CNN
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The House Jan. 6 committee on Friday released another wave of witness interview transcripts.
The new release is part of a steady stream of transcript drops the House select committee has released over the past week, complementing the release of its sweeping 845-page report.
The latest drop in the transcript comes as the panel wraps up its work with a majority of the House set to change hands from Democrats to Republicans next week at the start of the new Congress.
The transcripts released so far have shed new light on how the House committee conducted its investigation of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, and new details on what key witnesses told the panel. .
Here are some of the highlights from the latest revelations:
Trump wanted to register ‘Election Rigged!’ days after the 2020 election, emails provided to the January 6 committee show
Then-President Donald Trump wanted to trademark the phrase “Election Rigged!” days after Election Day 2020, according to emails provided by Jared Kushner to the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
On November 9, 2020, then-Trump aide Dan Scavino emailed Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, with Trump’s request.
“Hello Jared! POTUS wants to register/own rights next, I don’t know who to see, or ask… I don’t know who to take,” Scavino’s email reads, according to a transcript of Kushner’s testimony before the committee, which was released by the panel on Friday.
Two sentences were in bold in the email: “Save America PAC!” and “Rigged Election!”
Kushner sent the request and discussed it in an email chain that included Eric Trump, the president’s son; Alex Cannon, Trump campaign attorney; Sean Dollman, Trump’s 2020 campaign finance director, and Justin Clark, Trump’s campaign attorney.
“Guys, can we do it ASAP please?” Kushner writes.
Eric Trump responded by saying: “Both web URLs are already registered. Save America PAC registered on October 23 of this year. Was that done by the campaign?
Dollman replies: “’Save America PAC’ is already taken/registered, just confirming. But we can still apply for ‘Save America.’”
Kushner’s response, according to the transcript, was “Go ahead.”
Ginni Thomas explains why she was ‘disgusted’ with Pence in text sent days after January 6
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the committee that when she said she was “disgusted” with then-Vice President Mike Pence in a text message on January 10, 2021, He wasn’t referring to his refusal to stop congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory, but rather to his frustration that he doesn’t speak out about the claims of voter fraud. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.
“I was frustrated because I thought Vice President Pence might concede sooner than President Trump was inclined to do,” Thomas said, according to a transcript released Friday. “And I wanted to hear Vice President Pence talk more about fraud and wrongdoing in certain states that I thought still persisted.”
“I wasn’t focused on the vice president’s role on January 6,” she said, when specifically asked if the text, previously reported by CNN, was related to how she handled that day.
Elsewhere in the interview, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin asked Thomas what specific episodes of fraud concerned him.
“I can’t say that I was familiar with any specific evidence at the time,” she said, pointing instead to what she heard from “friends on the ground” and “grassroots activists” who had “found suspicious things” at polling places. .
“I don’t know of specific instances,” he said. “But I certainly think we all know that there are people who question what happened in 2020, and it takes time to develop an understanding of the facts.”
The committee had only limited questions about Ginni Thomas’ interactions with her husband and her role on the Supreme Court, an area she could likely decline to answer questions about, given the confidentiality allowed for married couples.
Judge Thomas had no idea he was texting Meadows, Ginni Thomas told investigators.
“He first found out about my text messages with Mark Meadows in March when I was in the hospital and this committee released them,” she said in her interview.
Ginni Thomas told the committee on January 6 that she was sorry for the text messages she sent to Mark Meadows after the 2020 election.
Ginni Thomas told the House select committee that she was sorry for the text messages she sent to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the election.
“I am sorry for the tone and content of these texts… I truly find my language unwise and my choices to send the context of these emails unfortunate,” Thomas said.
Thomas’ mea culpa to the committee, captured in a transcript of his September interview made public Friday, marks a rare moment of public reflection on one of the most intriguing avenues the House panel took, after obtaining the Meadows texts. Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, had been messaging Meadows about questioning the election results. She explained to the committee in her interview that she was concerned about an election concession before the fraud allegations were fully explored.
“It was an emotional moment. She was probably just excited,” she said, in response to direct questions from representative Adam Schiff. “Some of these are just things I was showing that were moving through the movement and I’m sorry they were made public… I certainly didn’t want my emotional text messages to a friend to be published and available.”
