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15 Key Takeaways from the Fifth January 6 Hearing

On Thursday, June 23, the nonpartisan January 6 Committee held its fifth public hearing.

The committee again showed how Trump led a multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, despite knowing he fairly lost his re-election bid. In the fifth hearing, the committee focused on Trump’s efforts to use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to support this illegal scheme. This included replacing the Attorney General who was unwilling to go along with the plan with a loyalist willing to break the law.

Common Cause compiled the key takeaways in tweets:

1. To stay in power, Donald Trump waged a coordinated pressure campaign to try and convince the Department of Justice to legitimize his election lies by calling the election “corrupt.”

2. Trump’s pressure campaign included demanding an investigation into election fraud he knew didn’t exist. In December 2020, Attorney General Bill Barr found NO evidence of election fraud.

3. Trump’s DOJ pressure campaign was relentless, beginning as early as December 2020. The campaign included asking the Department of Justice to write a letter supporting Trump’s election lies.

4. When top Department of Justice officials refused to go along with Trump’s illegal schemes, he smeared them in private and public, saying they weren’t doing enough. His smear campaign included the morning of the January 6 attack.

5. As the DOJ announced to the public there was no election fraud in the 2020 election, Trump met with Congressional Republicans in the White House to strategize how to overturn the election.

6. In a desperate attempt to cling onto power, Donald Trump asked top DOJ officials to illegally seize voting machines in a meeting on New Year’s Eve 2020. DOJ officials refused.

7. Donald Trump explicitly threated to fire the two top DOJ officials if they did not go along with his radical plans to subvert the election.

8. The Committee showed testimony of Rudy Guiliani saying that he and Donald Trump needed to find a Department of Justice official to be the next Attorney General, “somebody that’s not frightened of what’s going to be done to their reputation.”

9. Representative Scott Perry sent text messages to Trump’s Chief of Staff, urging Trump to move Jeffrey Clark to a leadership position in the DOJ because Clark was willing to go along with Trump’s illegal plan. Representative Perry is serving in Congress today.

10. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Clark was hatching a plan to send a letter to states like Georgia to overturn the election. Then-acting Attorney General Donoghue told Clark that Clark’s letter was not based in fact.
https://twitter.com/Sifill_LDF/status/1540064558123044865

11. When the U.S. Attorney General refused to go along with Trump’s illegal scheme, Trump tried to install Trump loyalist, Jeffrey Clark, who specialized in environmental issues.

12. Finally on January 3, 2020, in a pivotal meeting, Trump asked top DOJ officials what would happen if he installed Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General. Department of Justice officials told Trump there would be mass resignations.

13. The Committee underlined how the position of Attorney General and the DOJ which it oversees has historically been politically independent from the president and political campaigns.

14. Jeffrey Clark pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times and requested a presidential pardon.

15. Republican members of Congress all in office today, Gates, Perry, and Gohmert, asked for presidential pardons for their actions leading up to January 6th.

You can watch the full hearing below — please share this page with your friends, family, and community to help spread the truth:

To stay up to date with the committee’s hearing schedule and their findings, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

To visit the nonpartisan January 6 Committee’s website, click here.

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