Democracy on Trial

>> The President’s intent was to stay in power at all costs.

>> This election was stolen.

>> I flat out said, I swore an oath.

I’m not gonna break it.

I’m not putting on no stinking circus.

>> They put their faith in Donald Trump, and he deceived them.

>> I don’t think, by any large stretch, can you characterize it as bipartisan.

>> The Select Committee laid the path down for the Department of Justice.

>> Donald Trump is going to be the defendant and the candidate.

It’s hard to imagine how it’s going to play out.

>> Now on FRONTLINE, Democracy on Trial.

♪ ♪ >> An historic day here in Washington.

A federal grand jury here has indicted former President Donald Trump... >> Mr. Trump is charged with three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction.

>> This is the third criminal case brought against the former president this year.

>> He will now head to appear in federal court for the arraignment.

This was not quite the return to Washington this former president had envisioned for himself.

♪ ♪ >> We were getting ready to win this election.

Frankly, we did win this election.

(cheers and applause) ♪ ♪ (siren blaring) I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes.

There's no way I lost Georgia, there's no way.

I only need 11,000 votes, fellas, I need 11,000 votes.

Give me a break.

♪ ♪ (sirens blaring) Make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me, from the country.

♪ ♪ And we fight.

We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.

(camera shutter clicks) (typewriter keys echoing) >> NARRATOR: For the first time in American history-- a president charged with crimes in office.

♪ ♪ >> A major development in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former president Trump.

>> Special Counsel Jack Smith will make remarks at a news conference from the Justice Department shortly.

>> This is a climactic moment, certainly, in this investigation.

>> An indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

Since the attack on our Capitol, the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.

>> Jack Smith is sort of like the, uh... (clears throat) central casting career federal prosecutor.

He's been doing this for 20 years.

He has a reputation for being thorough and methodical.

He's fairly aggressive, but not reckless aggressive.

He's a very formidable opponent for Trump's lawyers.

>> In this case, my office will seek a speedy trial so that our evidence can be tested in court and judged by a jury of citizens.

>> NARRATOR: In the middle of a presidential election, a critical moment for American democracy.

>> It lands us right in the middle of a presidential campaign.

It is unavoidably going to be tainted with the appearance of politics at play.

Obviously, that's the card that Donald Trump will play.

>> They waited right to the middle of an election until I became the dominant force in the polls.

I got indicted over bull (bleep).

I got indicted.

Bull (bleep).

I get indicted for saying the election was rigged.

>> If he's convicted, then he's, you know, running for president as someone who has been found guilty of federal crimes.

>> I love that mugshot.

I love that beautiful woman right there with a mugshot.

>> To say the stakes for that trial are high doesn't even begin to cover it, really.

We often, in the media, use the phrase "trial of the century" for this sensational trial or that one.

But really, this would be, I think, the trial of the century.

Because I cannot imagine anything more important than a former president on trial, charged with trying to subvert American democracy.

(sirens blaring) (indistinct radio chatter) >> Tensions are still high following the chaos at the Capitol.

>> NARRATOR: The federal indictment has its roots in the aftermath of the January 6th attack.

>> The chaos here has shaken the U.S. Capitol and the country.

>> Our nation's capital under a state of emergency, under a city-wide lockdown.

>> NARRATOR: In Congress there were calls to create a blue-ribbon bipartisan commission.

>> ...a 9/11 style commission to look into the causes of the attack.

>> A bill to create a bipartisan commission faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

>> What was amazing was that the Senate Republicans refused to do that.

To do what Congress has done in many previous incidents of great national catastrophe or crisis or controversy, which is to create a bipartisan special committee across both chambers.

>> NARRATOR: Republicans in Congress led by Senator Mitch McConnell wouldn't support forming a commission that might go after Trump.

>> Leader McConnell almost instinctively goes into damage control mode.

He's not necessarily gonna go out on a limb when the rest of his caucus isn't going to go with him.

>> NARRATOR: In the face of Republican opposition, the Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi created a committee of her own.

>> Morning.

With great solemnity and sadness, I'm announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January 6th insurrection.

>> The House of Representatives today did what the Senate would not-- voted to create a select committee.

>> It was the hope of Pelosi and the Democratic majority that they'd be able to pick off at least some Republican support, that there wouldn't be that great a pushback, but, in fact, there was.

And in the end, only two Republicans voted for the formation of that committee.

In fact, those two Republicans, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, were the two Republicans who ended up serving on the committee.

>> The fact that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are the only two House Republicans who believe that we should know what happened on January 6th, that people should obey subpoenas from Congress, that people should provide documents when requested-- that's itself incredibly astonishing.

>> NARRATOR: They would spend a year and a half examining the evidence.

Tim Heaphy was the chief investigator.

A former U.S. attorney, Heaphy led the independent review of the violence in Charlottesville in 2017 and was now taking on January 6th.

>> We ended up hiring, I think it was 14 or 15 former prosecutors.

Lawyers that have the skill set to interview witnesses, to digest a large amount of documents, and to sort of discern what's relevant, and separate that from what's not.

That skill set is developed largely by trying cases, by investigating cases in federal and local prosecutors' offices.

>> NARRATOR: They conducted more than 1,000 interviews.

>> The House Select Committee is shifting into high gear preparing to do battle with some pretty big names in the Trump world.

>> NARRATOR: Reviewed millions of documents... >> The House Committee probing the January 6th Capitol riot has issued ten new subpoenas.

>> NARRATOR: Thousands of hours of video evidence.

>> These subpoenas brings the focus to the actions of former president Donald Trump in the days and weeks leading up to the insurrection.

>> They're con people.

They're con artists.

>> NARRATOR: From the beginning Trump denounced the committee.

>> The Select Committee on January... You know, like these people are legitimate.

Every one of them is a radical left hater.

>> The committee issued a subpoena to none other than former president Trump himself.

>> NARRATOR: He refused to cooperate.

>> Trump suing the January 6th committee to block a subpoena for his testimony... >> NARRATOR: And while many of his aides did testify, others followed his lead.

>> Criminal contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

>> Peter Navarro refusing to cooperate with the January 6th committee... >> NARRATOR: The committee's final report spans 692 pages, a case against Donald Trump.

A blueprint for Special Counsel Jack Smith.

>> We saw our work as the first step in a process and not the end of the process.

It's very clear that the select committee laid the path down for the Department of Justice.

>> The January 6th case that will be heard in Judge Chutkan's courtroom in Washington, D.C., has the most striking resemblance to what unspooled itself from the January 6th committee.

The basis of the indictment looks like a carbon copy of what the January 6th committee uncovered.

>> A lot of the evidence that we uncovered is now in the hands of the Department of Justice.

I just think all what we see now is a by-product of the work of the January select committee.

>> NARRATOR: Bennie Thompson-- a longtime Democratic congressman-- chaired the committee.

>> Bennie Thompson is a Mississippi congressman, a Black man who grew up during the Civil Rights era in Mississippi, during the last vestiges of Jim Crow... >> ♪ Glory, glory hallelujah ♪ >> ...and saw how hard-fought the franchise to vote was for so many Black Americans.

>> NARRATOR: In January 6th, Thompson saw parallels.

>> One of the symbols of Southern resistance to voting rights and equal opportunity was the Confederate battle flag.

(crowd clamoring) And to see that flag being waved by many of the protestors brought back those memories.

>> When he saw rioters storm the Capitol, carrying the Confederate battle flag, essentially trying to take away the votes of the American people... >> (crowd chanting): Fight for Trump!

>> ...that I know affected him profoundly.

And certainly was a driving factor in the way that he led the select committee.

>> NARRATOR: Thompson's committee had gathered a trove of information.

The challenge: what do with it.

>> The one thing that we knew was the information that we have is compelling.

The thing we needed to do was tell that to the American people in a compelling way.

So that's why we brought in a former president of ABC News.

>> Yeah, I got a call pretty much out of the blue from the January the 6th committee.

They wanted, they wanted a storyteller.

And while they were brilliant, they were brilliant lawyers, storytelling for a mass audience is not what they do.

>> To bring in a guy like this who would think outside the box really did prove to be fruitful.

And it was Goldston who really began to envision this as, in a way, a kind of miniseries, that there would be, you know, sort of nine episodes, and that these episodes would tackle particular themes.

>> "Attack on the Capitol: The Investigation."

>> NARRATOR: The first hearing was primetime television.

>> ...the nation is about to witness a defining moment.

The first hearing before the country, the results of the January 6th investigation.

>> This is an extraordinary moment in American history.

>> When it came to that first hearing we knew how high the stakes were.

>> ...is about to hold its first primetime hearing.

>> We were either going to, you know, make people realize that this is important, you know, or once you've lost them, you've lost them for good.

>> On the evening of June 9, 8:01 p.m., the doors opened.

My heart was beating pretty fast on June 9, and it was a real question of is this going to work or not?

>> All right everybody, here we go, five on the line please.

>> I'm in this tiny control room right up the stairs from Cannon Caucus.

And we count down to the start the hearing, and at that point, what can you do?

>> Here we go, in three, two, one.

>> The select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol will be in order.

>> We wanted to make sure that this was a presentation that would grab the audience and hold onto 'em.

Chairman Thompson loved to say, "It's gotta pop!"

>> NARRATOR: To get it to "pop" they had just the thing.

>> Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020.

Don't believe me?

Hear what his former attorney general had to say about it.

>> (on video): Not just what I...

I'd been through, I've had...

I had three discussions with the president that I can recall.

>> NARRATOR: Former Attorney General Bill Barr.

>> This is the Attorney General of the United States of America.

For him to come forth under oath, I think was very powerful.

>> (on video): I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bull (bleep).

>> Bill Barr, who had been hated by the left, and who had been beloved by Trump all the way until December of 2020, to hear him say, mincing no words, that there was all this bull (bleep) that was being perpetrated by Trump made you realize that okay, we're now about to walk into a portal of evidence that is, um, that is in fact different than everything else.

>> NARRATOR: Following Barr: shocking video.

>> Most of the footage we are about to play has never been seen.

The select committee obtained it as a part of our investigation.

(shouting) >> Hold the line!

Hold the line!

Hold the line!

>> Break the line!

(shouting) >> We have a breach of the Capitol, breach of the Capitol, on the upper level!

>> We can't hold this, we're gonna get too many (bleep) people.

Look at this (bleep) vantage point-- we're (bleep).

>> We need to hold the doors of the Capitol.

(shouting) I need (indistinct) support!

(shouting) We lost the line!

We've lost the line!

All MPD fall back.

(on video): All MPD fall back up to the upper deck!

All MPD fall back to the upper deck, ASAP!

(crowd shouting on video) (crowd chanting "Nancy") >> In the room that moment, we had officers that had been there on January 6.

(crowd shouting on video) (indistinct shouting, struggling) (shouting, struggling continue) >> There was a real gravity that we wanted to bring to that first hearing, that that video really put in perspective for us there.

>> ...get him out, get him up!

Get him up!

Officer down!

>> Get him up!

(officers shouting) >> Get him up!

>> Hold up!

Hold up!

>> Get him up!

(shouting continues) >> I don't think anyone, until that footage was shown, had really fully understood the violence of the day.

(crowd cheering) (crowd shouting) >> Help!

(shouting continues on video) >> Those law enforcement personnel, here are people who were sworn to protect the Capitol, come to work on that day to do just that, and they are assaulted.

(crowd cheering on video) >> NARRATOR: Paying special attention to the hearing, Donald Trump, who responded on his own social media platform.

