Trump Camp Split into 'Team Normal' and 'Team Crazy'

Donald Trump's former campaign manager said Trump's team split into two camps after the 2020 presidential election: "Team Crazy" and "Team Normal."

Bill Stepien was among the many advisers who dismissed Trump's claims of voter fraud and cautioned the president to not claim victory too early.

He told the House Select Committee on January 6 in a video deposition that he was part of "Team Normal," while people like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell—allegedly referred to as "Team Crazy"—routinely pushed unfounded claims of voter fraud.

"I didn't mind being characterized as being part of 'Team Normal,' as reporters kind of started to do around that point in time," Stepien said in a clip from his deposition played during Monday's hearing. "I didn't think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time."

A group of advisers told Trump on election night that he should not yet declare victory, as ballots were still being counted across the country. Those advisers were ostracized by Trump in the days after the election.

While Stepien did not say who else was part of "Team Normal," senior adviser Jason Miller and former Attorney General Bill Barr both testified Monday that they were at odds with Trump embracing false claims.

Some Fundraising Money Went to Trump Family, Lofgren Says

Kimberly Guilfoyle received a speaking fee of $60,000 for appearing at the January 6 rally at the Ellipse, Representative Zoe Lofgren of California told CNN on Monday.

The money came from fundraising dollars former President Donald Trump's campaign raised between election night in 2020 and the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Lofgren said.

During the second day of the committee's public hearings, Lofgren said Trump's campaign and its surrogates "misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for."

She referred to the campaign's fundraising tactics as "the big rip-off."

Speaking later with CNN, Lofgren said the committee had evidence that some members of Trump's family benefitted from the tactics, including Donald Trump Jr.'s partner.

According to a tweet by CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane, the speaking fee that Lofgren said Guilfoyle received equates to about $400 for every second she spoke that day at the Ellipse.

AG Garland Says DOJ Investigators 'Will Follow the Facts'

Attorney General Merrick Garland said he is watching the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 hearings.

"I will be watching all the hearings," he said during a press briefing Monday. "I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching all the hearings as well."

Garland said he cannot share his personal responses to the hearings or the evidence presented because of the long-standing Justice Department position of not commenting on ongoing investigations. He said that's done to protect the "viability" of the investigations and because "it is the right thing to do" with respect to the civil liberties of the people under investigation.

Justice Department investigations proceed "quietly and in secret" to ensure truthful answers from witnesses, protect those not charged and to preserve the proceedings of the over 800 people who have been charged connected to the Capitol riot.

Garland said the investigation is proceeding based on "facts and the law," adding that the investigation is not being obstructed "in any way."

"There is nothing that's coming in the way of our investigation," he said. "We are proceeding with full urgency...to hold all perpetrators who are criminally responsible for January 6 accountable regardless of their level, their position and regardless of whether they were present at the events of January 6."

He added that the DOJ will "follow the facts wherever they lead."

Giuliani Denies Election Night Intoxication Reports

An attorney for Rudy Giuliani denied allegations that the former attorney for former President Donald Trump was intoxicated on the night of the 2020 presidential election.

The subject came up more than once on Monday as the House Jan. 6 Committee presented its second day of public hearings.

Giuliani's alleged intoxication was first mentioned by Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming during her opening statement. The committee's vice chair said Trump knew before Election Day that the counting of mail-in ballots would not be completed by the end of the day and that he ignored advice from his campaign officials when he decided to make a statement about the status of the election that night.

Previewing the day's hearing, Cheney said viewers would "hear testimony that President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night, and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani, to just claim he won, and insist that the vote counting stop—to falsely claim everything was fraudulent."

Giuliani's alleged inebriation the night of the election was brought up again when the committee played recorded testimony from former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller. Miller said he had dissuaded the president from declaring victory in the election that evening but that a "definitely intoxicated" Giuliani had encouraged Trump to do so.

Later Monday, CNN correspondent Kara Scannell said on Twitter that Giuliani's attorney, Robert Costello, denied reports that Giuliani was inebriated the night of the 2020 election.

"Giuliani denies all falsehoods by the angry and misguided Ms Cheney," Costello said, according to a Scannell tweet.

House Republicans Call Hearing 'Another Dud'

Democratic and Republican lawmakers took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Monday's second hearing by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6.

Progressive Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said these hearing are "clearly laying out what happened" leading up to the Capitol riot.

