Trump Had ‘Premeditated’ Plan to Overturn Election Before He Even Lost, Jan. 6 Committee Says

Jan. 6 Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) said Thursday that Donald Trump was the “central cause” of what happened on Jan. 6, and that he “was personally and substantially involved in all of it.”

In her opening remarks, she added that Trump had a “premeditated” plan to overturn the election … before the election results even came in.

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Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) elaborated on the plan, which “declare victory before any of the results had been determined.” She added that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said that Trump planned “as early as July” to declare victory even if he lost. The committee played audio of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon laying out a similar plan. “When you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm.”

The committee’s ninth and — the committee says — final hearing has been expected to cover not only Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election ahead of Jan. 6, but his continuing efforts to subvert democracy since leaving the White House.

The committee has also been expected to detail the potential role of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, as well as what the Secret Service did and did not do on Jan. 6. NBC News reported earlier this week that the committee obtained over one million electronic communications from the agency from prior to and on the day of the riot.

The committee in previous hearings revealed plenty about the former president’s push to stay in power in the weeks leading up to the riot, noting that he was personally involved in the reach-out to state officials in an attempt to get them to work with state legislatures to reverse President Biden’s win. “According to federal district Judge David Carter, President Trump and others likely violated multiple federal laws by engaging in this scheme, including conspiracy to defraud the United States,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said during a hearing in June.

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