Former Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and Byung J. Pak, former U.S. attorney in Atlanta who Trump attempted to boot before his sudden resignation, are among the newly announced list of five witnesses for the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearing on Monday.
Other witnesses scheduled to testify before the panel on Monday include Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News political editor; Ben Ginsberg, Republican-aligned election attorney; and Al Schmidt, former city commissioner of Philadelphia.
The hearing on Monday is the second in a series scheduled by the committee this month. Vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) indicated the second public hearing will zero in on Trump and his advisers’ knowledge that “he had, in fact, lost the election.” Cheney signaled the panel will make the case that Trump and his lawyers were aware they boosted election fraud falsehoods, but still proceeded to pushed the bogus claims of a “stolen” election in court. According to Cheney, Monday’s hearing will feature excerpts of testimony from Trump’s inner circle in the days after the 2020 presidential election.
Stepien, who was the final campaign manager for Trump’s presidential bid in 2020, was subpoenaed by the committee in November. In a subpoena letter by committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Stepien was described as a key player in turning the Trump campaign into a “Stop the Steal” messaging and fundraising machine.
Pak resigned on Jan. 5, 2021 over Trump’s plan to fire him for refusing to declare that the election was fraudulent, TPM first reported. Prior to his abrupt resignation for his supposed insufficient loyalty to Trump, Pak had previously indicated that he would not depart his post until Inauguration Day.
The committee’s announcement of witnesses for its public hearing on Monday comes as members of the panel claimed they have enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider a criminal indictment against the former president for his fruitless efforts to subvert the election results. Earlier this month, the DOJ declined contempt of Congress charges against former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino for defying the panel’s subpoena, hours after former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was indicted for failing to cooperate with the panel.
Appearing on ABC News, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the committee, said the panel believes the DOJ should investigate potential Jan. 6-related criminal activity by Trump.
“I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump,” Schiff said. “There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election that I don’t see evidence the Justice Department is investigating.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who also serves on the committee investigating the events surrounding Jan. 6, told CNN on Sunday that he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland is aware about “what’s at stake here” regarding a potential indictment of Trump.
“One of the conventions that was crushed during the Trump administration was respect by politicians for the independence of the law enforcement function,” Raskin said. “Attorney General Garland is my constituent, and I don’t browbeat my constituents. I think that he knows, his staff knows, US attorneys know, what’s at stake here. They know the importance of it, but I think they are rightfully paying close attention to precedent in history as well as the facts of this case.”
