Jan. 6 hearing makes case Trump at 'center' of 'conspiracy' to overturn election

Using taped testimony from Trump officials including Attorney General Bill Barr and campaign attorney Alex Cannon, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and his team were well aware that he lost the election but still carried out a plot to stay in power.

"In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and his advisers knew that he had in fact lost the election," Cheney said, explaining how the committee will lay out its case. "But despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him."

In a video clip from an interview with Barr, Trump's attorney general said he "repeatedly told the president, in no uncertain terms, that I did not see evidence of fraud and -- you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election."

The committee also aired a taped interview with Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump commenting on Barr's statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election.

"It affected my perspective," Ivanka said of Barr's assessment. "I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying."

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said Americans will learn new details about what Trump was doing before, during and after the attack at the Capitol in his effort to remain in power despite his 2020 election loss.

"Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power," she said.

The Wyoming Republican asserted Trump told his staff during the riot that it's what people "should be doing" and that he agreed with protesters urging violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.

After the dust settled, Cheney said, Trump continued to ignore the statements from the Department of Justice, election officials and his own staff telling him the election result was legitimate.

"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack," she said in her opening statement.

In his opening statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson -- looking directly at the camera -- called Jan. 6 an "attempt to undermine the will of the people" and "only the beginning of what became a sprawling multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election."

"Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, and ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down Capitol and subvert American democracy," he said.

Thompson said the attack on the Capitol was "the culmination of an attempted coup" and a "brazen attempt ... to overthrow the government"

"The violence was no accident," he said. "It represents President Trump's last stand, his most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power."

Chairman Bennie Thompson has gaveled in the committee's first prime-time hearing intended to "remind you of the reality of what happened that day."

"But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger," Thompson will say in his opening statement, according to an excerpt released by the committee. "The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over."

Americans will hear live testimony from a Capitol Police officer and documentarian who were on the scene of the attack and watch never-before-seen video footage in a rare congressional hearing made for television.