Five people are expected to testify publicly in today’s hearing investigating the January 6 insurrection. The focus will be on “the decision by the former president to ignore the will of the voters, declare victory on the election he lost, spread claims of fraud and then decide to ignore the rulings of the courts when the judgment of the courts didn’t go his way,” according to committee aides.
Who are the witnesses?
There will be two panels of witnesses. The first panel will be Bill Stepien and Chris Stirewalt.
Bill Stepien served as Trump’s 2020 campaign manager from July 2020 through the election. He served as deputy manager under Brad Parscale before July. Stepien reportedly “supervised the conversion” within Trump’s campaign around “Stop the Steal” messaging and associated fundraising.
Stepien has ties to establishment GOP, working on campaigns for Chris Christie, John McCain, George W. Bush, and Rudy Giuliani.
Currently Stepien is currently an advisor to Harriet Hageman, the Trump-endorsed candidate running against Liz Cheney in Wyoming.
Chris Stirewalt was working for Fox News when the network decided to call the Arizona election for Biden on election night. Stirewalt was subsequently fired, and has since been critical of the media coverage of Trump.
During an interview on Friday, Stirewalt said the hope is that following the hearings, people are “clear eyed and sturdy footed knowing that we can keep our constitutional system in place.”
The second panel will be Ben Ginsberg, BJay Pak, and Al Schmidt.
Ben Ginsberg is an election lawyer. A conservative Republican, Ginsberg is expected to testify that there was no widespread fraud in the election, and about the failed court cases filed by the Trump team.
Ginsberg played a critical role in the election recount in Florida in 2000.
BJay Pak is also a lawyer. Pak was the former US attorney for the North District of Georgia, and he left his position just days before the attack on the Capitol in January. Pak was pressured by Trump to pursue false allegations of election fraud, and had learned that Trump was about to fire him.
Al Schmidt is the former City Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia. In November 2020, Trump accused Schmidt of ignoring “a mountain of corruption and dishonesty” when Philadelphia helped to push Pennsylvania over the electoral count to elect Biden.