>> (dramatized): The so-called "Rush on the Capitol" was not caused by me, it was caused by a rigged and stolen election!

(indistinct radio chatter) >> NARRATOR: The committee continued laying out its evidence to the contrary.

>> The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot.

President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.

>> NARRATOR: Vice chair at the hearing: Liz Cheney, a lifelong Republican and rock-ribbed conservative.

>> ...or destroy by force, the government... >> I chose Liz Cheney as my vice chair.

she had Republican credibility in the broader sense.

So you take an African American liberal and a white female conservative to lead this committee.

>> Liz Cheney is Republican royalty in many ways.

She's the daughter of Dick Cheney, the vice president.

She's very conservative, she represents Wyoming.

No one would mistake her for a liberal, but she also was someone who broke very publicly with Donald Trump.

>> And there is no RINO in America who has thrown in her lot with the radical left more than Liz Cheney.

(crowd booing) She has gone crazy!

>> I will do everything I can to ensure the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.

>> She's been so strong on, "We need to have the truth about January 6.

"We need to have the truth about "what happened before January 6.

We can't have Trump again, he can't be president again."

>> I talked to her about what was motivating her.

And she said every time she sees the video... >> (crowd chanting): ...Mike Pence!

>> ...of Mike Pence being rushed to safety, for fear of his life on January 6... >> Evacuate so we can secure the members on the other side, copy!

>> ...she saw, in her mind, the image of her father.

>> A plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City.

(explosion) >> Oh, my God!

>> That looks like a second plane.

>> Dick Cheney, the vice president, being rushed away from his office in the White House to the bunker on 9/11.

>> It is one of the darkest days in America, attacked in an act of terrorist war.

>> Tremendously sad day, insurrectionists have stormed the U.S. Capitol, and they have been cheered on by the president.

>> And suddenly I got it.

Suddenly I got it-- for her, this was what Al Qaeda and 9/11 were to her father.

To the extent that her father became really quite driven by his view of the mission to protect America after 9/11, she saw her mission the same way, to protect America from Donald Trump.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Now helping to lead the January 6th committee, Cheney was determined to lay out the case against Donald Trump.

>> Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.

>> In the very first hearing, she kind of laid out the theory of the case, right, the opening statement where she puts forth this multi-part plan.

I think that will sound very much like Jack Smith's opening statement in the trial in March.

It is a summary of how all of this fits together.

>> In our hearings, you will see evidence of each element of this plan.

>> Frankly, we did win this election.

(crowd cheering) We did win this election.

>> Donald Trump and his advisors knew that he had in fact lost the election, but despite this, you will see evidence that President Trump corruptly pressured state legislators and election officials to change election results.

(telephone dialing out, picks up) >> I only need 11,000 votes!

Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break.

(telephone hangs up) ♪ ♪ >> What you saw at that hearing, methodically laid out by Liz Cheney, showed that it wasn't just some sort of like random, off the cuff, impulsive actions on his part, but that there was, in fact, a strategy and a pattern and a methodology to what he was doing.

>> President Trump's efforts to pressure Vice President Pence to act illegally likely violated two federal criminal statutes.

>> Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.

>> If I could have been a fly on the wall in the Department of Justice during that, I certainly probably expect everybody sat up and took notice of what she said after that.

>> In our final hearings, you will hear how President Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the United States Capitol.

>> We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country any more.

♪ ♪ >> And with that, the committee stands adjourned.

(bangs gavel) >> NARRATOR: The hearings got the public's attention.

>> The first primetime January 6th hearing laying the foundation for a specific case against Trump.

>> The House Committee went into graphic detail on the results of... >> To put it crassly, the January 6th committee was a ratings hit.

>> From NBC News, January 6th revelations will "blow the roof off the House."

>> The very first one, the primetime viewing was at 19.4 million, which was really, really remarkable.

>> Huge-- surprisingly huge numbers last night, that's on par with events like Sunday Night Football games.

There were still multiple, multiple, brand-new revelations last night that took us by surprise.

>> NARRATOR: But for his supporters, Trump had a different story.

>> (dramatized): The unselect committee of political hacks refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements.

>> It's a broadside.

And it's not just one broadside, it is a continuous series of broadsides.

>> (dramatized): Bill Barr was a weak and frightened attorney general who was always being "played" and threatened by the Democrats.

>> It's just so relentless, it's so constant, it's so loud, that in parts of MAGA America, that MAGA barrage drowns out anything else.

>> (dramatized): Warmongering and despicable human being Liz Cheney, who is hated by... >> NARRATOR: And on the conservative airwaves, they amplified Trump's message.

>> Every news network in this country but this one faithfully surrendered its entire prime time lineup.

The effect was North Korean, every channel the same.

>> A full-on Hollywood, multimedia extravaganza.

>> ...to prosecute Trump with this show trial, with this kangaroo court... >> I don't think, really by any large stretch, can you characterize it as bipartisan.

And this is, I guess, a consequence of bigger issues about the evenly divided country that we're in and extreme partisanship in the political process.

>> Can they show us one damned sentence in the hundreds of thousands of documents that they have collected, the thousand witnesses they've had-- anything, anywhere that links Donald Trump to directing or ordering an attack on the Capitol building?

Where is it?

>> If you're talking to somebody who's deep in MAGA America, they didn't pay attention to the January 6th commission.

They were told not to pay attention to it.

That whatever was going to come out it was going to be fake or fake news.

And this is the way a lot of Americans live their lives.

It's not just red Americans, blue Americans as well.

We, we live in bubbles.

And this is the way millions upon millions of Americans live.

(siren blaring) ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In the weeks that followed, the committee laid out the details of their case.

>> This morning we'll tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election, and knew he lost an election, and as a result of his loss decided to wage an attack on our democracy.

>> NARRATOR: A central question: what the president knew and when he knew it.

>> For a long time people who have pursued Donald Trump tripped up on the question of whether they could prove that he knew what he was doing was wrong, or that he knew what he was saying was a lie.

The January 6th committee got past that by demonstrating that he was told, time and time again, that he did not win the election-- not by Democrats, not by the media, but by his own people.

>> I want to start by showing a video that tells the story of what was going on in the Trump White House on election night in November of 2020.

>> (on video): The Fox News Decision Desk is calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

That is a big get for the Biden campaign.

>> Arizona is called, do you remember that?

>> I do.

>> What do you remember happening where you were when Arizona was called?

>> Um, I, uh, there was surprise at the call.

>> After Fox News called Arizona for Biden, there was discussion about whether President Trump should say something and should declare victory.

The consensus of almost all of his advisors was that he should not.

>> It was far too early to be making any calls like that.

Um, ballots, ballots were still being counted.

Ballots were still going to be counted for days, and it was far too early to be making any proclamation like that.

>> The professionals on his campaign staff are telling him, you know, "We can't claim victory, "either, you know, you lost or we have to at least wait and see what's going to happen."

And Trump makes the choice that he wants to listen instead to Rudy Giuliani.

>> Were you part of any discussions about whether the president should make any sort of speech on election night?

>> I, I mean I spoke to the president.

They may have been present, but the president-- but I spoke to the president several times that night.

>> NARRATOR: Rudy Giuliani's advice was very different than that of Trump's political advisors.

>> His personal lawyer, Giuliani, tells Trump, "Keep fighting.

"We will have a legal crusade, "a political crusade to keep you in power."

Trump loves the idea.

>> Rudy Giuliani is one of the most prominent figures in American politics in the last 25 years, who is remembered fondly for his leadership post-9/11.

>> But over the years he drifted towards Donald Trump.

Towards being someone that would be essentially a yes man to Donald Trump and some of his worst impulses.

>> NARRATOR: And on election night, Giuliani insisted Trump should fight.

>> The president ignores the sound advice that he's getting from Bill Stepien, from the political professionals around him, and he's listening to one voice that is telling him something different, and that's Giuliani saying, "You should go out there and declare victory."

>> And did anybody disagree with your message?

>> Yes.

>> Who was that?

>> The president disagreed with that.

He thought I was wrong, he told me so, and, you know, that they were going to, you know, go in a-- you know, he was gonna go in a different direction.

(cheers and applause) >> I think the most dangerous speech that Donald Trump ever gave was not the one that he gave on January 6.

I think it's the speech that he gave at 2:30 in the morning the night of the election.

>> This is a fraud on the American public.

This is an embarrassment to our country.

We were getting ready to win this election.

Frankly, we did win this election.

(cheers and applause) We did win this election.

>> Trump knew that the trends looked bad.

Trump knew that there were hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted and he came out and he said, "Frankly, we did win the election."

>> We want all voting to stop.

We don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list.

Okay?

(cheers and applause) >> NARRATOR: In the years since, Trump has claimed that he believed what he said that night.

>> I saw what happened.

I watched that election, and I thought the election was over at 10:00 in the evening.

>> NARRATOR: But according to the committee, his claims of fraud were part of a well-established plan.

>> The moment when he said, "Frankly, I won this election," was telegraphed many, many times and throughout the campaign of 2020, he repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome, cast doubt on absentee ballots, et cetera.

>> As early as April 2020, Mr. Trump claimed that the only way he could lose an election would be as a result of fraud.

>> (on video): The only way we're gonna lose this election is if the election is rigged.

Remember that, it's the only way we're going to lose this election.

This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen.

Did you see what's going on?

Take a look at West Virginia, mailmen selling the ballots, they're being sold, they're being dumped in rivers.

This is a horrible thing for our country.

>> There is no-- there is no evidence of that.

>> This is not going to end well.

>> NARRATOR: For the January 6th committee, it was crucial evidence of Trump's intent.

>> He makes numerous speeches and, and TV... comments in TV interviews.

>> You're going to see corruption like you've never seen, you're going to see a rigged election.

It'll be the greatest rigged election in history, it'll be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated.

>> It's all a big fraud.

>> It's a crooked deal, it's a rigged deal, new ballots are coming out that are thrown in garbage cans with the name Trump on it.

>> This was part of the scheme of getting his supporters sensitized to the fact that "There's going to be some fraud here."

>> Because the only way they're going to win is by a rigged election, I really believe that.

>> This is a pattern for Trump.

He has done this every step of the way through his career, long before politics.

>> My name's Donald Trump, and I'm the largest real estate developer in New York.

>> When "The Apprentice" lost an Emmy to "The Amazing Race," he claimed that the Emmy contest was rigged.

>> (dramatized): "Amazing Race" winning an Emmy again is a total joke.

The Emmys have no credibility.

(Twitter chime) The Emmys are all politics, that's why "The Apprentice" never won.

(Twitter chime) >> The public is smart.

They know it's a con game.

>> I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory.

>> He claimed that the election was rigged in 2012 when Mitt Romney, whom he had endorsed, lost to Barack Obama.

>> (dramatized): This election is a total sham and a travesty.

We are not a democracy.

(Twitter chime) More reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama.

(Twitter chime) Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice!

(Twitter chime) We can't let this happen.

We should march on Washington.

(Twitter chime) >> Every step along the way anything he has ever lost is because somebody else has cheated and stolen it from him.

>> Fox News can now project that Texas senator Ted Cruz has won Iowa.

>> Ted Cruz wins the Republican contest here in Iowa.

>> The big question now: how is Donald Trump going to handle a loss?

>> (dramatized): The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated-- a total fraud.

(Twitter chime) >> You have tweeted that Senator Ted Cruz stole the Iowa election.

>> Everything about it was disgraceful.

It was a fraud as far as I was concerned.

>> Knowing what we know now-- I think you would go back to February 1 of 2016.

>> It's a total voter fraud when you think of it and actually I came in probably first if you think about it.

