Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, testifies during a hearing on the investigation January 6 on Tuesday in Washington.
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Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, testifies during a hearing on the investigation January 6 on Tuesday in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, told the committee during a hearing today about the pressure put on former President Donald Trump and his allies, including Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. , cause.
Bowers testified that Giuliani had told him about allegations of voter fraud by undocumented immigrants or deceased people who were listed as having voted.
Bowers said he and other GOP lawmakers tried to explain the theories and let Giuliani provide enough evidence to justify convening the state’s presidential electors.
“In my recollection,” Bowers said of Giuliani, “he said, we had a lot of theories for which we had no proof.”
Bowers said Giuliani pressured him to call the Arizona legislature back into session – a unilateral move Bowers said he could not do – to recall the electors who would come to see President Biden later. when Biden beat Trump in the state.
“I believe the Constitution is inspired by the divine,” he said, visibly moved. “I will not do that.”
The former president, he said, has asked him to hold a hearing to investigate the allegations of fraud in Arizona, but added that he doesn’t think the evidence “worthy of a hearing.”
“You’re asking me to do something that’s against my oath, and I’m not going to break my oath,” he told Trump and Giuliani, to which the former New York mayor said: “Not all of them. Are we all Republicans here? I would think we’d get a better reception.”
Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, testifies during a hearing on the investigation January 6 on Tuesday in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
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Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, testifies during a hearing on the investigation January 6 on Tuesday in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Attorney John Eastman also put pressure on Bowers, asking him in the phone call to set up a vote in the legislature to certify electors for the state.
“His suggestion was that we would do it, and I said I couldn’t,” Bowers said, adding that Eastman pressured him by asking him to “just do it and do it.” let the court decide.”
Bowers told the committee that his office was subjected to more than 20,000 emails, thousands of voicemails and text messages from people who believed he was wrong to not call back the electors.
“Until recently, worrying about what would happen on Saturdays was a new pattern in our lives,” he said of his family. “Because we have different groups coming in.”
Groups with video trucks accused Bowers of being a pedophile and corrupt politician, blasting loudspeakers and threatening him and his neighbors.
“It’s disturbing,” he said, emotional again.
