LIVE: Follow along with the Jan. 6 committee for its fourth day of hearings, #2

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday June 21, 2022 · 11:46 AM PDT

2022/06/21 · 11:46

The Jan. 6 committee will present evidence on Tuesday that it says demonstrates how former President Donald Trump—and members of his administration and inner circle—actively schemed to usurp the will of over 80 million American voters in the 2020 election by advancing an “alternate elector” plot in seven battleground states.

Tuesday marks the fourth hearing hosted by the committee. The witnesses will testify over two panels. The witnesses include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican; his deputy and Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling—also a Republican—and Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker for the Arizona House of Representatives. Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss is a former election worker in Georgia who found herself at the center of a storm that Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani whipped up by accusing her and her mother Ruby Freeman of stuffing suitcases with ballots for Biden on election night. Like all of the other election fraud claims peddled by the former president, that was false, state and federal investigators confirmed.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and member of the select committee, will lead a portion of Tuesday’s hearing.

Today’s hearing starts at 1 PM ET. An additional hearing is slated for this week on June 23 at 3 PM ET. A link to a live stream of the proceedings is available below. Check out coverage from earlier hearings by clicking through the related story links below.

YouTube Video

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:02:10 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman

We are now into the second portion of the hearing today with testimony from Secretary Raffensperger and his deputy Gabriel Sterling unfolding now.

Biden carried GA by approx 12k votes, Raffensperger testifies.
Schiff is again leading questions. He asks about the recount in GA. Did the recount confirm the result, that Trump lost?
Raffensperger says yes, three times.
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:04:57 PM +00:00 · April Siese

Portions of an hour-long phone call between Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Donald Trump were played during Tuesday’s hearing. The full call can be listened to below.

YouTube Video

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:08:09 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman

Gabriel Sterling, the GA secretary of state chief operating officer, testified under oath today about the experience he had leading up to his now famous press conference where he beseeched Trump to stop promoting lies about fraud in the election.

He was irate; a staffer was being accused of treason.

Mark Meadows, the evidence collected by the cmte has shown, contacted GA state officials no less than 18 times in order to set up a meeting to push the alternate elector bid. Meadows was even sent to Georiga.

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:25:36 PM +00:00 · April Siese

She talks about why she loved her job. She loved what was entrusted to her. The votes of the elderly, of college kids who had to submit via absentee ballots etc.
"I really found pleasure in that, if someone can't navigate the 'My voter page' or they need a new precinct card"
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

We now see a clip of Rudy Giuliani at GA state senate hearing on 12/10 accusing Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman of lying, saying they should have been questioned, their places of work and homes should be searched for ballot and evidence of voter fraud
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

Someone was talking over the video and claiming that she and other election workers were doing things they weren't supposed to do. They were lying throughout the video, Moss says.
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

She used FB so rarely, she didn't even know how to access the messages on her account. When she finally opened it up, she testifies:
"There was just a lot of horrible things there."
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

Trump mentioned Moss' name 18 times in the call with Raffensperger, calling her a professional scammer.
In her video depo, Ruby Freeman talks about how she built her business and her life around the good reputation of her name in Georgia. She was known as Lady Ruby.
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) June 21, 2022

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:35:41 PM +00:00 · April Siese

Moss described the toll that Trump supporters’ vitriol took on her family and how some voters even went after members of her family in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

YouTube Video

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 · 7:50:18 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman

In a segment of her previously recorded deposition played during Tuesday’s hearing, Ruby Freeman discussed how she didn’t feel safe going anywhere anymore.

“There is nowhere I feel safe. Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States target you? The President of the United States is supposed to represent every American,” she said.

But Trump targeted her, a small business owner, a mother and a citizen who “wanted to stand up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.”

The next hearing will be Thursday, June 23 and at the close of today’s proceedings, chair Thompson announced that Rep. Adam Kinzinger would lead questioning of witnesses. That hearing is expected to focus on the former president’s attempt to capture the DOJ and have his allies promote the Big Lie.

Notably, Schiff also seemed to confirm what the committee intends to do with criminal referrals.

“Other countries use violence to seize power but not in the United States,” Schiff said.

When Trump did this to stay in office after losing the election to Joe Biden, Schiff said, he broke that sacred covenant.

“Whether what he did was criminal will be to others to decide,” the California Democrat said Tuesday.

Thompson recently said that the committee would not issue a criminal referral, opting instead to leave the evidence and the testimony on the public record to serve as its referral. Not to mention, the many lawsuits the committee has already filed and judicial rulings it has received affirming that Trump was likely engaged in criminal activity in his attempt to foment a coup.

A criminal referral would be almost purely symbolic, anyway and would technically only restate what the committee has now laid out in four hearings so far.

LIVE: Follow along with the Jan. 6 committee for its fourth day of hearings, #2

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