WASHINGTON - The congressional hearings into the US Capitol assault were set to focus Monday on Donald Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which fueled the anger investigators say led to the deadly insurrection.
Trump started pushing what came to be known as his "Big Lie" around 2:30 am on November 4, 2020, making baseless allegations of fraud and prematurely declaring victory in an election he ultimately lost to Joe Biden by seven million votes.
The committee says it will show how that initial claim grew quickly into a conspiracy to cling to power by Trump and his inner circle, even though they knew he'd lost.
The defeated former president, his fundraising organization and the Republican National Committee raised a fortune pushing bogus election fraud claims, investigators say.
"We will hear from witnesses... who will talk about the fact that the former president didn't have the numbers to win, that he was told again and again that he didn't have the numbers to win," a committee aide said.
"We will reveal information about how the former president's political apparatus used these lies about fraud about a stolen election to drive fundraising, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars between Election Day 2020 and January 6," 2021, the aide added.
The committee suffered a setback, however, when its star witness, Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, canceled his appearance due to a "family emergency" -- his wife reportedly went into labor.
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