"[Donald] Trump lost a free and fair election," she said in a tweet. "Trump started the Big Lie, which built to the violence and horror of Jan 6th."

She also said the people around Trump knew he lost the election.

Fellow progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York reiterated her calls for her Republican colleagues to disclose if they asked Trump for a pardon.

She said every member of Congress should be able to answer if they sought a pardon while in office.

"And every person in this country deserves to know if their elected official believed enough that they were committing a crime to seek one," she said in a tweet. "Kind of important info."

The Twitter account for the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee called the second hearing "another dud."

Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona continued to call the hearing and the committee a "sham" run by "partisan hypocrites."

He said it is being used by Democrats to distract Americans from the "massive failures of the Biden administration" that led to price hikes and inflation.

Representative Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma said the Democrats are focused on their "partisan witch hunt" rather than "the economy and other issues that are negatively impacting every single American."

Day 3 to Focus on Trump's Jan. 6 Planning

Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming said on Monday that the second day of public hearings presented by the House Jan. 6 Committee was "very narrowly focused" and that the committee will soon transition to explore former President Donald Trump's "broader planning for January 6."

The committee's focus will shift "in the coming days," Cheney said during her closing remarks on Monday. The committee's next public hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.

The anticipated shift in the committee's focus to the former president's plans will include "his plan to corrupt the Department of Justice" and "his detailed planning with lawyer John Eastman to pressure the vice president, state legislatures, state officials and others to overturn the election," Cheney said.

The Republican congresswoman then shared a short video clip of testimony from former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann "to preview what you will see in one of our hearings to come."

In the clip, Herschmann described a phone conversation he recalled having with Eastman the day after the Capitol riot.

"I said to him, 'Are you out of your effing mind?'" Herschmann said in the clip. "I said, 'I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth for now on: Orderly transition.'"

Trump's Post-Election Fundraising Was Big Rip-off: Lofgren

Representative Zoe Lofgren of California described fundraising efforts by former President Donald Trump's campaign as "the big rip-off" during her closing statement during Monday's hearing.

Trump "continued to push the stolen election narrative, even though he and his allies knew that their litigation efforts making the same claim had failed," Lofgren said.

She said election-related litigation typically wouldn't continue after December 14, the safe harbor day.

"If the litigation had stopped on December 14, there would have been no fight to defend the election, and no clear path to continue to raise millions of dollars," Lofgren said.

The committee then played a video presentation that broke down some of the Trump campaign's fundraising efforts during the weeks between the 2020 election and the Capitol riot. The campaign sent millions of fundraising emails during that time, and sometimes as many as 25 emails in a single day, according to the video.

For those who responded to the fundraising emails by sending in donations, Lofgren said they were not told the truth about how their money was being spent.

The Trump campaign and its surrogates "misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for," Lofgren said. "So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off."

The political donors "deserve better than what President Trump and his team did," she added.

The select committee ended its second day of hearings by playing video clips recorded the day of the riot, in which rioters explained why they were at the Capitol. The committee then adjourned for the day.

The committee will resume on Wednesday for its third day of public hearings.

Barr Calls Trump's Voter Fraud Claims 'Rubbish'

BJay Pak, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Atlanta.

Pak led the investigation into allegations that a suitcase of ballots was brought into a counting site.

Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had gone on television to talk about a video clip he called the clip the "smoking gun" for voter fraud. He said security footage showed vote counters pulling a "black suitcase full of ballots" from under a table.

Pak said his investigation found that the "black suitcase" was actually an official ballot lock box. He said the group of bipartisan vote counters were told to go home for the night. But then a state official told then they needed to stay to continue counting votes.

"Unfortunately, during the Senate hearing, Mr. Giuliani only played a clip that showed them pulling out the official ballot box from under the table," Pak said. "In actuality, in review of the entire video, it showed that it was an official ballot box that was kept underneath the tables."

He said video footage showed counters pack up, thinking they were done for the night, and then bring the ballot box back out when they were told they had to stay.

The FBI interviewed the people in Giuliani's video and found that "nothing irregular" happened in Fulton County, proving Giuliani's claims to be false.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr called claims of voter fraud in Philadelphia "absolute rubbish."

In a clip from his deposition, Barr said: "There was nothing strange about the Philadelphia turnout. When you look at the votes, there is an obvious explanation."

Barr said Trump was generally a "weak element on the Republican ticket."

