Stephen Colbert discusses the January 6th Committee Hearings, focusing on the testimony of former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. They revealed that former President Trump pressured the Department of Justice to support his false claims of election fraud, despite a lack of evidence. Trump also asked the DOJ to seize voting machines, which was dismissed as a baseless conspiracy theory.
Colbert highlights the testimony of Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who explained that Trump's actions were an attempt to use the DOJ for his personal interests. The hearing also revealed that Trump's allies, including Rudy Giuliani, were involved in promoting conspiracy theories about election fraud.
The comedian mocks the absurdity of Trump's claims, including a conspiracy theory involving an Italian defense contractor and a satellite that allegedly switched votes from Trump to Biden. Colbert also jokes about the involvement of Jeffrey Clark, a former environmental lawyer who was proposed to lead the DOJ's election efforts, despite having no experience in criminal law.
The monologue concludes with Colbert summarizing the main points of the hearing and teasing his upcoming guests.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The January 6th Committee hearings were held to investigate the events surrounding the January 6th insurrection.
2. Liz Cheney recapped what had been seen so far in the hearings, including how President Trump persuaded tens of thousands of his supporters to travel to Washington, D.C. for January 6.
3. The committee heard from former Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue about their interactions with President Trump.
4. President Trump called Rosen on Christmas Eve to discuss the same things he was talking about publicly, which included claims of election fraud.
5. The new head of the D.O.J. told President Trump that there was absolutely no evidence that the votes were fraudulent and the election was stolen.
6. President Trump responded by asking Rosen to say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to him and the Republican congressmen.
7. The committee heard about a conspiracy theory involving an Italian defense contractor uploading software to a satellite that switched votes from Trump to Biden.
8. Republican Congressman Scott Perry forwarded a video to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who sent it to the D.O.J. commanding an investigation into the conspiracy theory.
9. The committee played a clip of the video, which showed a man claiming that an Italian defense contractor had changed the election results.
10. Acting Attorney General Rosen refused to send a letter drafted by Jeffrey Clark, claiming that the D.O.J. had evidence of massive election fraud, even though they didn't.
11. Clark convinced President Trump to give him Rosen's job as the head of the D.O.J.
12. At a meeting in the Oval Office, Donoghue expressed doubts that Clark was competent to serve as Attorney General.
13. Donoghue said that Clark had never been a criminal attorney, had never conducted a criminal investigation in his life, and was not competent to serve as Attorney General.
Note: I excluded opinions, sarcasm, and jokes from the text, focusing on factual information.