Trump Raised Millions Citing 2020 Election Fraud That Aides Told Him Was False
- Second day of Jan. 6 committee hearing focuses on what he knew
- Former attorney general says Trump was ‘detached from reality’
A fundraiser image for former President Donald Trump displayed during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, on June 13.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Bloomberg
FBI agents were dispatched to run down and eventually disprove bizarre fraud claims -- including a suitcase and a truck laden with ballots -- in the wake of the 2020 election, but Donald Trump didn’t want to hear it, some of the former president’s top advisers told a U.S. House committee.
Everyone from then-Attorney General William Barr to presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner said in videotaped testimony to the panel that they advised Trump against pursuing claims the election was stolen. Yet he pressed on, raising about $250 million from supporters in fundraising appeals that Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, a committee member, said were then diverted to other purposes in a “big ripoff.”