"That does not suggest the election was stolen by fraud," he said.

Al Schmidt, a former Philadelphia city commissioner, told the committee that the claims about dead voters casting a ballot were untrue.

"Not only was there not evidence of 8,000 dead voters voting in Pennsylvania, there wasn't evidence of eight," he said.

Prominent Republican legal expert Ben Ginsberg said the Trump campaign did not make its case in court that there was widespread election fraud.

"The simple fact is that the Trump campaign did not make its case," he said.

Ginsberg said the 2020 election "was not close" and that a recount could not make up the deficit for Trump.

Trump lost over 60 cases brought to court after the election, he said.

"In no instance did a court find that the charges of fraud were real," Ginsberg said.

He added that in every instance of recounts and reviews in battleground states, there was "no credible evidence of fraud" produced by the Trump campaign or his supporters.

Trump Seemed 'Detached From Reality,' Barr Said

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said he "made an effort" to review specific allegations of voter fraud "to satisfy ourselves that they were without merit" following the 2020 election.

Portions of Barr's recorded video testimony were presented Monday morning during the committee's second day of hearings.

Barr said an "avalanche" of voter fraud claims accumulated after the election. He said looking into the allegations "was like playing whack-a-mole, because something would come out one day and then the next day, it would be another issue."

The early claims were "clearly bogus and silly and usually based on misinformation."

Barr said he first spoke with Trump after the election on November 23. Trump told him there "had been major fraud" and added that "as soon as the facts were out, the results of the election would be reversed."

The situation "continued to deteriorate" over the next week, Barr said. Barr then told the Associated Press on December 1 that there was "no evidence" of election fraud. When he saw Trump next, the president was "as mad as I've ever seen him," Barr said.

"I told him that the stuff that his people were shuttling out to the public was bull***t—I mean, that the claims of fraud were bull***t," Barr added.

He described the claims regarding Dominion voting machines as "idiotic." Later that month, Barr said Trump presented him with a report on the voting machines that Barr said appeared "very amateurish" with statements that Barr said were lacking supporting information.

"I was somewhat demoralized, because I thought, boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has, you know, lost contact with, he's become detached from reality, if he really believes this stuff."

Barr went on to say there "was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts are."

"My opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud. And I haven't seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that," Barr said.

Bar Says 'Red Mirage' Was Basis for Trump's Fraud Claims

Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt explained the "red mirage" that often occurs on election night.

He said Democrats prefer early mail-in voting more than Republicans. Most votes on Election Day are for Republicans, while mail-in votes tend to lean Democrat.

"Republicans win on Election Day and Democrats win early voting," Stirewalt said, adding that day-of votes are usually counted first followed by the early votes.

"When you put together a jigsaw puzzle, it doesn't matter what piece you put in first, the picture is the same," he said.

This is why Republicans tend to "go ahead" in the vote count first, Stirewalt said. That phenomenon is referred to as the "red mirage" and that it "happens every time."

"We expect Republicans to lead, but it's not really a lead," he said.

Stirewalt said his Election Day team went to great lengths to inform viewers that this would happen and that the early results numbers were "irrelevant" because they were only a small percentage of the overall votes. He added that the percentage of votes that came in by mail doubled from 2016 to 2020.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr corroborated this.

"Out of the box on election night, Trump claimed there was fraud and this happened before there was any potential evidence," Barr said in his deposition.

Barr said the basis of Trump's claim of "widespread fraud" was the large number of Democratic votes that came in later on election night, changing the vote counts in certain states.

Barr said everyone understood "for weeks "that would happen on election night."

Stirewalt added that after calling Arizona for Biden, Trump's chances of winning was "none." He said a recount would not have changed the results in any key state.

"He needed three of these states to change," Stirewalt said. "You're better off to play the Powerball than to have that come in."

Giuliani was 'Definitely Intoxicated' on Election Night

The committee played clips of recorded depositions from top advisers for Trump.

Former campaign adviser Jason Miller said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, suggested to Trump to claim victory on election night.

Campaign manager Bill Stepien said he told Trump it was "far too early" to make those calls, as early ballots were still being counted, and would be for days.

Miller told Trump he could not declare victory based on the numbers they had on election night. He added that Giuliani said those who did not agree that Trump should claim victory were "weak."

Giuliani "was definitely intoxicated" when he spoke to Trump and told the president to claim victory, Miller told the committee.

