The House Jan. 6 committee on Monday accused former President Trump of using false claims that the November 2020 election was stolen to raise millions in campaign donations.
The committee said the former president has raised $250 million from the bogus claims, with nearly $100 million pouring in during the week after the election alone.
“Not only was there the big lie, there was ‘the big rip-off,’” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat.
In its follow-up hearing to Thursday’s prime-time debut, committee members built the case on Monday that Mr. Trump knowingly peddled false claims that the election was stolen against the advice of several campaign advisers and administration officials.
In a prerecorded video aired during the hearing, the committee’s senior investigative counsel, Amanda Wick, said the Trump campaign sent millions of fundraising emails, up to 25 per day, claiming that “the left-wing mob was undermining the election,” and called on supporters to donate to an “election defense fund,” which they said did not exist.
The committee said most of the money raised following the election poured into Mr. Trump’s Save America PAC, an entity he created on Nov. 9, 2020, rather than being used for election-related litigation, despite telling donors that the funds would be used to fight election fraud.
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“Trump used the lies he told to raise millions of dollars from the American people,” Ms. Lofgren said. “These fundraising schemes were also part of the effort to disseminate the false claims of election fraud.”
“Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going,” she said. “They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did.”
The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, will hold several hearings this week and next on its investigation into the 2021 Capitol riot.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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