Former President Donald Trump had a draft executive order to appoint attorney Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud, according to the Jan. 6 investigative committee. If Trump had his way, Powell would have had the power to seize voting machines and arrest people who did not cooperate.
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr said he told Trump seizing voting machines was not going to happen.
“Some people think we could get to the bottom of this if the department seized the machines,” Trump said, according to Barr.
“It was a typical way of making a point. And I said, ‘Absolutely not, there’s no probable cause and I’m not going to seize any machine,’” Barr said.
According to testimony, Trump did verbally appoint Powell to some form of a counsel position but the proper steps and documents were never completed to make it official.
“He (Donald Trump) asked Pat Cipollone if he had the authority to name me special counsel. He said yes. And then he asked him if he had the authority to give me whatever security clearance and Pat Cipillone said yes. And then the president said, ‘OK, you know, I’m naming her that and I’m giving her security clearance,’” Powell said during a recorded deposition with investigators.
The revelation was made during their most recent hearing that included testimony from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and people who stormed the Capitol that Committee Member Jamie Raskin described as deceived.
“I followed President Trump you know on all the websites,” Stephen Ayres said during his live testimony. Ayres entered the Capitol with the wave of rioters on Jan. 6. “I felt like I needed to be down here,” Ayres said.
"After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation," Rep. Liz Cheney says in closing of Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing, adding that the committee has alerted the Department of Justice. https://t.co/rgwbFaZ6JX pic.twitter.com/uMff8NE59S
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 12, 2022
Committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-WY, said during her opening statement that some in Trump’s circle claimed Trump himself was influenced by bad outside actors. But she made it clear that does not absolve him.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices,” Rep. Cheney said. “No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion. And Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.”