>> That episode was a bright red blinking light foreshadowing everything that was to come.

>> The portrait that both prosecutors and the January 6th committee are trying to paint is that Trump knows what's going on.

That this wasn't something spontaneous.

This wasn't something that the president truly believed.

That it was all part of an overall and illegal-- according to prosecutors and the committee-- strategy to remain in power unlawfully.

>> NARRATOR: And in court filings, prosecutors have said Trump's statements are evidence of the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the case.

>> "They demonstrate the defendant's common plan "of falsely blaming fraud for election results "he does not like, as well as his motive, intent, "and plan to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results and illegitimately retain power."

>> Intent is the whole ball game.

The jury is making an evaluation of that.

Um, that's the most difficult thing to prove.

Not impossible, but it is the most difficult thing to prove.

>> NARRATOR: Robert Ray was an independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, and helped get Trump acquitted in his first senate impeachment trial.

>> Our system requires that a jury of 12 unanimously, meaning all of them, all 12 of them, find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

(gavel bangs) >> NARRATOR: To try to show the president's intent, the committee focused on his own statements after election night.

>> Although he publicly claimed that he had won the election, privately he admitted that Joe Biden would take over as president.

>> I remember maybe a week after the election was called, I popped into the Oval just to like give the president the headlines and see how he was doing, and he was looking at the TV and he said, "Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?"

>> At the same time that President Trump was acknowledging privately that he had lost the election, he was hearing that there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities sufficient to change the outcome.

>> His campaign team, and this included his son-in-law Jared Kushner, went to him after the election was declared.

And they didn't just rebut the claims of voter fraud.

They explained to him their analysis of why he lost.

They showed him the numbers state by state in the swing states.

>> I made this case, I know Hope Hicks and others did to him, which was, "You should kind of make this a victory lap.

"Go around the country, talk about what have accomplished, "and you're going to be in a great place in 2024 to win the presidency back."

♪ ♪ >> But then you had Rudy Giuliani who was whispering in his ear what Trump wanted to hear.

Trump likes the people who tell him what he wants to hear.

And he picked, in effect, Rudy Giuliani in order to go down the road of challenging the election.

>> There is strong evidence that this was an election that in at least three or four states, and possibly ten, they, they... it was stolen.

Bringing in 100,000 ballots in garbage cans, and every single one of them was for Biden.

>> NARRATOR: The federal indictment alleges that by the middle of November, Trump's conspiracy to overturn the election was underway.

>> November 14, 2020, is an important date in the federal indictment of Donald Trump.

It is the moment when Donald Trump said, "Rudy Giuliani-- "he's the only one who's providing me with a plausible path forward, and I'm going to take it."

>> Look, you can fight it all you want.

The reality is dead people voted.

Over 300,000 ballots were counted in secret... >> Rudy Giuliani was central to a lot of these schemes, framing them, orchestrating them, directing other people, being in on the communications.

And so once Trump made a decision to defer to Rudy Giuliani as the person who was setting the tone and giving people their talking points for what the approach was, that's when he decided to go after these nutty theories.

>> 8,021 ballots from dead people, mail-in ballots for dead people.

We're checking the records of the cemeteries around Philadelphia.

(audience laughter) >> NARRATOR: During that period, Giuliani and Trump would repeat dozens of false allegations and the committee believed they had evidence it wasn't an honest mistake.

>> One of the things the committee did that was critical was putting together this timeline in which they showed, very clearly, the president would be told one thing one day, not true, don't say that.

And he would go right back out and say it the next day anyway.

That's really important toward, I think, establishing intent to lie, intent to defraud.

>> Each ballot went three times, here's ballot number one, here it is a second time, third time, next ballot.

>> I told the president myself that these allegations about ballots run through the machine several times, it was not true.

>> In several counties in Georgia, there's clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to Biden.

>> Well, Mr. President, we did a hand re-tally of all the ballots and compared that to what the machine said, and it came up with virtually the same result.

>> In Detroit a vote dump came in unexpectedly.

I'll tell you what's wrong: voter fraud.

>> And then he raised the big vote dump in Detroit and I said, "There's no indication of fraud in Detroit."

>> Over 10,300 ballots in Georgia were cast by individuals who died prior to the election.

>> The actual number were two, two people that were dead that voted.

>> You have Dominion, which those machines are fixed, they're rigged.

You can press Trump and the vote goes to Biden.

>> I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines.

I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations.

I told him that it was crazy stuff.

>> Stretching the truth in a campaign ad or on the debate stage is one thing.

But when you are using that lie to subvert the democratic process, and to convince people that they need to overturn the election, now you're talking about conspiracy.

And that's what he's charged with.

>> NARRATOR: Trump wouldn't talk to the committee, but he did talk to NBC News.

>> The most senior lawyers in your own administration and on your campaign told you that after you lost more than 60 legal challenges, that it was over.

Why did you ignore them and decide to listen to a new outside group of attorneys?

>> Because I didn't respect them.

As lawyers.

>> You'd hired them.

>> Sure.

But that doesn't mean-- you know, you hire them, you never met these people, you get a recommendation.

They turn out to be RINOs, or they turn out to be not so good.

In many cases, I didn't respect them.

But I did respect others.

I respected many others that said the election was rigged.

>> Were you calling the shots, though, Mr. President, ultimately?

>> As to whether or not I believed it was rigged?

Oh sure.

>> Okay.

>> It was my decision.

>> NARRATOR: One of the allegations in the charges against Trump is that he used lies to carry out his criminal conspiracy.

>> "The Defendant's knowingly false statements were integral to his criminal plans."

>> NARRATOR: But to the president's defenders, his statements about the 2020 election, true or not, should be protected under the constitution.

>> You will see Trump and those who defend him, essentially using the free speech defense, and saying that these are just words and in the end, it's not a crime in America to lie to the American public, even though Donald Trump lied to the American public a lot.

>> This is a central area of the president's defense.

He does have First Amendment rights, and particularly as president.

And trying to turn words into criminal conduct is a very slippery road for the prosecution under the First Amendment.

And in the event of a conviction, I can guarantee you this-- this will be point one in the brief on appeal.

>> Lying to the government is not protected by the First Amendment.

Obstructing justice is not protected by the First Amendment.

>> NARRATOR: Ken White is a prominent criminal defense lawyer, and a First Amendment expert.

>> And so here, the government's position is going to be, "We are not going after him for, you know, "what he said on the news, that's not the crime.

"The crime is he's specifically pushed to derail specific government functions."

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: As they gathered their evidence, the January 6th committee returned again and again to one state: Georgia.

>> When Donald Trump tried to overturn the election results, he focused on just a few states.

The former president had a particular obsession with Georgia.

>> I think that Trump chose us because Republicans did control basically every level of government.

You got the House, you got the Senate, all Republican controlled, not even close.

I think he thought he could come here and basically just by some kind of fiat, say, "Okay, make it happen."

>> NARRATOR: And it was in Georgia that Donald Trump received a stark warning from Gabriel Sterling, an election official.

>> Gabriel Sterling explicitly warned President Trump about potential violence on December 1, 2020, more than a month before January 6.

You will see excerpts from that video repeatedly today.

>> Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia.

Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.

Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right.

>> Gabe Sterling called out Donald Trump.

He was the first to really, as far as I remember, to really come out and say, "There's going-- like, this is going to lead to violence."

>> We're investigating, there's always a possibility, I get it.

You have... >> Gabe Sterling is not listed as some kind of Republican in name only or some kind of liberal Republican prior to that moment.

>> I've been a Republican since I was about nine when Reagan was running for reelection.

I was nine years old when I first kind of declared myself.

My mother was not very happy.

But my dad was pleased.

I was working campaigns in the late '80s and early '90s.

So yeah, I've been in Republican politics as an operative and a volunteer since before I could drive a car.

So yeah, I've been at it for a while.

>> The chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Schiff, for an opening statement.

>> Mr. Sterling, thank you also for being here today.

>> Schiff-- I remember they told me he was going to question me, I'm like, "Damn it."

I can't stand that guy.

(laughs) He irritates me to death because I think he's wrong and doesn't tell the truth a lot.

But I said, you know what?

I'm just going to play this straight.

I'm a fact witness, just answer the questions.

>> Donald Trump claims that there was "massive voter fraud in Georgia."

Mr. Sterling, that was just plain false, wasn't it?

>> Yes, sir.

(interview): I want to give some perspective for this.

I was a voting systems implementation manager.

I was a bureaucrat of all bureaucrats, basically, at that time.

No one should know who the hell I am.

I just was doing my job.

>> NARRATOR: Sterling was on the frontline as Trump attacked the Georgia election results.

>> (dramatized): Thousands of uncounted votes discovered in Georgia counties.

(Twitter chime) Big voter fraud information coming out concerning Georgia.

(Twitter chime) Georgia Republicans are angry, all Republicans are angry.

Get it done!

(Twitter chime) >> The people in Georgia are mad.

They know their votes were stolen.

>> Georgia, of the six states I looked at, is a cesspool.

>> Georgia's probably going to be the first state I'm going to blow up and the secretary of state need to go with it.

>> Everyone must go to the capitol of Georgia now.

We need to see people power and this will do it.

>> (chanting): We want Trump!

>> NARRATOR: On the ground, tensions were mounting.

>> I mean you have a whole voting population out there who still, today, believes that this election was stolen.

>> (chanting): America First!

And I they think that, you know, some fraud happened.

And that's how you end up in situations where they're threatening the election officials in Georgia.

(chime) >> "Keep opposing the audit, and somebody in your family is going to have a very unfortunate incident."

"Please pray.

"We plan for the death of you and your family every day.

I'm sorry."

"You and your family will be killed very slowly."

>> It wasn't fun, I can tell you that.

Um... We were in the mix of... a... radicalized lie, essentially.

And it just kept on escalating.

(chime) >> Y'all oughta blow your (bleep) brains out you piece of (bleep).

>> NARRATOR: The threats poured into the voicemails of election officials.

(chime) >> Hope you're happy with the way (bleep) going 'cause you know who's fault this is when the (bleep) (bleep) hits the goddamn fan 'cause you know it's coming.

>> We're coming after you and every mother (bleep) with our Second Amendment.

(Bleep) enemy communist (bleep) sucker, you will be served lead."

♪ ♪ >> It's all gone too far.

All of it.

It has to stop!

(interview): I had no script.

In fact, I didn't realize I was going to call out the president until I was literally saying the words out loud at the time.

Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language.

This has to stop.

We need you to step up and if you're going to take a position of leadership, show some.

>> After you made this plea to the president, did Donald Trump urge his supporters to avoid the use of violence?

>> Not to my knowledge.

>> Now, as we know, the president was aware of your speech because he tweeted about it later that day.

(Twitter chime) >> The president retweeted a criticism of Gabriel Sterling's press conference.

So the president was aware that there were threats of violence, and he persisted in the Big Lie.

>> You have Gabriel Sterling saying, "People will die."

This was the warning and Donald Trump was unmoved by it.

Was there any sort of a sense that maybe we ought to dial down the rhetoric, that maybe this is getting out of hand, maybe this is dangerous?

No.

>> Gabriel Sterling's warning that someone could get killed, I think that still remains true today.

Because you still have the president targeting judges and law clerks and witnesses.

And I think it is remarkable that no one has been physically hurt.

But I think time will tell whether something does happen.

(sirens wailing, horns honking) >> The committee plans to reveal even more evidence former President Trump pressured state officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

>> NARRATOR: Rusty Bowers, the Speaker of the Arizona House and lifelong Republican, was a crucial witness to Trump's campaign of pressure on local officials.

>> Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testifying today he received numerous calls asking him to decertify the Arizona electors.

>> NARRATOR: Bowers would testify about his private conversations with the president.

>> Going in the room, we walked down through the hall, and there's lots of people in the hallways, and then guards, and then there's a doorway, and, you know, I'm thinking, "Okay, how big is this room?"

And then I walk in the room and I'm thinking, "Oh, my word.

(cameras clicking) This is one big room."

(laughs) I'm like, "Wow."

And there's ten million photographers all jammed together, jostling in front of us.

And I'm trying to maintain composure and not run screaming off down the Mall, down towards the Lincoln Memorial.

But I saw Liz Cheney and she was looking at me and that kind of calmed me down.

(gavel bangs) >> I now welcome Rusty Bowers, a distinguished legislator from Arizona.

Speaker Bowers, thank you for being with us today.

>> This is a loyal, lifelong Republican.

He's a conservative who fought to get Trump reelected.

>> Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, come on up here!

(cheers and applause) >> Rusty Bowers is a compelling person.

It's hard to talk to him and not believe him.

And the stories that he told about his direct communications with the president were just so indicative and so powerful that he was kind of an obvious choice, frankly, for somebody that America needed to hear from directly.

>> After the election, you received a phone call from President Trump and Rudy Giuliani, in which they discussed the result of the presidential election in Arizona.

If you would, tell us about that call.

>> Mr... the president initially laid out the broad claim of fraud across the country-- named different states, including my own.

>> What was the ask during this call?

He was making these allegations of fraud, but he had something, or a couple things, that they wanted you to do-- what were those?

>> They said, "Well, we have heard "via an official high up in the Republican Legislature, "that there is a legal theory, or a legal ability in Arizona, "that you can remove the, um, electors of President Biden and replace them."

(chuckles) Well... for them to say to me, "Yeah, we just want you to throw out those electors and put in Trump's."

I'm thinking, "Have, have I gone to another planet?"

I mean, it's like, what?

I'm not gonna do that!"

I mean, I wanted him to win, okay, so what?

I'm not gonna cheat, I'm not gonna cheat to win.

What, what's that?

I flat out, flat out said, "You're asking me to break my oath.

"I swore an oath-- I'm not gonna break it, period.

Not gonna break it."

I said, "Well, if you're talking this, I gotta have the proof."

I said, "Rudy, do you have the names of the dead people who voted?"

He goes, "Yes."

"And do you have the names of the 200,000 illegals who voted in our election?"

"Yes."

I said, "I want those names."

And the president says, "Rudy, give the man what he wants, give him what he wants."

He says, "Yeah, we've got them, Mr. President, and I'll get them to him."

>> NARRATOR: In the criminal indictment, Jack Smith saw the call as evidence of a crime.

>> "The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 "asked the Arizona House Speaker to use the legislature "to circumvent the process by which legitimate electors would be ascertained."

>> If you are calling a state official, and you're asking them to nullify lawful votes, and to replace them with unlawful votes, that is squarely within federal statutes regulating election conspiracy.

>> NARRATOR: Not long after the call, Rudy Giuliani himself arrived in Arizona.

>> Did you meet with Mr. Giuliani and his associates while they were in Phoenix?

>> Yes, I did, sir.

There was a row of people and-- Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, I recognized them.

And I sat down on the opposite side.

And I just said, "Did you bring me the proof?"

And he said, "What?"

I said, "Do you remember our phone call when you said you were going to bring me the proof?"

And he said, "Oh, yeah."

I said, "Did you bring it?"

And he looked-- turned to Jenna Ellis, and he says, "Do you have the proof?"

And she said, "Yeah."

"Well, can we see it?"

She leans over and fumbles through her briefcase and says, "Oh no, I don't have it here-- must be at the hotel room."

>> This meeting or at any other later time, did anyone provide you with evidence of election fraud sufficient to affect the outcome of the presidential election in Arizona?

>> No one provided me, ever, such evidence.

(interview): Giuliani was kind of frustrated with us all and he said, "You know we've got a lot of theories, we just don't have the evidence."

(chuckles) And I, when I heard him say that, I, I said... "Did he just say what I thought he said?"

(laughs) And they all looked at me, like, the same thing on their mind, like, "Whoa!"

(laughs) You know, that, "Yeah, he just said that!"

That was like a rocket's red glare moment.

Like, wow!

(laughs) That's... you gotta be kidding, this is like a, this is the clown show-- they're out hunting, they're trying to find something, and, and they're wanting us to participate in this, and, and he says that?

Holy moly, we can't do this stuff, you know, it's like... >> NARRATOR: Rudy Giuliani refused to answer questions from the committee about his conversations with Bowers.

Trump attorney Jenna Ellis also refused.

For the January 6th committee, that meeting with Bowers was a bombshell revelation.

>> "We have a lot of theories, but we don't have any evidence."

That shows that none of this had to do with evidence or reality, right?

This is all about just making stuff up in order to justify keeping Trump in power.

>> NARRATOR: The phrase Giuliani uttered would become iconic and Giuliani a central figure in Trump's indictment: listed as Co- Conspirator Number 1.

>> "Co-Conspirator 1 responded with words to the effect of, 'We don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.'"

>> It shows Rudy Giuliani admitting that there's no evidence for the theories they had, that these are just talking points, not backed with any fact.

And that's exactly the theory of the government.

>> During the conversation, did he bring up the fact that you shared a similar party?

>> He would say, "Aren't we all Republicans here?

"I would think we would get a better reception, "I mean, I would think you would listen a little more open to my suggestions-- we're all Republicans."

For someone to ask me to deny my oath and just let the courts figure it out, or let somebody else, punt it to someone else, is not something I will do.

>> What you have to understand here is that Rusty Bowers, this guy who worked for Trump, wanted Trump to be reelected in Arizona, worked for Trump's reelection is given a choice-- he can choose between his oath to the Constitution or President Trump.

And he stays loyal to the Constitution.

That is, in effect, what... the choice that he's given.

>> Even in the past when there have been... >> Rusty Bowers speaks with a moral and legal clarity that's very necessary to understand.

>> We choose to follow the outcome of the will of the people.

It's, it's my oath.

And, and I hope that I'll never break that.

I know I'm not, you know, I'm not perfect.

I'm certainly not a perfect witness.

But I am a witness.

And, uh...

I had my say.

And I wasn't trying to flower it up, I wasn't trying to be anything other than just Rusty.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Rusty Bowers is now a key witness on a central charge of the indictment.

>> "The Defendant and his co-conspirators "executed a strategy to use knowing deceit "in the targeted states to impair, obstruct and defeat the federal government function."

>> NARRATOR: In their filings, Trump's lawyers have argued he is immune from prosecution because was doing his job as president when he worked to change the election results.

>> "The indictment is based entirely "on alleged actions within the heartland "of President Trump's official duties, "or at the very least, within the 'outer perimeter' of his official duties."

>> The former president has a motion claiming that he is immune from criminal process with regard to these charges which involve his official acts as president of the United States.

>> "As President Trump is absolutely immune "from criminal prosecution for such acts, the Court should dismiss the indictment."

>> Donald Trump's legal team suggesting that even a president who had a political rival assassinated could still be immune from criminal prosecution.

>> NARRATOR: The federal judge presiding over the case has already rejected Trump's immunity claims, saying a president is not entitled to a life-long, get-out-of-jail-free pass.

>> The questions being raised right now regarding presidential immunity, are absolutely key to the very foundation, the very philosophical foundation of this republic.

Because if you take an oath of office in the United States of America, you're swearing an oath to our system of government.

And so, if a president is not subject to that system of government, if he's not subject to that code of laws, we don't have quite the republic that we thought we had.

(siren wailing) >> NARRATOR: An appeals court is now considering the question of immunity.

Whatever the decision, both sides could appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

(indistinct chatter) ♪ ♪ The committee's investigation kept bringing them back to what happened in Georgia.

(laughter) >> Mr. Giuliani, what are you doing here in Georgia?

>> You'll see.

>> NARRATOR: Giuliani was there to make his case to the Republican state legislature.

>> Bless you, too.

>> Don't give up.

>> Oh, I'm not giving up.

>> Never, never give up.

>> Nope.

>> He was very jovial, I have to tell you.

I think he had gotten basically a king's welcome by all the Republicans.

(cameras clicking) It was like, you know, he was their superstar or whatever.

(man laughs) They all wanted pictures with him.

They were all so impressed with him and couldn't believe that he was there.

Um, very obsequious.

(cheers and applause) >> We appreciate you, Rudy.

We love you, Rudy!

>> NARRATOR: Giuliani and others from Trump's team had come with a conspiracy theory: election workers were counting suitcases of illegal ballots.

>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

>> Thank you-- Senator Jordan?

>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

>> NARRATOR: Jen Jordan, a Democratic state senator, was in the room with Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Trump's other lawyers.

>> They are going to pull ballots out from underneath a table.

Watch this table.

>> You had the woman who was narrating.

>> This table, the black one, was placed there by the lady with the blonde braids.

>> And saying, "You see this woman here?

You see her here?"

>> At about 8:00 in the morning, we're going to roll this back and show it to you-- there you go-- so now they're going to start pulling these ballots out from under this table.

I don't know the name of the lady in the blonde braids, but one of them had the name Ruby across her shirt somewhere.

>> "She's taking the ballots out, and now she's, you know, filling them in or she's stealing these ballots."

>> NARRATOR: It was an allegation Trump personally amplified.

>> There's even security camera footage from Georgia that shows officials telling poll watchers to leave the room before pulling suitcases of ballots out from under the tables and continuing to count for hours.

>> They kept on recycling these things.

>> The footage appears to show poll workers pulling ballots out of suitcases... >> It's like playing whack-a-mole.

>> Yeah, how about those suitcases that were pulled out from the table in Georgia.

>> Looking at ballots, they're finding them under the tables.

I mean, this is like a banana republic.

>> NARRATOR: But the full surveillance video didn't show what Trump and Giuliani claimed.

>> The magic suitcases, which were really just ballot carriers that had been put under the table about an hour earlier and they were placed under there with the monitors and the press in the room.

>> NARRATOR: A day after Giuliani's presentation, the video aired on local TV.

Their claims were debunked.

>> This is the short section of the video the Trump team has shared.

It's not suitcases being pulled from under that table, but official sealed ballot containers.

If we go back in the video to hours before, you can see that table being brought into the room at 8:22 a.m.

Nothing underneath, no hidden suitcases.

As ballots that have been opened, but not counted, are placed in the boxes, sealed up and stored under the table.

>> No magical appearing ballots.

These were ballots that were processed in front of the monitors, put in the boxes in front of the monitors and placed there in front of the monitors.

And I, I'll go to my deathbed, knowing that they knowingly lied.

They looked in the state senators' eyes, the people of Georgia, the people of America and lied to them about this, and knew they were lying, to try to keep this charade going on that there was fraud in Georgia.

>> NARRATOR: But the conspiracy theories continued.

>> This is not a conspiracy theory, those are legitimate questions.

>> I think the woman in charge here is named Ruby Freeman, and I think her daughter Shay Freeman Moss, either was helping here or helping her earlier.

>> NARRATOR: Giuliani had called out by name two election workers-- Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.

>> After pulling out hidden boxes stuffed with ballots, Ruby Freeman, as seen here in this video, repeatedly scanned the same batch of ballots at least three times.

>> NARRATOR: Like the claim about suitcases of ballots, it wasn't true.

>> The secondary part of that was, "They were scanning multiple times, multiple times."

