Vice chair Liz Cheney's opening statement:
- A key focus of today's hearing is a draft letter that our witnesses here today refused to sign. This letter was written by Mr. Jeff Clark with another Department of Justice lawyer, Ken Kukowski(sp?). This letter was to be sent to the leadership of the Georgia state legislature. Other versions of the letter were intended for other states. Neither Mr. Clark nor Mr. Kukowski had any evidence of widespread election fraud. But they were quite aware of what Mr. Trump wanted the department to do. Jeff Clark met privately with President Trump and others in the White House and agreed to assist the president without telling the senior leadership of the department who oversaw him. As you will see, this letter claims that the US DoJ's investigations "have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia." In fact, Donald Trump knew this was a lie. The DoJ had already informed the President of the US repeatedly that its investigations had found no fraud sufficient to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The letter also said this: "In light of these developments, the Department recommnds that the Georgia General Assembly shoudl convene in special session... and consider approving a new slate of electors." And it indicates that a separate fake slate of electors supporting Donald Trump had already been transmitted to Washington, DC.