Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol/Chapter 7/Section 7.12
7.12 PRESIDENT TRUMP STILL SOUGHT TO DELAY THE JOINT SESSION
Even after President Trump finally told the rioters to go home, he and his lead attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, continued to seek to delay the joint session of Congress.
Giuliani began frantically calling the White House line the very minute that the President's video went up on Twitter.[292] Failing to get through, he called back, once every minute—4:17 p.m., 4:18 p.m., 4:19 p.m., 4:20 p.m.[293] He managed to get through, briefly, to Mark Meadows at 4:21 p.m., and then kept calling the White House line: at 4:22 p.m., three times on two different phones at 4:23 p.m., 4:24 p.m., and once more at 5:05 p.m.[294] He finally managed to speak with President Trump at 5:07 p.m., and the two spoke for almost 12 minutes.[295]
After he spoke with President Trump, Giuliani's phone calls went nearly without fail to Members of Congress: Senator Marsha Blackburn, and then Senator Mike Lee.[296] He made three calls to Senator Bill Hagerty, then two to Representative Jim Jordan.[297] He called Senator Lindsey Graham,[298] Senator Josh Hawley,[299] and Senator Ted Cruz.[300] Giuliani had two calls with Senator Dan Sullivan over the course of the evening.[301] There were another three calls to Representative Jordan, none of which connected.[302] After 8:06 p.m., when the joint session resumed, the calls to Members of Congress finally stopped.[303] Shortly afterward, at 8:39 p.m., Giuliani had one final call of 9 minutes with the President.[304]
When asked about these calls during his deposition before the Select Committee, Giuliani initially refused to answer. Giuliani insisted his calls to Members of Congress—none of whom were his client—were all attorney-client privileged.[305] But Giuliani eventually relented.
"I was probably calling to see any—if anything could be done," he said. "About the vote—the vote."[306]
We know definitively what Giuliani was up to because he left a voice message for Senator Tuberville—inadvertently on Senator Lee's phone— recording his request.[307] He wanted for "you, our Republican friends to try to just slow it down," referring to the electoral count, and delay the joint session.[308] Here are his own words:
The only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous States and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow. So if you could object to every State and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every State, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote.[309]
A non-free image has been removed from this page.
The removed content can be viewed in the original document https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/html-submitted/C7image13.jpg.
The President, too, was at home, but he remained focused on his goal. Between 6:54 p.m. and 11:23 p.m., he spoke with 13 people, some more than once.[310] Of the 13, six ignored or expressly refused to comply with Select Committee requests for their testimony.[311] Two agreed to appear but refused to answer questions about their phone calls with the President, citing executive privilege.[312] Two more refused to answer questions, claiming attorney-client privilege.[313]
Of the 13, five were President Trump’s attorneys or lawyers who worked with him on efforts to reverse the outcome of the election. With one exception, each of these calls took place before 8:06 p.m., when Vice President Pence reopened the joint session of Congress and resumed counting the electoral votes.[314] The President spoke with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone for 7 minutes at 7:01 p.m.[315] He spoke with Kurt Olsen and Mark Martin, lawyers who both advised him on the Vice President’s role in the joint session:[316] He spoke with Martin for 9 minutes at 7:30 p.m., and Olsen twice, for 11 minutes at 7:17 p.m. and for another 10 minutes at 7:40 p.m.[317] He spoke with Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer leading his election challenges in Georgia, for 2 minutes at 7:53 p.m.[318] The President spoke with Herschmann for 5 minutes at 10:50 p.m.[319]
Another five of the people who spoke with President Trump that night were employees or outside advisors who counseled him on communications issues. These calls, by contrast, predominantly took place after the joint session resumed.[320] He spoke with his communications director, Scavino, twice: for 7 minutes at 7:08 p.m. and for 15 minutes at 9:55 p.m.[321] He spoke with McEnany for 11 minutes at 9:42 p.m.[322] He took calls from Steve Bannon, for 7 minutes at 10:19 p.m., and Sean Hannity, for 8 minutes at 11:08 p.m.[323]
At 9:23 p.m., President Trump spoke with Jason Miller, his Campaign Communications Director, for 18 minutes.[324]
Of his own initiative, Miller had drafted a statement for the President assuring the nation that the transfer of power—despite the day's events—would, indeed, take place.[325] On their call, the President pushed back on the phrasing.
The President wanted the statement to promise a "peaceful transition" of power, rather than just an "orderly" one.[326]
Miller rejected the change and told him why rather bluntly.
"[T]hat ship's kind of already sailed," he said, "so we're going to say 'orderly transition.' "[327]