And a standard operating procedure is, if there's a mis-scan, you delete that batch and straighten it up like you do.

And then run it through again-- and that's what they were doing.

And the reason we know that's the case is because we had a hand tally that showed the number of ballots matched what was counted.

So we know that they didn't do that.

>> I now welcome Andrea "Shaye" Moss.

In December 2020, Miss Moss and her mother, Ms. Ruby Freeman became the target... >> People say, "You know, I know somebody just like those two ladies in my community who work elections."

And they're just everyday people.

To have them as a witness for our committee, I think, was very powerful.

I understand that you are here along with your mother today.

Uh, would you like to introduce your momma?

Hi, Ma.

(chuckles) >> Well, I know the events that we're here to talk about today are incredibly difficult to relive.

I'd like to show you some of the statements that Rudy Giuliani made a week after that video clip from State Farm Arena was first circulated by Mr. Giuliani and President Trump.

I want to advise viewers that these statements are completely false and also deeply disturbing.

>> Tape earlier in the day of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss and one other gentleman quite obviously, surreptitiously, passing around USB ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine.

>> He sounded a lot more desperate.

Quite frankly, he seemed more unhinged.

He made some overtly racist comments.

>> They look like they're passing out dope, not just ballots.

It is quite clear they are stealing votes.

They're still walking around Georgia, lying.

They should have been, they should have been, they should have been questioned already.

Their places of work, their homes should've been searched for evidence of ballots, evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud.

>> NARRATOR: But there was no evidence that they were passing USB drives.

>> In one of the videos we just watched, Mr. Giuliani accused you and your mother of passing some sort of USB drive to each other.

What was your mom actually handing you on that video?

>> A ginger mint.

>> Passing along a ginger mint back and forth gets spun up into this baseless theory, not an accident.

It is meant to stir up people's anger.

>> It wasn't just Rudy Giuliani.

>> And these two Black women who are doing their civic duty are vilified.

>> It really does end up ruining people's lives.

I mean, I can't tell you how many emails I got with respect to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman and that they should be strung up.

>> Were a lot of these threats and vile comments racist in nature?

>> A lot of them were racist, a lot of them were just hateful.

A lot of threats, um, wishing death upon me, um...

Telling me that, you know, I'll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920."

>> These women, whose lives had been completely destroyed, that's where the story about the state pressure campaign becomes real.

>> I felt horrible.

I felt like it was all my fault, like, if I would have never decided to be an elections worker, like, I could have done anything else, but that's what I decided to do.

And now people are lying and spreading rumors and lies and attacking my mom.

I'm her only child.

I just felt like it was, it was my fault for putting my family in this situation.

♪ ♪ >> There are real-world consequences to lying and attacking and demonizing innocent people in this country.

And Donald Trump has always been very heedless of the human costs of his lies and his gaslighting.

And this is a very painful example of that.

>> Ms. Moss, I want to thank you for coming in to speak with us, and to thank you for your service to our democracy.

With your permission, I would like to give your mother the last word.

>> My name is Ruby Freeman.

I've always believed it when God says that He'll make your name great, but this is not the way it was supposed to be.

(soft chuckle) I built my own business around that name, LaRuby's Unique Treasures, a pop-up shop catering to ladies with unique fashions.

I wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed that I was and I am Lady Ruby.

Actually, I had that shirt on-- I had that shirt in every color.

I wore that shirt on Election Day 2020.

I haven't worn it since, and I'll never wear it again.

Now I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore.

There is nowhere I feel safe.

Nowhere.

Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States to target you?

The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American.

Not to target one.

But he targeted me, Lady Ruby, a small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stand up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Federal prosecutors have cited the lies about Freeman and Moss in their indictment.

>> "Co-Conspirator 1 orchestrated a presentation "to a judiciary subcommittee of the Georgia state senate, "with the intention of misleading state senators into blocking the ascertainment of legitimate electors."

>> Breaking news in Georgia's investigation into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election.

>> NARRATOR: In Georgia, prosecutors have also weighed in with their own charges.

>> "Members of the enterprise, "including several of the defendants, "falsely accused Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman of committing election crimes in Fulton County, Georgia."

(flash bulb pops) >> NARRATOR: Trump, Giuliani and others have been charged in Georgia with a host of crimes related to their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

While Trump and Giuliani await trial, four of their codefendants have pled guilty, including Jenna Ellis.

>> If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump.

I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse for those failures of mine, Your Honor.

>> It's very important that Jenna Ellis pled guilty to criminal charges.

Because it raises the point that, "Wait a minute, this wasn't a traditional lawyer-client relationship."

And so when you have lawyers pleading guilty to crimes, that is broadcasting loudly that they were not providing conventional legal advice.

>> NARRATOR: In a separate civil case, a federal court ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay $146 million for defaming Freeman and Moss.

>> A legal loss for Rudy Giuliani that could cost him millions.

>> Rudy Giuliani, the once-respected New York mayor and former attorney for Donald Trump, has filed for bankruptcy.

>> Forced to declare bankruptcy, the latest chapter in a dramatic fall for the man once dubbed "America's mayor."

>> NARRATOR: As the January 6th hearings continued, the committee linked the efforts in Georgia to Trump personally.

(gavel bangs) They had evidence and a witness.

>> Brad Raffensperger is the 29th Secretary of State of Georgia, serving in this role since 2019.

>> My job as secretary of state is to make sure we have honest, fair, and accurate elections.

>> He's a very strong Christian, he's a very strong Republican, and he's very conservative.

He was an engineer.

Now, being an engineer allowed him to lean into the numbers, and lean into the data.

He felt very comfortable with that, which is, you know, a rare thing for anybody in politics, because engineers are very mathematical, very linear, you know, not always the biggest personalities.

>> I looked at, as the office of secretary of state, as how do we really improve the process of elections.

All 159 counties had new election equipment with a verifiable paper ballot ready for the election of 2020.

>> NARRATOR: It was a phone call from the president that put Raffensperger at the center of the hearings.

(dial tone, phone dialing out) >> That phone call is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence that's come out of this, this post-election period.

(electronic beeping, indistinct chatter) (connecting tone) >> Oh-- uh... >> Mark Meadows reached out to my deputy secretary of state, and she called me, and I told her I didn't think that was a good idea.

And we were kind of told that, no, we definitely need to have this conversation.

(on recording): >> It shows how frantic and desperate President Trump had become by that phone call.

I think it shows how his demands were fully removed from any kind of evidence.

>> I just listened to him talk.

I was making some notes.

"Okay, 5,000.

Okay, great," and I'll respond to that.

But when I got an opportunity to, you know, speak, then I, I just said, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is your data is wrong."

(on recording): My job was just to respond with the facts.

And if I had a different set of facts, I would have responded with whatever they were.

We just... our job was to give him the true data, which I did.

>> The former president was pushing to see if he could somehow, you know... it would move me somewhere, someplace.

Because I think that's been an effective strategy for him over his business career and political career.

That people tended to buckle instead of stand firm on their principles.

>> NARRATOR: In Georgia, Trump had lost to Biden by 11,779 votes.

>> Trump didn't understand, it just doesn't click... didn't click with him that someone wouldn't just give in.

It just did not occur to him that there was some higher level of loyalty to the law and the Constitution.

>> I knew that we had followed the law, we had followed the Constitution, and I think sometimes moments require you to stand up and just take the shots.

You're doing your job, and that's all we did.

You know, we just followed the law and we followed the Constitution, and at the end of the day, President Trump came up short.

But I had to be faithful to the Constitution, and that's what I swore an oath to do.

>> This call becomes critical, because it's recorded.

We get to hear in the president's own voice how he's doing it, what he's doing, how he's putting pressure on these people.

>> So look, all I want to do is this.

I just want to find, uh... 11,780 votes.

>> This is a scheme to overthrow an election.

He knew the number that he needed to hit to change the outcome of the election.

>> NARRATOR: And Trump accused Raffensperger himself of a crime-- allowing election fraud.

>> The president of the United States demanding that an election official find thousands of votes, and then strongly implying that there would be criminal sanction in the event that those votes were not found.

I mean, that is terrible evidence for the president.

>> What I knew is that we didn't have any votes to find.

We continued to look, we investigated-- like I just shared the numbers with you-- there were no votes to find.

>> That call is damning and I think it's going to be damning potentially in front of a jury, because juries, when they can hear a defendant's voice on tape, when they can hear something that is that real and that visceral, it can be incredibly powerful testimony.

(call ends) >> "The Defendant said that he needed to 'find' 11,780 votes."

>> It shows him demanding a remedy that doesn't make any sense in the context of anything lawful.

That's just asking, "I want to win, you've gotta do it."

I think it's going to be a very powerful call for that jury.

>> NARRATOR: For his part, Trump has defended the phone call with Raffensperger-- describing it as "perfect."

>> "A 'perfect' phone call "to discuss a rigged and stolen election, "and what to do about it, "with many people, including lawyers and others, knowingly on the line."

♪ ♪ >> After weeks of trying to overturn the results of the election, his legal team has come up with nothing.

>> NARRATOR: In the middle of December 2020... >> In the courts, where evidence gets scrutinized, authenticated, and tested, they're getting hammered.

>> NARRATOR: As the president was failing in his attempts to reverse the election... >> All but now ending the president's attempt to reverse his election loss.

>> NARRATOR: A new phase began.

>> And it comes as the electoral college is set to cast their votes for president tomorrow.

>> On December 14, 2020, the presidential election was officially over.

The electoral college had cast its vote.

Joe Biden was the president- elect of the United States.

>> The president has reached the end of the road.

The electoral college certified the election.

His legal team and allies lost more than 50 challenges.

>> The cases run their course, the electoral college meets, people are saying no.

So he's running out of options, right?

The sequence is increasingly desperate.

>> On Friday, December 18, his team of outside advisors paid him a surprise visit in the White House that would quickly become the stuff of legend.

>> This meeting is one of the most extraordinary meetings that ever happened in that building, in more than 200 years of history.

Here you had a president of the United States who had lost an election, in the Oval Office, being advised by... a swarm of colorful characters, to say the least.

>> NARRATOR: At the meeting: former national security advisor Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell, by then both known for their embrace of conspiracy theories about the election.

>> You had people in there counseling Donald Trump that he should explicitly order martial law, that he should create a special czar.

The person they had in mind for this was Sidney Powell, that she should become the special elections czar and be empowered to use the machinery of government itself to overturn the election.

>> NARRATOR: As word of the meeting spread, senior White House lawyers rushed to the oval office, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

>> President Trump's close advisors, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann, advisor to the president, and others who were in that room who were saying to this group, "What evidence do you even have that there was fraud in the election?"

>> NARRATOR: The White House lawyers were insistent that the president shouldn't declare martial law to overturn the election or empower Sidney Powell.

>> At times there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other.

(chuckles) >> The president is taking all of this in, mostly a passive observer in this meeting, but he is watching this play out.

His close advisors telling his lawyers, "You have no evidence that there was fraud in the election.

"And you've lost every case.

Every case you brought in to court, you've lost."

And Sidney Powell says, "The judges were corrupt.

That's why we lost."

And Eric Herschmann, supporter, close advisor to the president, says, "What are you talking about?

"Every case?

"The judges?

We appointed many of those judges.

"You're saying they're all corrupt?

Like you people have nothing, you're crazy."

>> I think that it got to the point where the screaming was completely, completely out there.

I mean, you get people walk in, it was late at night, it'd been a long day, and... what they were proposing, I thought was nuts.

