US Capitol riot hearing to focus on Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ election fraud
- Congressional hearings will aim to show Trump’s unfounded allegations of fraud quickly grew into a conspiracy to cling to power
- However, committee’s star witness, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, cancelled appearance Monday; his wife had reportedly gone into labour
The congressional hearings into the US Capitol assault were set to focus Monday on Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which fuelled the anger investigators say led to the deadly insurrection.
Trump started pushing what came to be known as his “Big Lie” around 2.30am on November 4, 2020, making baseless allegations of fraud and prematurely declaring victory in an election he ultimately lost to Joe Biden by seven million votes.
The committee says it will show how that initial claim grew quickly into a conspiracy to cling to power by Trump and his inner circle, even though they knew he had lost.
The defeated former president, his fundraising organisation and the Republican National Committee raised a fortune pushing bogus election fraud claims, investigators say.
“We will hear from witnesses … who will talk about the fact that the former president didn’t have the numbers to win, that he was told again and again that he didn’t have the numbers to win,” a committee aide said.
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“We will reveal information about how the former president’s political apparatus used these lies about fraud about a stolen election to drive fundraising, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars between Election Day 2020 and January 6 [2021],” the aide added.