In the 2nd hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack, witness after witness, including advisors to former President Donald Trump, Republican lawyers and a Fox News reporter who covered the 2020 election, testified today that Donald Trump was repeatedly told, by them and others, that there was no truth to his assertions that there was fraud in the 2020 election. 

Former Attorney General William Barr said that he told Trump that his claims of fraud about the Dominion Voting machines, and other conspiracy theories, were “complete nonsense” and “crazy stuff.”

Former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue said he told Trump, “much of the info you’re getting is false.”

Trump’s lawyers, including former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who ultimately lost his license due to his lies in court, pursued several court cases challenging the election results, but many of the cases were thrown out by the judges because they were not worthy of being heard. Most of the other cases resulted in the courts determining that the claims of fraud had no merit.

On one occasion, Justice David Carter said that the effort to prove fraud in the 2020 election was, “a coup in pursuit of legal proof,” and that the former president and his lawyer, John Eastman, “more likely than not committed federal crimes for their part in the January 6 insurrection.”

The 2nd session began with the testimony of  Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign chairman. He said that he told Trump on election night that it was too early to declare victory, but Trump refused to listen. 

In shocking testimony, Former Attorney General William Barr said that he discussed Trump’s suspicions of fraud with him on several occasions. In Barr’s words, “If he [Trump] really believes this stuff, he is detached from reality,” and “there was never an indication of interest [by Trump] in what the actual facts were.”

Barr said, based on the evidence, or lack of evidence, “My opinion is that the election was not lost by fraud.”

The second hearing emphasized the concerted effort by Trump and some of his team to push “The Big Lie” about election fraud, which Barr and others said was “b-s,” or nonsense. Trump made the fake claim on election night and hasn’t stopped, raising millions of dollars from his supporters.

The live hearing on Monday followed the live and riveting two hour introductory session Thursday night, which featured never before seen video from the January 6 Capitol attack, clips of testimony from key political figures, and interviews with frontline witnesses. “Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, in the introductory session. “And ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down to the Capitol and subvert American democracy.”

The hearings are chaired by Representative Bennie Thompson, and co-chairperson, Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming.

Among the voices heard Thursday night from pre-recorded testimony, were Bill Barr, Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter.

Ivanka Trump said in her interview that she agreed with Barr that her father had lost the election.

Shocking video shown Thursday night, taken by documentary filmmaker, Nick Quested, who accompanied the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers at the Capitol on January 6, revealed the plans, the movements, and the strategies, many premeditated, that resulted in frontline demonstrators breaking the barriers held by Capitol police, culminating with serious injuries to Capitol police. 

It was clear from the video that the onslaught was coordinated and planned, and many of the participants said they believed they had been “given permission” to enter the Capitol grounds by the ex-president himself. 

“What I saw was a war scene,” Caroline Edwards, one of the more than 150 officers injured in the attack, testified. “I saw officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up.

”The Justice Department has already indicted several members of the right-wing groups for seditious conspiracy.

It remains to be seen if the Justice Department will pursue indictments for any of the alleged illegal activities of the former president and his close associates.

The committee wasn’t afraid to name names. They referred to several politicians, including Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and administration staff who they have evidence assisted in the plan that the committee clearly labeled a “coup.” 

Several, including Perry, had requested pardon guarantees for their roles in their plan to overturn the election.

According to witnesses, Trump said words that indicated he was willing to allow the crowd to hang his Vice-President, Mike Pence, and said Pence deserved it. Trump denies saying this. 

The committee is determined to bring out the facts of that day, based on the testimonies of several witnesses, participants, former administration aides and staff, politicians and others. 

The second hearing ended with a statement by Representative Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, who said, “Not only was there the big lie, there was the big-ripoff.”

The live public hearings will continue over the next several weeks, on CNN and other major broadcast channels.

No matter what your political persuasion is, if you missed the opening sessions, you can watch them on YouTube or other sources, and come to your own conclusions.