Stepien suggested Trump should tell the American people that votes were still being counted and the race was still too early to call. But Trump disagreed. The committee played a clip of Trump speaking on election night, claiming there was fraud and that he won the election.

Federal Court Found 'No Evidence' of Election Fraud

Representative Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair, said Monday during her opening remarks on the House Jan. 6 Committee's second day of hearings that a federal court has already reviewed some of the evidence the committee has collected in its investigation into January 6.

She quoted the federal court's assessment, which read in part, "in the months following the election, numerous credible sources from the president's inner circle to agency leadership and statisticians informed President Trump and Dr. Eastman that there was no evidence of election fraud."

Cheney encouraged everyone watching the Monday hearing to find the federal court's report and read it in full.

Cheney went on to preview what the second day of hearings will entail, which she said will include recorded testimony from former Attorney General Bill Barr and video testimony from a White House lawyer and the general counsel of former President Donald Trump's campaign.

"The Trump campaign legal team knew there was no legitimate argument of fraud or irregularities or anything to overturn the election," Cheney said. "And yet President Trump went ahead with his plans for January 6 anyway."

Day 3 of Hearings Scheduled for Wednesday

The House Jan. 6 Committee is scheduled to hold its third day of hearings on Wednesday.

The select committee began holding public hearings on Thursday with a prime-time event that many of the major networks covered live. The Nielsen Company said about 20 million people tuned in Thursday evening to watch the first public hearing.

The hearings continued shortly before 11 a.m. ET on Monday. The committee said on its website that the third day of hearings would take place on Wednesday, with proceedings expected to begin at 10 a.m. ET.

How to Watch Day 2 of Hearings

The House Jan. 6 Committee is expected to begin its second day of hearings shortly. The hearing was initially slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET but was delayed 30 to 45 minutes when a family emergency prevented Bill Stepien, one of Monday morning's scheduled witnesses, from being able to testify in person. An attorney for Stepien is expected to appear in his place and make a statement on his behalf, the committee said.

Ahead of Monday's hearing, the committee said on Twitter that former President Donald Trump "knew he lost the 2020 election but continued to spread false claims of election fraud."

"Trump's false claims set the stage for the violent attack on January 6," the committee added.

Most major networks aired the first day of prime-time hearings last Thursday, with the exception of Fox News, which is expected to join major networks including ABC, CBS and NBC in covering the hearings on Monday, according to CNN.

Monday's hearing will stream live on the House Jan. 6 Committee's YouTube page. C-SPAN will also air the hearing live.

Trump's Ex-Campaign Manager Will No Longer Testify

The second January 6 hearing will be delayed about 30 to 40 minutes Monday, according to the House Select Committee.

Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, will no longer testify Monday.

The Committee will not hear from Stepien due to a family emergency. He was released from his subpoena after his wife reportedly went into labor.

Stepien's counsel is expected to appear and make a statement on the record. The Committee may also play video from Stepien's recorded testimony.

What Chris Stirewalt Has Said Ahead of His Testimony

We expect to hear from Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor, later.

He was fired after correctly projected on election night in November of 2020 that the swing state of Arizona had been won by Biden, not Trump.

In December last year, Stirewalt called out former colleagues, including popular hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, saying they "created the space" that led to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Stirewalt, now NewsNation political editor, said during a segment on NewsNation's Morning in America last week that he had been asked by the U.S. House Select Committee to testify.

"I am not in a position now to tell you what my testimony will be about, I just want to make sure that folks know that I am not playing any hidden-ball tricks. I was asked to testify and I got to go," he said.

Trial for Jan. 6 Confederate-Flag Carrying Man Begins

A judge will later today hear other testimony regarding Kevin Seefried, shown below carrying a Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and his son, Hunter.

Father and son waived their right to a jury trial, which means U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden will decide their cases, AP reported.

More than 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot.

Ratings Success: Fox News Joins Prime-Time Coverage

At least 20 million people tuned in on June 9 to watch the first prime-time hearing held by the House Select Committee probing the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to preliminary data released by Nielsen on Friday.

The hearing was broadcast on most major television channels. Fox News declined to air the hearing, instead relegating coverage to secondary outlets as the channel's hosts ripped into the committee and pushed unsubstantiated claims surrounding the riot.

Here's a closer look at the network's coverage of the opening hearing.

Fox News reportedly plans to air today's hearing of the January 6 committee on its main channel.