Mockery of justice: Former US Prez Donald Trump slams US Congress probe into Capitol Hill riots

Former US President Donald Trump slammed the US Congress-led probe into the 2021 Capitol Hill riots on Monday and known as the panel a “mockery of justice” and a “Kangaroo Court hoping to distract the American people from the great pain they are experiencing.”

Trump mentioned this in his first prolonged response to the probe Monday night, with a rambling 12-page assertion.

Appearing in a pre-recorded deposition at a congressional listening to into the 2021 assault on the US Capitol, former lawyer common Bill Barr described his then-boss as having little interest in the info that debunked his groundless narrative.

“I was demoralized because I thought, boy… he’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” Barr informed the House committee investigating the January 6 revolt by supporters of Trump.

“When I went into this and would tell him how crazy some of these allegations were, there was never an indication of interest in the actual facts,” mentioned Barr, who likened addressing Trump’s avalanche of false allegations with taking part in the sport “whack-a-mole.”

Also learn: US House Committee to go public with findings of probe into January 6 Capitol riots

The panel is holding six hearings all through June to stipulate its case that the riot on the seat of US democracy in Washington was the fruits of a seven-step conspiracy by Trump and his internal circle to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden.

Trump ignored repeated warnings from high aides towards falsely claiming the November 2020 election was stolen, based on testimony unveiled by the panel.

“We will tell the story of how Donald Trump lost the election — and knew he lost the election — and as a result of his loss, decided to wage an attack on our democracy,” the committee’s Democratic chairman Bennie Thompson mentioned in his opening remarks.

The second of six deliberate hearings was proven videotaped accounts from the previous president’s advisors, together with Barr and marketing campaign supervisor Bill Stepien, saying they repeatedly endorsed him to not declare victory on election night time as a result of he hadn’t gained — however that Trump went forward anyway.

“He thought I was wrong, he told me so, and that they were going to go in a different direction,” Stepien mentioned.

‘FAR FLUNG CONSPIRACIES’

Thompson’s deputy on the panel, Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, mentioned Trump selected to take heed to the recommendation of “apparently inebriated” former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani “to just claim he won, and insist that the vote counting stop — to falsely claim everything was fraudulent.”

Trump began pushing what got here to be referred to as his “Big Lie” round 2:30 am on November 4, 2020, prematurely declaring victory on the night time of an election he in the end misplaced to Biden by seven million votes.

Barr mentioned in his testimony that Trump claimed main fraud “right out of the box on election night… before there was actually any potential of looking at evidence.”

Giuliani and associates together with the lawyer Sidney Powell would go on to push debunked theories of huge voter fraud that put them at odds with the White House attorneys Stepien known as “Team Normal.”

Cheney highlighted “far-flung conspiracies” — dismissed as “nonsense” by Barr — of fraud involving voting machines “with a deceased Venezuelan Communist allegedly pulling the strings.”

Trump repeated a lot of unfounded claims in his assertion late Monday.

“Democrats created the narrative of January 6th to detract from the much larger and more important truth that the 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen,” he mentioned.

‘BIG RIP-OFF’

The committee says the preliminary declare of fraud grew rapidly right into a conspiracy to cling to energy by Trump and his internal circle — and a fundraising marketing campaign that raised $250 million between election night time and the Capitol revolt.

The committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick mentioned a lot of the money was funneled right into a political motion committee that made donations to pro-Trump organizations.

“As early as April 2020, Trump claimed that the only way he could lose an election would be as a result of fraud,” Democratic panel member Zoe Lofgren mentioned.

“The big lie was also a big rip-off,” she mentioned, promising to indicate how the Trump marketing campaign raised tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} from supporters who have been falsely led to imagine their donations can be used for the authorized combat over fraud claims.

All however one of many 62 lawsuits filed by the Trump marketing campaign have been dismissed — the overwhelming majority by Republican-appointed judges — whereas the one which was upheld did not have an effect on the end result.

Powell filed 4 federal lawsuits in staunchly Democratic cities that have been all rejected as frivolous and, in Detroit, a decide ordered that she face sanctions for a “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”