State legislators and poll workers described how their lives were turned upside down by threats of violence because Donald Trump singled them out in his ambition to reverse the results of the 2020 US election.
Trump personally was involved in an intense pressure campaign on officials in key states that he lost to Joe Biden, according to testimonies presented at the fourth congressional hearing that addressed the former president’s attempt to cling to power after the announcement of his defeat.
Members of the committee investigating the January 2021 post-election assault on Capitol Hill have spent the month presenting their initial findings that Trump led a multi-pronged conspiracy to reverse the results, ultimately leading to the uprising in Washington.
On Tuesday the committee heard from Shaye Moss, an election official who along with her mother Ruby Freeeman was accused by Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani of “manipulating” the counting of electoral ballots in Georgia through “briefcases” full of ballots for Biden.
Moss, who is black, described receiving “racist” and “hateful” violent threatsfollowing the unsubstantiated accusations, including a message that read: “Be grateful it’s 2020 and not 1920.”
“This changed my life completely. I don’t hand out my business card anymore, I don’t forward calls,” Moss testified.
“I don’t want anyone to know my name… I don’t want to go to the supermarket; I haven’t been anywhere at all.”
Freeman for her part said she lost her reputation and sense of security. Trump “and his ally Rudy Giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye, to further their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
Mother and daughter are among the electoral workers and officials who in several states received pressure to thwart the will of millions of voters based on unfounded allegations of fraud, the panel said.
Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, he said that “on many occasions” he asked Giuliani for proof that the election had been rigged.
“We have a lot of theories. We just don’t have the proof,” Giuliani said, according to Bowers, who said he received 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of voicemails that “overwhelmed” his office as the Trump campaign ratcheted up the pressure.
Trump issued a statement, read at the hearing, in which he attempted to discredit Bowers, accusing him of being a “RINO”, an acronym for “Republican in name only.” He also claimed that Bowers had told him that the election was rigged and that he had, in fact, won Arizona. Bowers denied both claims.
– “Playbook of strategies” –
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson had said at the start of the session that “Pressing public officials to betray (their) oath was a critical part of the playbook.”
Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee, said Trump knew his false fraud allegations could lead to violence. but, even so, he had a “personal and direct role” in the campaign with Giuliani and John Eastman, another lawyer for the former president.
The committee also heard from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffenspergerwhom Trump forced to “find” enough votes to overcome Biden’s lead in that state.
The official recounted how he was inundated with cruel messages and said that his wife began to receive “sexual” threats. after Trump denounced the couple to his supporters.
Earlier, Michigan State Senator Mike Shirky told investigators he received “just under 4,000 text messages” shortly after the Trump campaign posted his personal details online.
– False voters –
The committee claims that a key to the plot was getting pro-Trump Republicans in states won by Biden, they will use official-looking but false certificates to present themselves as legitimate voters.
In the American system, it is the voters who designate the winner of the election in their respective states.
At one point after the election, Trump personally called the head of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Ronna McDaniel, to get involved in the pressure campaign, according to video testimony from McDaniel herself.
According to her, Trump would have commissioned Eastman “talk about the importance of the RNC helping in the campaign to rally those potential voters.”
That exchange is key because the same committee has promised to provide evidence of a direct link between Trump and the plan to present false voters.
Thompson warned that America’s democracy it is still threatened by Trump and his allies.
“People who believed that lie” are seeking public office, he said. “If that happens, what ensures that our institutions don’t collapse under that pressure?”
A fifth hearing will take place on Thursday and will focus on Trump’s efforts to de put pressure on his Secretary of Justice to stay in power.
