After detailing last week the pressure it says Donald Trump put on his vice president to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection turns its focus today to the pressure it says the then-president put on legislators and election officials to do the same in their states.
In the fourth of seven planned hearings, the bipartisan panel will detail the methods Trump, his campaign and other associates used to lean on state officials to change election results and to instruct Republican officials in a number of states to create false electoral slates that would have certified that Trump had won states that he had lost.
The committee is expected to question Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state, whom Trump called and pressed to find enough votes to put him over the top in his state, which Joe Biden won. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump is heard telling Raffensperger on a recording of the call.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer at the Georgia secretary of state’s office, will also testify at the hearing.
- Pushback: Raffensperger and Sterling vociferously defended the state’s handling of the 2020 election, despite pressure from Trump and his allies. As violent threats poured in against election workers after the 2020 vote, Sterling warned, “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed.”
- Bad blood: Raffensperger easily fended off a Republican primary challenge last month from Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice, who pushed baseless claims about widespread voter fraud throughout the campaign.
- Familiar foil: Tuesday’s hearing will be led by committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Trump has a special enmity for Schiff, who was the lead manager in the former president's first impeachment.
