Trump’s high DHS official instructed the Jan. 6 committee he would not bear in mind Trump repeatedly calling the 2020 election ‘rigged.’ Trump used the phrase ‘rigged’ in 3 tweets 24 hours after dropping the election.

• Trump official Ken Cuccinelli claims to not bear in mind Donald Trump calling the 2020 election “rigged.”

• Cuccinelli, who Trump appointed to the Division of Homeland Safety, met with the January 6 committee in 2021.

• “I’m not ready to validate that phrase,” Cuccinelli instructed investigators, in keeping with testimony launched Friday.

In a 24-hour span after dropping the 2020 election, one-term President Donald Trump used the time period “rigged” no fewer than 3 times on Twitter: “RIGGED ELECTION,” he posted. “Rigged and Corrupt Election!” he continued. And “Rigged Election Hoax!” he added for good measure.

However Ken Cuccinelli, who Trump appointed to a place on the Division of Homeland Safety — an appointment later decided to be unlawful — would not bear in mind all that, or so he claimed in a 2021 interview with investigators for the Home committee inspecting the January 6 riot.

Whereas at DHS, Cuccinelli, was one of many faces of the Trump administration’s election-security efforts. And in that position he instructed investigators he noticed no proof that China or another overseas actor was capable of change any votes solid within the 2020 election, a conspiracy principle that was pushed by one other Trump official, Jeffrey Clark, and the previous president himself.

However in his December 2021 testimony, launched Friday, he asserted that he was unfamiliar with efforts by Trump and others to undermine religion within the election.

“Is it truthful to say,” an investigator requested, “that seeds of mistrust had been sown with respect to the 2020 election — after the November 2020 election?”

“I’m not ready to say that,” Cuccinelli responded, although including that “outcomes on a state-by-state and general foundation had been being addressed aggressively from a number of totally different views.”

Cuccinelli, who beforehand served because the legal professional basic of Virginia and as a high Trump immigration official, additionally presupposed to be unfamiliar with anybody calling the election stolen.

Requested an investigator: “Are you conscious of any elected officers saying that the election was rigged within the instant aftermath of [the] November 2020 election?”

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“I do not bear in mind the quote,” Cuccinelli mentioned.

“Do you bear in mind the president making feedback alongside these strains?” the investigator continued.

Once more, Cuccinelli couldn’t recall. “I bear in mind the president expressing in sturdy phrases considerations alongside these strains, however you used a particular phrase, and I’m not ready to validate that phrase.”

In truth, Trump not solely claimed the election was “rigged” after he misplaced however earlier than any ballots had been even solid. In Could 2020, for instance, he asserted that the presidential contest could be “the best Rigged Election in historical past.”

So typically did Trump declare a “Rigged Election!” that, in keeping with an e mail from Trump aide Dan Scavino — supplied to the January 6 panel by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — the previous president wished to trademark the time period lower than per week after dropping to Joe Biden.

The January 6 investigator who interviewed Cuccinelli tried as soon as extra to jog his reminiscence.

“You do not recall the president utilizing the phrase ‘rigged’?” they requested.

“No,” Cuccinelli mentioned. “I do not.”

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