Flynn screamed at me that I was a quitter and everything, kept on standing up and turning around and screaming at me.

And at a certain point, I had it with him.

So I yelled back.

"Better sit your effing ass back down."

>> I'm gonna categorically describe it as... "you guys are not tough enough."

Or maybe I put it another way, "You're a bunch of pussies."

Excuse the expression.

>> At the end of it, Trump sees that there is so much opposition, including from his White House counsel.

He understands that people would very likely resign, And so, it seems that he reluctantly concludes that he's not going to declare martial law.

>> NARRATOR: Instead, late that night, after the meeting had broken up, the president turned to Twitter.

>> "Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election.

"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th.

Be there, will be wild!"

(Twitter chime) >> Dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd on Wednesday, January 6, the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes.

>> While he doesn't actually go ahead with martial law, he is embracing a path that is, in fact, radical anyway.

He's not using the United States military, but he's summoning his own army of supporters to Washington, some of whom are known to be extremists, and in some cases violent, to help him stay in office, over the will of the voters.

>> It's Saturday, December 19.

And one of the most historic events in American history has just taken place.

President Trump, in the early morning hours today, tweeted that he wants the American people to march on Washington D.C. on January 6.

>> This wildly inflammatory tweet was a bullhorn that immediately went out to some of the more violent, organized Trump supporters-- The Oath Keepers.

>> "He called us all to the Capitol "and wants us to make it wild.

"Gentlemen, we are heading to D.C.

Pack your (bleep)."

>> The Proud Boys... >> "It's all or nothing, patriots.

Boldness and bravery is necessary."

>> They heard it as a message from their leader, "Come to Washington."

>> The "Will be wild!"

tweet was the call in a call and response.

They mobilized to come to Washington.

These individuals came to Washington because Donald Trump told them to be there.

Because Donald Trump told them the election was rigged.

Because Donald Trump told them that someone was trying to take their votes away from them, and silence their voices.

They believed it.

>> This could be Trump's last stand.

And it's a time when he has specifically called on his supporters to arrive in D.C. >> The time for games is over.

The time for action is now.

Where were you when history called?

Where were you when you and your children's destiny and future was on the line?

>> NARRATOR: For prosecutors, that tweet, the call to march on Washington, represents a crucial step in Trump's criminal conspiracy.

>> Jack Smith's theory is that that was part of the attempt to obstruct the proceedings on January 6.

That Trump wanted a large, at least boisterous, if not violent, crowd there to interfere with the proceedings, maybe stop them, put pressure on the people there.

And that was one component of his obstruction.

>> "After cultivating widespread anger and resentment for weeks "with his knowingly false claims of election fraud, "the Defendant urged his supporters "to travel to Washington on the day of the certification proceeding."

>> The special counsel is sort of situating it as this hinge, where things sort of really start to go wrong.

That shows that this was part of a plan.

And if they can convince the jury of that, that's a huge portion of the ball game.

>> NARRATOR: In their filings, Trump's attorneys have argued that his statements were protected by the First Amendment.

>> "The indictment therefore attempts to criminalize "core political speech and political advocacy, "which is categorically impermissible under the First Amendment."

>> There should be room under the First Amendment and otherwise for the president to say an awful lot without having to tag him with a criminal offense.

And that's why there's a First Amendment.

You're given a big amount of latitude to say a lot of wild and crazy, even stupid, things, without having to worry about somebody afterwards deciding that you should be sent to jail for it.

>> While prosecuting the president in an electoral context is new, prosecuting people for electoral fraud is not new at all.

There are burdens of proof, there are legal tests, there are jury instructions, and if you can meet those elements, then you're outside of the protection of the First Amendment.

This is not a novel legal theory here.

(siren wailing) >> NARRATOR: As January 6 approached, Trump refocused his efforts closer to home at his own Department of Justice.

>> Today, we'll tell the story of how the pressure campaign also targeted the federal agency, charged with enforcement of our laws, the Department of Justice.

>> Trump tried to weaponize the Department of Justice against our own democracy.

Bill Barr is the first one to stand up and say, "No, I'm not going to do that."

He steps aside, he resigns.

And he's replaced by Jeff Rosen and Richard Donoghue as a sort of tag team here.

(keyboard keys clacking) >> NARRATOR: Rosen was a Republican political appointee who had served throughout Trump's administration.

Donoghue, also a Republican, had spent much of his career as a government lawyer-- in the Army and at the Department of Justice.

>> These are folks who were appointed by Donald Trump.

They are aligned with him politically.

>> Pretty much every day after Barr left, Trump would call Jeffrey Rosen at the Justice Department or his deputy, Richard Donoghue, and try to put pressure on them to get the department to go along with this narrative that there were serious questions about the integrity of the election.

>> Mr. Donoghue, you had a conversation with the president where he raised false claim after false claim with you and Mr. Rosen.

How did you respond to what you called a "stream of allegations"?

>> I wanted to try to cut through the noise, because it was clear to us that there were a lot of people whispering in his ear, feeding him these conspiracy theories and allegations, As the president went through them, I went piece by piece to say, "No, that's false, that is not true."

And to correct him, really, in a serial fashion as he moved from one theory to another.

>> How did the president respond to that, sir?

>> He responded very quickly and said, essentially, "That's not what I'm asking you to do.

"What I'm just asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."

♪ ♪ >> He's saying, "Don't care about evidence, "don't care about facts, just say this.

"And then I'm going to be able to use that "to give people political cover "to do what I want them to do, which is to overturn the vote."

>> I-- look, I think that's a very unfortunate statement on the, on the president's part, but it wouldn't be the first time that a president made a, a conscious decision to reject advice from his legal advisers, including the Department of Justice.

Is that evidence of criminal misconduct?

Could be.

Could be.

But sorting that out before a fair-minded jury, assuming that there's a fair-minded jury, is, I think, another question.

>> NARRATOR: As it became clear Rosen and Donoghue wouldn't go along, Trump looked for someone who would.

>> Trump turns to this mid-level Department of Justice employee, Jeff Clark, and he says, "Let's put him in as the acting attorney general."

>> He had been an environmental prosecutor.

Clark's official role has nothing to do with anything involving election fraud.

He had no business at all being involved in this.

>> NARRATOR: Clark drafted a letter that would claim publicly that the department was concerned about serious allegations of election fraud, even though his superiors had said there was no such evidence.

>> That letter of course was never sent.

Clark tried to push for it to be sent, by sort of attempting to dethrone acting attorney general Jeffery Rosen.

>> NARRATOR: According to testimony and evidence before the committee, Trump told Clark that he was going fire Rosen and make him the new attorney general.

>> Well, Clark makes an incredibly stupid mistake, which is that he tells Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general, that he is going to be replaced.

>> On the-- on Sunday, the third, he told me that the president had offered him the job and that he was accepting it.

>> Clark tells him, "Oh yeah, Trump is going to put me in."

And he gives notice to his opponents.

That's always a huge mistake, in Washington or anywhere else.

>> Well... you know, on the one hand, I wasn't going to accept being fired by my subordinate.

(chuckling): So, I wanted to talk to the, the president directly.

>> And there was another crazy White House meeting where Rosen, Donoghue, meet with Clark, the president, and other presidential advisors, in the Oval Office, for hours, fighting over whether Clark should be the attorney general.

>> Jeff Clark was proposing that... Jeff Rosen being replaced by Jeff Clark.

And I thought the proposal was... asinine.

>> And when he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said "Good... "(bleep)"-- excuse me, sorry-- "effing a-hole.

"Congratulations, you just admitted your first step "or act you take as attorney general "would be committing a felony and violating Rule 6(e).

You're clearly the right candidate for this job."

>> Mr. Donoghue, did-- did you eventually tell the president that mass resignations would occur if he installed Mr. Clark and what the consequences would be?

>> I said, "Mr. President, within 24, 48, 72 hours, "you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations "of the leadership of your entire Justice Department "because of your actions.

What's that going to say about you?"

>> In the end, that proves to be enough to stop Trump-- very reluctantly, very reluctantly-- from putting Clark in as his acting attorney general.

Talk about a close call.

>> NARRATOR: But for the January 6th committee and federal prosecutors, the pressure on the Justice Department was another part of the conspiracy.

>> He's trying to enlist as part of a scheme these officials of the Justice Department.

Lawyers, officers of the court, people who have taken an oath to uphold the rule of law, and they won't go along with it.

>> "The Defendant and co-conspirators "attempted to use the power and authority "of the Justice Department to conduct sham election crime investigations."

>> NARRATOR: As with the pressure on state election officials, Trump's attorneys have argued that he was just doing his job.

>> "Urging his own Department of Justice "to do more to enforce the laws "that it is charged with enforcing is unquestionably an official act of the president."

>> NARRATOR: And the president is entitled to name anyone he wants as the attorney general.

>> "Deliberating about whether to replace "the acting attorney general of the United States is also a core presidential function."

>> Jack Smith has made that judgment that that has crossed over the line into criminal conduct.

But he is now going to have to prove that the president went over that line, whatever that line is.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Having called his supporters to come to Washington on January 6, Trump turned his attention to a key player in his effort to stay in power: Vice President Mike Pence.

>> Today, we're focusing on President Trump's relentless effort to pressure Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes on January 6.

>> The pressure campaign on Vice President Pence is the last gambit to keep Trump in power.

I mean, basically, it's the last lever that they can pull to try and steal the election.

>> NARRATOR: It was based on an obscure legal theory: that the vice president had the power to overturn the election results.

>> Greg Jacob was counsel to Vice President Pence.

He conducted a thorough analysis of the role of the vice president in a joint session of Congress under the Constitution.

I now recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Aguilar.

>> Mr. Jacob, did you go to the vice president's residences on the morning of January 6?

>> Yes.

>> And did the vice president have a call with the president that morning?

>> He did.

We were told that a call had come in from the president.

The vice president stepped out of the room to take that call, and no staff went with him.

>> The president had several family members with him for that call.

I'd like to show you what they and others told the select committee about that call, along with never-before-seen photographs of the president on that call from the National Archives.

>> When I entered the office the second time, he was on the telephone with who I later found out to be was the, the vice president.

>> Could you hear the vice president or only hear the president's end?

>> Only hear the president's end.

And at some point, it started off as a calmer tone, and then it became heated.

>> Donald Trump is focused on this idea that Pence wielding the gavel on January 6 can single-handedly overturn the election, because he was presiding over this final certification of the electoral votes.

>> The conversation was, was... pretty heated.

>> It's an extraordinary thing, a president pressuring a vice president this way, insulting him that way, a person who had been nothing but loyal to him through all those, all those months and years.

>> Did Ms. Trump share with you any more details about what happened?

>> Her dad had just had an upsetting conversation with the vice president.

>> It was a different tone than I'd heard him take with the vice president before.

>> I mean, I think she was... uncomfortable over the fact that there was obviously that type of interaction between the two of them.

>> The word that she relayed to you that the president called the vice president, I apologize for being impolite, but do you remember what she said her father called him?

>> The P word.

>> Trump told Pence, "You have a choice.

"You can either be a patriot or you can be a pussy.

"Patriot means turn the election over to me.

Being a pussy means being afraid to use your power."

>> Mr. Jacob, how would you describe the demeanor of the vice president following the call with the president?

>> When he came back into the room, I'd say that he was steely, determined, grim.

>> NARRATOR: In almost four years, it was the first serious break between Pence and Trump.

>> Donald Trump had every expectation that he would go along with him on this.

Why wouldn't he?

He'd done everything else up until now.

Pence is a vice president who has been exceedingly loyal to Trump for three years, 11 months, and however many days.

