- A Trump official indulged a concept that Italian satellites have been utilized in Biden’s favor.
- Christopher Miller, performing protection secretary, referred to as officers in Italy to research it.
- Richard Donohue, performing US deputy lawyer common on the time, mentioned it was “pure madness.”
The protection secretary President Donald Trump appointed after he misplaced the 2020 election tried to research a voter fraud conspiracy {that a} Justice Division official described as “pure madness.”
Trump appointed Christopher Miller as performing protection secretary on November 9, 2020, after firing Protection Secretary Mark Esper days after shedding the election to Joe Biden. Miller, a former US Army Special Forces soldier, was at the moment the director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart.
Testimony from the January 6 committee listening to on Thursday revealed Miller indulged one of many more strange election conspiracy theories, which claimed that an Italian protection contractor had uploaded software program to a satellite tv for pc that then switched votes from Trump to Biden.
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger mentioned the baseless concept made it to the White Home after Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania despatched a 20-minute YouTube video to Trump’s chief of workers, Mark Meadows, together with the message: “Why cannot we simply work with the Italian authorities?”
Meadows then despatched the video to the Justice Division, the place it reached Richard Donoghue, the performing US deputy lawyer common on the time. Donoghue instructed the committee on Thursday that he watched the video on the time.
“I emailed the performing lawyer common and I mentioned, ‘pure madness,’ which was my impression of the video, which was patently absurd,” Donoghue mentioned.
However after Meadows introduced the speculation to the Division of Protection to research, Miller seemed into it, in accordance with the testimony he gave the committee that was performed on Thursday.
Kinzinger mentioned Miller referred to as the protection attaché in Italy to ask concerning the declare.
“The ask for him was, are you able to name out to protection attaché Rome and discover out what the heck’s occurring? As a result of I am getting all these bizarre loopy stories and possibly the man on the bottom is aware of greater than something,” Miller mentioned.
“This wild, baseless conspiracy concept made it from the recesses of the web to the very best echelons of our authorities,” Kinzinger mentioned on Thursday, including: “This is among the finest examples of the lengths to which President Trump would go to remain in energy.”
Miller served as performing protection secretary till January 20, 2021, when Trump left workplace. He instructed reporters within the days prior: “I can’t wait to depart this job.”
He additionally mentioned that at one level in his tenure he acted like a “fucking madman” to dissuade Trump from attacking Iran, in accordance with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl’s guide “Betrayal.”
