With more than a dozen of his closest allies. That is according to some news accounts. An it this come though thafternoon. The grand jury had heard from half of ten witnesses expected to testify in this case at this stage. Among those witnesses, former Georgia State representative bee wen. Present for the 2020 hearing where Rudy Giuliani pedalled false election claims an urged legislators to appoint a slate of fake trump electors. Two other witnesses who were expected to testify tomorrow have been called in as well. They include journalist george chidi, who stumbled upon a december 14th, 2020 meeting of Fake Electors, as well as Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor jeff duncan, hes a republican who has been openly critical of trumps baseless claims of fraud in the state of georgia. Signs a potential end game in fani williss Criminal Investigation into the expresident and his allies is where we begin today with our favorite reporters and friends. Former Top Justice Department official, ou
it was dismissed in less than six months. practically actually laughed out of court. now the ruling by u.s. district judge donald middlebrooks ordering trump and his attorney to cover the legal costs of the defendants in that suit is one for the ages. it is a stinging rebuke of donald trump the man and of donald trump s lies and his tried and true now legal strategy of jamming and gumming up the courts with lawsuits. it starts off like this, quote, this case never should have been brought. its inadequacy there is that word again as a legal claim was evident from the start. no reasonable lawyer would have filed it. the judge then makes it crystal clear that the ex-president himself bears responsibility for the suit. he goes on, quote, trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. he is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following
overturn the election results. that man is donald trump s top white house lawyer pat cipollone. he sat down for a transcribed interview under oath with investigators this morning. as far as we can tell, that interview or that meeting is ongoing at this hour. punch bowl news reports this about the parameters of today s testimony from cipollone, quote, sources tell us that the select committee does not have an agreement about what investigators can or cannot ask him. prior to hutchinson s testimony the panel had discussed an arrangement with cipollone for an on the record interview, but cipollone backed away from it, sources tell us. cipollone is expected to claim executive privilege over conversations he had with trump, but there is plenty that the committee is interested in outside of that category. for example, we expect cipollone will be asked about conversations with former white house chief of staff mark meadows. the possibility that cipollone could provide gamechanging i
but first, to highly this afternoon s highly anticipated fifth public hearing of the january 6 committee. we ll hear testimony from three high ranking justice department officials who led the department in the final days of the trump administration including the former acting attorney general jeffrey rosen. he will make clear the doj saw no evidence of widespread fraud sufficient to overturn the election. which unindicated that. and we ll detail how he and others resisted trump s pressure to back his babaseless claims. and also new subpoenaed issued to people from several states who acted as fake electors and other trump allies connected to the scheme to overturn the 2020 election. also new this morning, a preview of newly obtained footage from the documentary film crew that followed former president trump and his team for six months both before and after the insurrection. that preview was just released by discovery plus which is owned by cnn s parent company. watch. ok
selection loss, was a letter. mr. donahue, on december 28th, mr. clark emailed you and mr. rosen a draft letter that he wanted you to sign and send to georgia state officials. you testified that this could have grave constitutional consequences. can you tell us what you meant by that? i had to read both emails in the attached letter twice to make sure i really understood what he was proposing. it was so extreme to me, i had a hard time getting my head around it. i read it and i did understand it for what he intended. and i had to sit down and serve , compose what that was an appropriate response. i went next door to the acting ig s office. he was not there. we both had an email. he was not in his offers. i returned my office. . this is not the departments role. to suggest or dictate to state legislatures how they should select their electors. but, more importantly, this was not based on fact. this is actually contrary to the facts, as developed by the department investigati