Mike Pence never, ever, broke with the president.

>> NARRATOR: Now Pence had to make a critical decision.

>> Pence had just a clear conflict between what Trump wanted him to do and what the Constitution and the rule of law required him to do.

I think he managed to navigate those conflicts in various ways over four years.

Not always, in my view, in the right way.

But this was such a blatant transgression.

>> NARRATOR: Pivotal to the plan was this man-- John Eastman.

>> Here's this law professor, a member of the Federalists.

His role was to provide a, sort of a pseudo-intellectual cover for legal arguments.

>> And he manufactures this theory of the vice president's power, that bas... that says that the vice president of the United States is the ultimate arbiter on January 6, those were his words, "the ultimate arbiter."

And Trump fully endorses Eastman's plan.

>> Well, John Eastman was one of my law clerks... Perhaps 20, 25 years ago.

I was greatly concerned that John had given the advice that he had given.

>> Judge J. Michael Luttig is one of the leading conservative legal thinkers in the country.

He's served in administrations of President Ronald Reagan and George H.W.

Bush.

>> Judge Luttig had a kind of moral authority within the conservative community.

A guy himself who had been short-listed for the Supreme Court.

Was on a first-name basis with members of the Supreme Court.

>> Judge Luttig, I had the incredible honor of serving as one of your law clerks.

Another person who did was John Eastman.

And you've written that Dr. Eastman's theory is, in your words, "Incorrect at every turn."

>> Mr. Eastman said to the president that there was both legal as well as historical precedent for the vice president to overturn the election.

This is Constitutional mischief.

I would have laid my body across the road before I would have let the vice president overturn the 2020 election.

I diagrammed his, uh, his, his legal analysis, from beginning to end and concluded that we was wrong at every, every turn of his analysis, every turn of his thinking.

>> Judge Luttig, you wrote that the efforts by President Trump to overturn the 2020 election were, "the most reckless, insidious, "and calamitous failures in both legal and political judgement in American history."

What did you mean by that?

>> Exactly what I said, Congressman.

>> NARRATOR: White House lawyers had also warned about Eastman's theories.

But Trump persisted, summoning the vice president to the Oval Office.

>> The Eastman plan.

It was the last option for Donald Trump.

January 4, 2021.

In the Oval Office, John Eastman, President Trump, they pull Vice President Pence in.

He's joined by his aides, Greg Jacob and Marc Short.

Trump says to Pence, in front of others, "You have to now listen to John Eastman, "you have to follow the Eastman plan-- object to the certification."

It's a pressure campaign.

Pence says to Trump, "I'm going to do what I can, Mr. President, I want to help you out but I'm listening to my lawyers."

He turns to Greg Jacob, his advisors, and he says, "They're telling me I can't do it.

I can't do it, it's not constitutional, it's not legal."

Trump says, "You can do it, listen to John."

>> Mr. Jacob, during that meeting between the president and the vice president, what theories did Dr. Eastman present regarding the role of the vice president in counting the electoral votes?

>> So during that meeting on the fourth I think I raised the problem that Mr. Eastman's proposals would violate several provisions of the Electoral Count Act.

Mr. Eastman acknowledged that that was the case.

>> Pence turns to Trump and says, "Are you listening to this?

Do you hear this?"

But Trump isn't listening to that, he just, he's banging away on Pence, "You are the guy who's going to keep us in power."

(siren blaring) >> NARRATOR: Pence stood firm.

>> This is a man who has been so loyal for so long, but I think, at the end of the day, Mike Pence knew that he was going to uphold the Constitution.

And he knew that he had no power to overturn and do the things that the president was saying.

>> The choice Mike Pence was facing was not really a choice.

He had no choice to do anything other than count the votes that took place.

But at this point, Donald Trump had surrounded himself with people who were feeding him more and more nonsense about how this process worked.

It was just another situation of the president creating his own reality, deciding things that can happen that simply can't, and set Mike Pence up for the fall in a way that he had really no choice in what to do.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The pressure on Pence figures prominently in the indictment of Trump.

>> "The Defendant and co-conspirators attempted to enlist the vice president to use his ceremonial role at the January 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the election results.

>> NARRATOR: John Eastman is listed as one of the unindicted co-conspirators, though he still defends the advice he gave the president.

>> Trump's interactions with Pence, direct and indirect, are crucial.

They really go to showing that part of the way he obstructed justice was trying to wrongfully pressure Pence, who had an official task not to undertake that task.

>> Is the fact that Donald Trump asked him to do that, is, is that criminal?

Again, I think you've got to be really careful there.

I don't think that's something you want to make criminal, you know, on its own.

The mere ask to say, you know, "I want you to not certify the results."

It doesn't necessarily mean that it was a violation of the criminal law.

It depends on context and whatever other evidence the government has.

>> Whether or not a particular act that the president is alleged to have engaged in is in and of itself a crime isn't really going to be the question at that trial.

It's going to be whether that act was in furtherance of a criminal objective.

All of these acts, all of the things that we've been talking about, they don't have to be illegal in and of themselves.

The crime is a conspiracy to defraud the United States.

♪ ♪ >> There's a lot of anticipation for today's hearings.

The committee says it will present newly obtained evidence and testimony.

>> NARRATOR: In the midst of the January 6th committee's hearings, a dramatic moment.

>> Live testimony from a White House advisor who was right there in the West Wing on January 6.

>> NARRATOR: A surprise witness.

>> During the Watergate hearings there was only one surprise witness-- it was Alexander Butterfield, while in the January 6 hearings, the surprise witness is Cassidy Hutchinson.

>> NARRATOR: Cassidy Hutchinson: a 25-year-old White House staffer.

>> The most intimidating thing is all those cameras sitting one foot from her face taking pictures of her.

(camera flash pops) >> This is a young woman standing in a setting that could almost feel amphitheatrical.

♪ ♪ >> I was with Cassidy on the day of her testimony.

During it, I'm sitting behind her.

She was incredibly nervous, I think like any normal person would be to do this.

There was a time beforehand where she wanted to back out.

Because it was really scary to go up against the president of the United States, and speak the truth, is something that only a few people will know.

>> She was a hardcore Trump loyalist.

And she's getting ready to destroy the tribe that she gets her identity from.

I've been there, right.

I've been in that moment.

It was pretty awe-inspiring to be quite honest with you.

>> I will now swear in our witness.

>> Knowing how Trump had become so intimidating a person for people who crossed him, and this one young woman, doing what so many other much older, frequently male staffers wouldn't do, which is come forward and testifying truthfully under oath.

>> ...the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

>> (inaudible) >> Thank you, you may be seated.

>> NARRATOR: Inside the White House, Hutchinson had been a top aide to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and in the room during key events the committee was investigating.

>> Hutchinson was a crucial witness in terms of helping to shine a light on the president's state of mind because so few people were capable of doing that.

>> NARRATOR: Hutchinson revealed details about Trump's plans for January 6.

>> On January 2, four days before the attack on our Capitol, President Trump's lead lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, was meeting with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others.

Ms. Hutchinson, we understand that you walked Mr. Giuliani out of the White House that night, and he talked to you about January 6.

What do you remember him saying?

>> As Mr. Giuliani and I were walking to his vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of, "Cass, are you excited for the sixth?

It's going to be a great day."

I remember looking at him saying, "Rudy, could you explain what's happening on the sixth?"

And he had responded something to the effect of, "We're going to the Capitol.

"It's going to be great.

"The president's going to be there.

He's going to look powerful."

>> She clearly had nothing to gain by doing it.

She was telling the truth as she saw it.

This poised, composed young woman with no obvious axe to grind as she's telling her story, it's the most powerful moment I think in the entire hearings.

>> And I found Mr. Meadows in his office, scrolling through his phone.

I remember leaning against the doorway and saying, "I just had an interesting conversation with Rudy, Mark.

It sounds like we're going to go to the Capitol."

He didn't look up from his phone, and said something to the effect of, "There's a lot going on, Cass, but I don't know, things might get real, real bad on January 6."

>> (crowd chanting): U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

>> Tensions are running high.

30,000 supporters of the president are gathering right now.

They're having what they're calling a "Stop the Steal" rally.

>> NARRATOR: And on January 6, Hutchinson was in the president's inner circle.

>> I think the campaign is aware that January 6 would be the last stand.

Once that certification happens on the sixth, that it's really over.

(siren blaring) >> Miss Hutchinson, did you go to the rally in the presidential motorcade?

>> I, I was there, yes.

(siren blaring) >> And were you backstage with the president and other members of his staff and family?

>> I was.

>> NARRATOR: It was in the tent backstage that Hutchinson heard crucial evidence of what Trump knew about the potential for violence that day.

>> (on video): When we were in the offstage announce area tent behind the stage he was very concerned about the shots-- meaning the photographs that we would get because the rally space wasn't full.

>> The former president was unhappy with the crowd size.

We learned that some of the crowd size inside the barricade was due to the fact that people were unwilling to pass through the magnetometers, presumably because they had, they were carrying contraband weapons.

>> Several thousand members of the crowd who refused to go through the mags watched from the lawn near the Washington Monument.

(cheers and applause) >> I overheard the president say something to the effect of "You know, I don't effing care that they have weapons, "they're not here to hurt me, take the effing mags away.

"Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here.

Let the people in, take the effing mags away."

>> There was awareness that there were weapons in that crowd, and that Trump didn't care because, as he put it, "They're not here for me."

Uh, which begs the question-- well, who were they here for?

♪ ♪ (cheers and applause) >> Let's reflect on that for a moment.

President Trump was aware that a number of the individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor.

And here's what President Trump instructed the crowd to do.

>> (on video): We're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down, anyone you want, but I think right here-- we're going to walk down to the Capitol.

(cheers and applause) >> (crowd chanting): Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

>> And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.

(cheers and applause) >> He told them to fight over and over and over again.

And he told them if they don't fight, you're not going to have a country anymore.

What could be more existential to his supporters than, "If I don't fight here and now, America's gone"?

That's what he's telling them.

>> NARRATOR: And he focused the crowd on his last hope for overturning the election-- Mike Pence.

>> And Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country.

>> He has not been able to convince Pence directly, but he's seeing the crowd for him there, and he was willing to continue the pressure campaign with an army.

>> And if you're not, I'm gonna be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now.

>> Look at that speech at how many times he invokes the name Mike Pence.

Over and over and over again.

He is telling that crowd not once, not twice, not three times, but many times that the thing they want most, which is to keep Joe Biden from becoming president, that the one person that can make it happen is Mike Pence.

>> Because you'll never take back our country with weakness.

You have to show strength and you have to be strong.

>> (crowd chanting): Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

>> It's important not just to focus on what he said, but on the entire context-- the way he had been spreading the big lie, that he had gathered people together, that he called the mob to Washington, D.C., for January 6, specifically for this moment.

This was sponsored by the president of the United States who had lied to his own supporters and convinced them that something could happen on January 6 that would change the outcome of the election.

>> NARRATOR: While the special counsel did not directly charge Trump with inciting violence, prosecutors have pointed to his speech repeatedly.

>> "That day was the culmination "of the defendant's criminal conspiracies "to overturn the legitimate results "of the presidential election, "when the defendant directed a large and angry crowd "to the Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding."

>> The first amendment standard for incitement is extremely difficult to reach.

But what the special counsel does instead is wrap it into the concept of obstruction.

That Trump is whipping up the crowd in order to obstruct what's going on in the Senate.

>> So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

>> That's the way you build the outrage over the speech, over the riot, into causes of action into criminal charges that the special counsel knows that he can prove.

