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The January 6 committee on Tuesday revealed new details about a contentious meeting that took place at the White House on December 18, 2020.
During that meeting — which included President Donald Trump, election lawyer Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com — the group discussed the ongoing effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election, despite the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden's victory just days earlier.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the committee members leading Tuesday's hearing, said the group gained access to the White House with the help of a junior staffer. The committee then displayed testimony from Powell about the meeting, which initially began without any White House staff present.
She testified to investigators that she and the others had "probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes" with Trump before Pat Cipollone, then the White House Counsel, intercepted the meeting.
"I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record," Powell quipped.
The committee also displayed testimony from Cipollone, where he explained his horror at finding Trump with the assembled company.
"I walked in, I saw General Flynn, I saw Sidney Powell sitting there," said Cipollone. "I was not happy to see the people who were in the Oval Office."
Cipollone went on to say that he didn't believe the president was well served by the outside advisors.
"I did not think they were providing — well first of all, the Overstock person, I've never met, I never knew who this guy was," he added. "Actually, the first thing I did, I walked in, I looked at him, and I said, 'Who are you?'"
"I don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice," Cipollone added. "I didn't understand how they had gotten in."
It was at that meeting that Powell sought to be named special counsel for voter fraud. Following the meeting, Trump issued a tweet in the earlier hours of December 19 that planted the seed for the January 6 riot, according to the committee.
"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," he tweeted. "Be there, will be wild!"
