Jan. 6 hearings resume Tuesday with a focus on Trump's pressure on state officials. What to expect.
Chelsey Cox, USA TODAY - 1h ago
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What time is the Jan. 6 hearing on Tuesday?
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EDT.
How to watch the Jan. 6 hearing
USA TODAY will livestream the hearings here on usatoday.com. The hearings have also been televised on C-Span and cable news networks.
What will the hearing focus on?
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the committee's vice chair, said the committee will focus on how Trump and his team were determined "to transmit materially false electoral slates from multiple states" to federal officials and the pressures put on state legislatures to reverse lawful election results.
"Over the course of our next hearings, you will see information about President Trump's efforts, John (Eastman's) efforts, the Trump legal team's efforts, to apply pressure to Republican state legislatures, state officials and others," Cheney said in her closing statements on Thursday, referring to Trump's lawyer.
Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the committee would show evidence of Trump's involvement in an effort to submit fake slates of electors.
"We'll show during the hearing what the President's role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislators would reconvene and bless it," Schiff said. "We'll also again show evidence about what his own lawyers came to think about this scheme."
Schiff said the committee also would highlight how state election officials prevented the plan from working.
"We'll show courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn't go along with this plan to either call legislators back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden," he added.
Trump's phone call to Georgia election officials will likely be presented as evidence. A transcript and audio recording of a phone call between Trump's team and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger revealed that Trump tried to pressure Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to reverse his election loss in the state. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and three of Trump's attorneys were also on the call.
Who is testifying?
Three Republican election officials make up the committee's first panel of witnesses on Tuesday: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabe Sterling, and Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
Wandrea' Arshaye "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, will also testify.
Trump accused Moss and her mother of election fraud, leading to threats and harassment.
What did we learn on Day 3?
The Trump team pressured Pence to follow through with Eastman's proposal to throw out electoral votes to possibly hand the election to Trump.
Pence told Trump directly that he lacked the legal and constitutional authority to reject electoral votes.
Eastman did not believe his own theory about Pence's ability to overturn the election and later asked Trump for a presidential pardon.
Michael Luttig, a retired federal judge and former adviser to Pence, said the declaration of Trump as the next president would have "plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity expressed concern in a series of texts to Meadows that the entire White House legal counsel could quit in protest.
Trump turned on Pence on Jan. 6, calling him a “wimp” in a telephone call. He later tweeted the vice president “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election results.
Rioters were a mere 40 feet away from Pence before Secret Service whisked him to safety on the day of the insurrection.
Other Jan. 6 news you may have missed:
Trump and his allies raised $250 million off election fraud claims from unsuspecting supporters. That included $100 million in the first week after the election.
The committee has requested to hear from Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ginni Thomas, a well-known conservative activist, allegedly exchanged emails with Eastman, though Eastman denied on social media discussing the 2020 election with Thomas.
More: Trump's political operation, Republican groups paid millions to Jan. 6 organizers: watchdog
Jan. 6 committee hearing schedule: When is the next hearing?
The committee has scheduled the next hearing for Thursday at 3 p.m. Time is subject to change.
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