>> NARRATOR: Donald Trump has insisted that his speech that day was "totally appropriate" and called the crowd "peaceful people."

And his defenders question whether a jury should sit in judgment of a president's speech at all.

>> I do not find that charge to be sustainable, irrespective of whether a jury could return a verdict on it.

I do not find that charge to be sustainable on appeal for First Amendment reasons.

I just... that's a bad idea.

You don't like what happened there, about what the president said, remove him from office.

Okay?

Don't elect him president of the United States ever again.

That's the solution to that one.

>> I do understand the argument that prosecuting a president criminally is incredibly divisive.

But the Constitution as it currently stands, and federal statutes as they currently stand, do not exempt the president from the operation of law.

If you don't believe the president should be subject to law, amend the Constitution.

But until it's amended, the president is a citizen, just like the rest of us.

♪ ♪ (crowd cheering) >> NARRATOR: For the January 6th committee, a crucial question... >> What exactly was our commander-in-chief doing during the hours of violence?

Today we address precisely that issue, and I now recognize the gentlewoman from Virginia.

>> From the time when President Trump ended his speech, until the moment when he finally told the mob to go home, a span of 187 minutes-- more than three hours-- what you will learn... >> So Elaine Luria and I decided that to lead the 187-minute hearing because we were both veterans on the committee.

Elaine and I had taken the oath twice, as a member of Congress and as a military member.

And I think it was important for us to just hopefully express that outrage of how there are people that are willing to die for this country, and this guy couldn't even follow through on his basic oath to defend the constitutional branch of government.

>> Here's what'll be clear by the end of this hearing; President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home.

He chose not to act.

(crowd cheering) >> NARRATOR: The 187 minutes began as Trump left the stage and demanded that his motorcade drive him to the Capitol.

>> The president was still adamant to go to the Capitol, but his Secret Service detail was equally determined to not let him go.

That led to a heated argument with the detail that delayed the departure of the motorcade to the White House.

>> NARRATOR: Later, Cassidy Hutchinson heard reports about what happened.

>> So once the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby Engel, who was the head of Mr. Trump's security detail, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol.

And when Bobby had relayed to him, "We're not, "we don't have the assets to do it, it's not secure, we're going back to the West Wing," the president had a very strong, a very angry response to that.

The president said something to the effect of, "I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now."

To which Bobby responded, "Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing."

(siren blaring) >> He saw this crowd and he wanted to participate in some manner, whether it was leading the crowd, or being part of the crowd, or going but, certainly, there was only a level of frustration when he was told that he couldn't.

That he was so focused on disrupting the joint session that day, he himself wanted to go.

(siren blaring) >> NARRATOR: When he couldn't go to the Capitol with the crowd, the president returned to the White House.

>> In some ways, the most telling portrayal of the president and his intent here is not what happens in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol, but what he does or doesn't do when it's taking place, and in the aftermath of it.

>> President Trump went to the private dining room off of the Oval Office.

Witnesses told us that on January 6, President Trump sat in his usual spot, at the head of the table, facing a television hanging on the wall.

We know from the employee that the TV was tuned to Fox News all afternoon.

>> This is real, it's happening on Capitol Hill, we're trying to get some ground truth to exactly what's happening on the ground.

To your point broadly... >> He's in that little private dining room off the Oval Office, the TV is on, he's watching it take place.

He knows what's happening, he understands what's happening, and his instinct is to, in effect, egg them on.

>> At 1:49, he tweeted out a link to the recording of his Ellipse speech.

This was the same speech in which he knowingly sent an armed mob to the Capitol, but President Trump made no comment about the lawlessness and the violence.

>> They are locking down the Capitol complex, no one is allowed in or out.

>> The White House is just in shock, many of them testified that they tried to get the president to take some sort of action to get the crowd to leave the Capitol.

>> NARRATOR: White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was one of Trump's advisors urging action.

>> These aides and lawyers rushing into this private dining room, trying to get him to do something, trying to get him to speak out, trying to get him to stop the attack-- and he won't do it.

>> He was enjoying this.

These were his people.

He loved them.

And they were accomplishing something that he wanted to have accomplished, which was to delay and derail the certification of this election.

>> NARRATOR: The committee saw it as evidence of what the president had been planning all along.

>> It says volumes about the president's intent.

It suggests that the president is reluctant to call this off, that he sees his people fighting as a potentially positive thing.

His own daughter is encouraging him to more forcefully stop the violence.

And the fact that he does not, for hours, after being aware of the violence, tell people to go home, really, really powerful evidence of his intent.

>> Now, look at what you've got now-- you have protesters inside the Capitol Building.

The other big question is, where is the vice president?

>> (on video): Hold, hold-- >> NARRATOR: The Secret Service rushed Pence away from the crowd.

>> NARRATOR: With the Capitol overrun, the president fired off a tweet about this vice president.

>> (dramatized): Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done... >> "To protect our country and our Constitution."

>> Is that true?

I'm hearing, I'm hearing reports that Pence caved, I'm telling you, if Pence caved, we're gonna drag mother (bleep) through the streets.

>> As that tweet goes out at 2:24pm, his supporters see it, and there is an intense surge in the rioting-- that tweet threw fuel on the fire.

(shouting, air horn blaring) >> Mike Pence has betrayed the United States of America!

(crowd booing) >> (crowd chanting): Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

>> The mob goes down there, to the Capitol and chants, "Hang Mike Pence!"

And they actually build a gallows out in front of the Capitol, I mean, they meant it.

♪ ♪ >> I can only imagine what Mike Pence must have thought when the full weight of the betrayal must have become so palpable for him.

When he must have thought, "It has come to this, "that the one moment as vice president "where I have stood on principle, "I am being treated as the enemy.

"And they've come for me.

And the president is attacking me."

Not only is he not calling to say, "Are you okay?"

He's egging it on.

It's, it is, it is an amazing moment.

(bird cawing) >> NARRATOR: At the White House, Pat Cipollone was growing concerned for the vice president.

>> I remember Pat saying, "Mark, we need to do something more.

"They're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung."

And Mark had responded something to the effect of, "You heard him, Pat.

"He thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."

>> When the crowd is chanting "Hang Mike Pence" he says, "Well, maybe our people have it right.

Maybe Mike deserves it."

>> But there are people inside the actual... >> Donald Trump embraced the whirlwind on January 6.

>> And both the House and Senate... >> He, in his speech at the Ellipse, in his tweets afterwards, in his indifference to the pleas of his family and advisors to do something more, to call them up, he seemed to revel in the chaos and violence that he himself had unleashed.

>> (crowd chanting): Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

>> Copy, clear.

We're coming out now, all right, make the way.

>> We had the footage from inside the Capitol where Pence is rushed down the steps by his Secret Service detail along with his family.

>> Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

>> To his credit, he did not take the Secret Service advice and leave the Capitol.

He stayed, he provided direction to what was going on.

He offered the stability at the moment that the president refused to do.

>> NARRATOR: Finally, police began to regain control of the Capitol.

>> The Capitol grounds have been secure, police had to use tear gas.

>> Troops are deployed around the Capitol perimeter to prevent any more violence of what we saw this afternoon.

>> Good, Chase?

>> Yeah.

>> When you're ready, sir.

>> President Trump finally gave in, and went out to the Rose Garden at 4:03.

>> You tell me when.

>> When you're ready, sir.

>> For 187 minutes, he was sitting there watching the news wondering if his people would win.

Until he saw that law enforcement had turned the tide, and only when law enforcement turned the tide did he then begrudgingly try to cover his backside and look like he was against the violence in the first place.

>> Who's, who's behind me?

>> He's gone, he's gone around, we're all clear now.

>> I know your pain, I know your hurt, we had a election... Let me say...

I know your pain, I know your hurt.

We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election, and everyone knows it.

Especially the other side.

But you have to go home now, we have to have peace.

We to have order.

>> When he ultimately issues this video, this isn't a guy who was apologetic for any of this, this isn't somebody who says, "Oops, this is, this has gone awry, this has gone too far."

Quite the opposite.

>> So go home, we love you, you're very special, I know how you feel.

But go home, and go home in peace.

>> "We love you, you are special."

These are people that have assaulted the U.S. Capitol Building, have attacked Capitol police officers, are trying to stop the proceedings of Congress.

And Trump does tell them to go home, but then immediately adds, "We love you, you are special."

♪ ♪ (bird caws, sirens wailing) >> NARRATOR: Special Counsel Jack Smith has cited those 187 minutes in his conspiracy case against Trump.

>> "The defendant's knowing and corrupt intent "is clear from his actions, and purposeful inaction, during the attack on the Capitol."

>> The prosecutor is going to show that as, he got the result he hoped for-- a big scene, a riot.

And then, of course, he wasn't going to do anything to stop the riot because he had use to make of it.

And that use was to use the people's fear to try to get them to do what he wanted.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: After more than a year, the January 6th select committee issued criminal referrals against Donald Trump.

>> For the first time in American history, Congress has referred a former president to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.

>> NARRATOR: Jack Smith's indictment followed.

>> A first in U.S. history, a former president criminally charged with what... >> Special Counsel Jack Smith called the January 6th attack on the Capitol "an attack that was fueled by lies."

>> NARRATOR: The criminal indictment contained it all: the false claims of fraud, the demands on Rusty Bowers, the phone call to Secretary Raffensperger, the conspiracy theories about Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, the pressure on the Department of Justice, pushing Vice President Pence to overturn the election, and the president's actions on January 6.

But a criminal trial will be very different from the committee's hearings.

>> A committee hearing is not a federal court trial.

There's barely any rules, other than what the committee says there are.

The rules of evidence don't apply.

And they will very much apply in federal court.

There are numerous privileges and other barriers to getting in evidence that don't apply.

So you can't look at the testimony in front of the January 6th committee and assume that the same testimony can come in at trial.

The prosecutor has to figure out, "Okay, what parts of that can I get in, will the judge let me do?"

>> (chuckling): There's so not a script for this.

It's hard to imagine how it's going to play out.

Donald Trump is going to be the defendant and the candidate all wrapped into one.

It's, it's just unprecedented.

>> The State Supreme Court has ruled to remove Donald Trump from the state's 2024 ballot.

>> Trump's attorneys say that he is immune from prosecution because he was president of the United States.

>> There is a real possibility the trial will be delayed,.

The question is, how long?

>> Trump's best strategy right now is delay.

>> Donald Trump is trying to do everything possible to delay this trial until after the election.

>> Because he's a very unusual defendant in terms of his potential power.

If he wins the election, he can just order the D.O.J.

to drop the case entirely.

So he has an enormous personal incentive to win the presidency just to get himself out of legal jeopardy.

>> Donald Trump I think understands that his best chance to avoid conviction and stay out of jail is to return to the White House.

>> NARRATOR: Trump's defense is aimed not just at the courts, but also the voters.

>> About six in ten Republican voters believe that the 2020 election was stolen.

>> Republican voters don't believe January 6 was that big of a deal.

>> NARRATOR: Now a looming prosecution, a presidential election, democracy on trial.

>> The 2024 election is one where American democracy very much is on the table.

>> From the rule of law to American democracy itself, too much is at stake.

♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline For the latest transparency project, see extended interviews from the film.

>> The thing we needed to do was tell that to the American people in a compelling way.

>> I know somebody just like those two ladies in my community.

>> I wanted him to win, okay so what?

I’m not gonna cheat.

>> That’s why there’s a first amendment.

>> Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, and stream anytime on the PBS App, Youtube or pbs.org/frontline.

>> Russians haCaptioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "Democracy on Trial" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