Monday 13 June 2022 08:22 PM Rudy Giuliani rages at 'hysterical' Liz Cheney and the January 6 committee trends now
Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani raged at the January 6 committee on Monday, claiming lawmakers 'have no case' as they were presenting evidence in their second of six hearings.
The event largely focused on Giuliani's role in pushing Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
'They have no case,' the former New York City mayor said on Trump adviser Steve Bannon's War Room podcast. 'This is a follow-up to Russian collusion, Ukrainian conversation - the millions of hours they’ve spent trying to find a crime on Donald Trump and can’t do it.'
'They started this frame about five years ago. It’s the same cast of characters - Bennie Thompson, and shifty [Adam] Schiff, you see [Eric] Swalwell, not on the committee, but in the background.'
He went on to say that the committee's Vice Chair Liz Cheney was 'hysterical' and had 'gone off the deep end' - though he appeared to confuse her momentarily with sister Mary Cheney.
Cheney said during her opening statement that Trump 'rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night' in favor of advice from 'an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani' who told him to declare victory that night and insist the vote count be stopped 'to falsely claim everything was fraudulent.'
Giuliani denied the assertion that he was drunk through his lawyer - despite multiple former Trump advisers being shown to have made the claim.
'Giuliani denies all falsehoods by the angry and misguided Ms Cheney,' his attorney told CNN.
During Bannon's podcast Giuliani called lawmakers on the committee 'criminals' and claimed they were simply trying to 'frame Trump for something he didn't do.'
Newly-revealed video shows multiple Trump advisers were concerned about the veracity of the former mayor's election fraud claims and expressed as much to the ex-president - who shrugged them all off.
Trump dismissed Jared Kushner's concerns about Rudy Giuliani's election fraud claims, the January 6 committee revealed in its second of six hearings on Monday.
The Democrat-led panel opened the hearing with videotaped depositions of Trump's advisers claiming he declared a premature victory on election night 2020 on the advise of a drunk Giuliani.
The panel played audio of its investigators asking Kushner, for instance, what he said about the former New York City mayor's claims that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a vast conspiracy to rig its voting machines against Trump.
'Uh, basically, not the approach I would take if I was you,' Kushner said he told his father-in-law.
Trump insisted 'I have confidence in Rudy,' Kushner claimed.
Advisers' testimonies indicate that it was apparent within hours on election night that the vote count would take several days.
Rudy Giuliani appeared on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's podcast just as the January 6 committee was holding its second hearing
Rep. Liz Cheney said during her opening statement that Trump 'rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night' in favor of advice from 'an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani'
They were aware it could stretch from 'very early on,' according to his daughter and former White House adviser Ivanka Trump.
Lawmakers are suggesting that Trump's aides were concerned and dismissive of the election fraud claims being pushed by some of his allies, and that the former president continued pushing them despite warnings from both family and associates.
Cheney said at the outset of the hearing: 'Pay attention to what Donald Trump and his legal team said repeatedly about Dominion voting machines, far-flung conspiracies with a deceased Venezuelan communist allegedly pulling the strings.'
Former White House attorney Eric Herschmann said on video: 'What they were proposing, I thought, was nuts.'
'And then the theory was also completely nuts. It was a combination of Italians and Germans, I mean, different things have been floating around as to who was involved - I remember Hugo Chavez, and the Venezuelans, and she has an affidavit from somebody who says they wrote a software or something in the Philippines. It was just all over the radar,' Herschmann said.
Barr said he told the president that the election fraud theories he and Giuliani were pushing were 'crazy stuff' and that 'they were wasting their time on and doing a great, great disservice to the country.'
He claimed the former president's fraud claims came 'right out of the box on election night' in the previously unseen video.
Playing a video deposition from the former New York Mayor himself, Giuliani takes a large sip of water before answering that 'yes' he was at the White House residence in the early morning hours of November 4.
The committee showed videotaped testimony by Rudy Giuliani himself admitting that he spoke with Trump 'several times' on election night, when multiple advisers told lawmakers that the former NYC mayor urged Trump to declare a premature victory
Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump told the committee that it became 'increasingly clear' on election night that the vote count would extend for several days
President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner testified to investigators that he told the then-president he doubted Giuliani's election fraud theories
Former Attorney General Bill Barr said he told the president that the election fraud theories he and Giuliani were pushing were 'crazy stuff'
'It went over beyond midnight, yes,' Giuliani said.
The panel also played video from the deposition of former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who dropped out of the hearing at the last minute after his wife went into labor.
Stepien told House investigators that he had heard Giuliani was 'upstairs' in a reception area looking to 'talk to the president.'
He recalled huddling with former Trump adviser Jason Miller, Justin Clarke and ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows 'to listen to whatever Rudy presumably wanted to say to the president.'
Miller was asked if he observed anyone in that meeting had too much to drink - to which he named Giuliani as well.
Asked if he himself recalled the meeting, Giuliani told House investigators: 'I - I - I mean I spoke to the president. They may have been present. But I spoke to the president several times that night.'
Miller, however, was more direct in laying the blame at the former Trump lawyer's feet.
'There were suggestions, by I believe it was Mayor Giuliani, to go and declare victory and say that
