, Trump called him a “wimp” and other derogatory terms for not carrying out the plot.
Pence maintained that he did not have the authority to do so.
“He had a chance to be frankly historic, but just like Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, and I say it sadly because I like him, but Mike did not have the courage to act,” Trump said during a recent speech to a conservative Christian group.
Another January 6 committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, said on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning that the ex-president’s statements amount to an admission of guilt.
“He’s essentially saying, ‘Yeah, I did it, and I’ll do it again,’ which is what we have been contending all along, that if you allow impunity for attempts at unconstitutional seizures of power, which is what a coup is, then you’re inviting it again in the future,” he said.
Questions have been swirling over whether or not the committee will recommend criminal charges or turn its evidence over to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of the former president.
“I’ll leave that judgment to them,” Raskin said. “I mean, one of the many things that Donald Trump destroyed during his time in office was the idea that the political branches have to respect the independence of the law enforcement function.”
Kinzinger said that recently, local officials in New Mexico refused to certify an election because the votes were cast on Dominion voting machines.
Trump campaign officials, including Giuliani, had claimed without supporting evidence that Dominion voting machines were rigged to register Trump votes for Biden, a claim that then-Attorney General William Bar called “bulls---.”
Kinzinger, who plans to leave Congress once his term is over, has said there’s been a “lack of leadership” on behalf of the Republicans.
“My party has utterly failed the American people at the truth,” he told Stephanopoulos. “It makes me sad, but it’s fact.”
Bucking his party has also made him a target, he revealed on Sunday.
“We got it a couple of days ago and it threatens to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child. We’ve never seen or had anything like that,” he said, adding that the threat was from his district.
© New York Daily News
