Page:Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/231

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THE BIG LIE
205

Jason Miller, a senior advisor to the Trump Campaign, pushed claims of election fraud in public. In private, however, Miller says that he told President Trump a different story, informing him numerous times that there was not enough election fraud to have changed the election:

Miller: My understanding is that I think there are still very valid questions and concerns with the rules that were changed under the guise of COVID, but, specific to election day fraud and irregularities, there were not enough to overturn the election.

Committee Staff: And did you give your opinion on that to the President?

Miller: Yes.

Committee Staff: What was his reaction when you told him that?

Miller: "You haven't seen or heard"—I'm paraphrasing, but—"you haven't seen or heard all the different concerns and questions that have been raised."

Committee Staff: How many times did you have this conversation with the President?

Miller: Several. I couldn't put a specific number on it, though.

Committee Staff: But more than one?

Miller: Correct.[63]

Matthew Morgan, the Trump Campaign's top lawyer, came to a similar conclusion. Nearly two months after the election, on January 2nd, Morgan met with the Vice President's staff. According to Morgan, the consensus in the room was that even if all the claims of fraud and irregularities were "aggregated and read most favorably to the campaign … it was not sufficient to be outcome determinative."[64]

As far as the Trump Campaign's professional leadership was concerned, there was no evidence that the election had been "stolen" from President Trump. To the contrary, they had seen ample evidence that President Trump simply lost—and told the President so.

On November 6th, Jared Kushner arranged for the senior campaign staff to brief President Trump in the Oval Office on the state of the race.[65] Since election day, Matt Oczkowski, the Campaign's leading data expert, had tracked voting returns in the swing States to analyze the campaign's odds of success.[66] Miller texted such updates on data from key States to Meadows.[67] The Trump Campaign's data did not add up to victory. Oczkowski "delivered to the President in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose"