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Rusty
Bowers,
Arizona
state
House
Speaker,
from
left,
Brad
Raffensperger,
Georgia
Secretary
of
State,
and Gabe
Sterling,
Georgia
Deputy
Secretary
of
State,
are
sworn in
to
testify
as the
House
select
committee
investigating
the Jan.
6 attack
on the
U.S.
Capitol
continues
to
reveal
its
findings
of a
year-long
investigation,
at the
Capitol
in
Washington,
Tuesday,
June 21,
2022.
(AP
Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin) |
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Mother
and
daughter
deliver
emotional
testimony.
Wandrea
ArShaye
“Shaye”
Moss was
visibly
emotional
and
looked
nervous
to be
testifying
in front
of the
national
audience
as
photographers
took her
photo
during
her
remarks,
bouncing
her leg
and
wringing
her
hands
beneath
the
table.
Ruby
Freeman
sat
behind
her
daughter
as she
testified,
dabbing
her eyes
with a
tissue
while
video of
her own
prerecorded
testimony
played.
(Kevin
Dietsch/Getty
Images) |
| |
Capitol
riot
hearing:
Election
officials
tell of
harassment
by Trump
supporters
reuters.com
WASHINGTON
- U.S.
state
election
officials
on
Tuesday
recounted
how
supporters
of
Donald
Trump
threatened,
insulted
and
harassed
them,
sometimes
turning
up at
their
homes,
after
they
refused
to help
the
former
president
overturn
his 2020
election
defeat.
The
congressional
committee
investigating
the
deadly
Jan 6,
2021,
attack
on the
Capitol
by Trump
supporters
heard
how a
flood of
calls
and
emails
paralyzed
operations
of the
Arizona
House of
Representatives
speaker's
office.
"We
received
... in
excess
of
20,000
emails
and tens
of
thousands
of voice
mails
and
texts,
which
saturated
our
offices
and we
were
unable
to work,
at least
communicate,"
Speaker
Rusty
Bowers
told the
U.S.
House of
Representatives
Select
Committee.
The
committee
shifted
its
focus on
Tuesday
to the
Republican's
pressuring
of state
officials
as he
sought
to
remain
in the
White
House
despite
losing
the
November
2020
presidential
election.
It was
the
fourth
of at
least
six
public
hearings
the
committee
is
holding
this
month on
its
nearly
yearlong
investigation
of the
attack,
which
took
place as
Vice
President
Mike
Pence
met with
members
of
Congress
to
formally
certify
Trump's
defeat
by
Democrat
Joe
Biden.
The
committee's
seven
Democrats
and two
Republicans
have
used the
hearings
to build
their
case
that
Trump's
efforts
to
overturn
his
defeat
amounted
to
illegal
conduct,
far
beyond
normal
politics.
Much of
Tuesday's
testimony
tied the
president
directly
to the
pressure
campaign,
including
an
effort
to
replace
state
electors
with
officials
expected
to
support
Trump's
efforts
to
reverse
the
election
outcome.
Bowers
said the
harassment
had
continued
in the
weeks
before
the
Capitol
riot,
with
demonstrations
at his
house,
an armed
man who
confronted
his
neighbor
and
other
threats
and
insults
that
continued
even
when his
daughter
was
gravely
ill. She
died in
January
2021.
"It was
disturbing,
it was
disturbing,"
Bowers -
who had
campaigned
for
Trump in
2020 and
said he
had
wanted
him to
be
re-elected
-
testified,
his
voice
breaking.
At a
raucous
rally on
Jan. 6,
Trump
urged
supporters
to march
on the
Capitol.
He had
seized
on that
date,
when
Pence
was to
certify
the
election,
as a
last-ditch
chance
to hold
onto the
White
House
despite
his loss
at the
polls.
Bowers
described
conversations
with
Trump
and his
close
aides
including
his
personal
lawyer
Rudy
Giuliani
and
adviser
John
Eastman,
who
urged
Bowers
to
reject
the
election
results.
"You're
asking
me to do
something
against
my oath
and I
will not
break my
oath,"
Bowers
said,
recounting
a
conversation
with
Giuliani.
The
committee
also
played
audio
and
video
recordings
in which
close
Trump
associates
- and
the
president
himself
- urged
state
officials
to
reject
the
election
results.
FALSE
ALLEGATIONS
Georgia
Secretary
of State
Brad
Raffensperger
and
Gabriel
Sterling,
chief
operating
officer
at the
Georgia
secretary
of
state's
office,
described
false
allegations
Trump
and his
supporters
made
about
the vote
in their
state,
including
charges
that
thousands
of dead
or
under-age
people
had
voted.
Raffensperger
said the
state
had
conducted
nearly
300
investigations
into the
allegations
and
found
nothing
wrong.
"Every
single
allegation
we
checked.
We ran
down the
rabbit
trail to
make
sure our
numbers
were
accurate,"
he said.
The
committee
also
heard
from
Wandrea
ArShaye
"Shaye"
Moss, a
former
Georgia
state
election
worker
who
filed
suit
over
threats
-
including
racist
threats
- to
herself,
her
mother
and her
grandmother,
after
Trump
targeted
her by
name
following
Biden's
win in
her
state in
the
presidential
election.
"It has
turned
my life
upside
down,"
Moss
said.
The FBI
told
Moss'
mother,
Ruby
Freeman,
to leave
her home
because
of the
threats.
"There
is
nowhere
I feel
safe.
Nowhere.
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,
not
target
one. But
he
targeted
me, Lady
Ruby, a
small
business
owner, a
mother,
who
stood up
to help
Fulton
County
run an
election
in the
middle
of the
pandemic,"
Freeman
said in
videotaped
testimony.
Reuters
first
reported
the
details
of the
ordeal
Moss and
Freeman
endured
in
December,
when
they
described
threats
of
lynching
and
racial
slurs,
along
with
alarming
visits
by
strangers
to their
homes.
read
more
Trump
called
Raffensperger
on Jan.
2, 2021,
telling
Georgia's
top
election
official
in a
recorded
conversation
to
"find"
enough
votes
for him
to win
Georgia.
Raffensperger
has
remained
a
frequent
target
of
Trump's
criticism.
The
secretary
of state
nonetheless
last
month
held off
a
Trump-backed
challenger,
Republican
House
member
Jody
Hice, to
win the
Republican
Party's
primary
as he
ran for
reelection.
read
more
Trump
has
denied
wrongdoing,
while
repeating
false
accusations
that he
lost
only
because
of
widespread
fraud
that
benefited
Biden.
Trump
and his
supporters
-
including
many
Republican
members
of
Congress
-
dismiss
the Jan.
6 panel
as a
political
witch
hunt,
but the
panel's
backers
say it
is a
necessary
probe
into a
violent
threat
against
democracy.
Register
now for
FREE
unlimited
access
to
Reuters.com
Reporting
by
Patricia
Zengerle,
Richard
Cowan
and
Doina
Chiacu;
additional
reporting
by Rose
Horowitch
and
Linda
So;
editing
by Scott
Malone,
Jonathan
Oatis,
Howard
Goller
and
Cynthia
Osterman
Our
Standards:
The
Thomson
Reuters
Trust
Principles.
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