Trump Wanted Staff Who Didn't Believe 2020 Election Was Rigged To Be Fired: Report

Former President Donald Trump had drafted a memo calling for staff members who did not believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged to be removed from their posts, according to a report released by the U.S. House committee.

The draft statement, which was never sent out, was brought up during the House Select Committee's interview of Trump White House Counsel Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone as part of their investigation of the events that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

"Anybody that thinks there wasn't massive fraud in 2020 election should be fired," the drafted memo read, according to Cipollone, whose deposition was released by the House Select Committee on Friday.

The drafted memo came weeks after former Atty. Gen. Bill Barr dismissed Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election, adding that the U.S. Justice Department found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election.

"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election," Barr, who had been an ardent ally of Trump, said.

Cipollone's deposition is one of nearly 50 additional transcripts recently released by the Jan. 6 committee. The latest batch included interviews with key witnesses, including Trump allies and White House insiders such as Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.

In her deposition, Hutchinson said Trump had already acknowledged his electoral defeat against Joe Biden but was unwilling to concede.

"He said something to the effect of, 'he knows it's over. He knows he lost. But we are going to keep trying. There's a chance he didn't lose. I want to pull this off for him,'" Hutchinson said, recalling her conversation with Meadows about Trump.

Apart from the transcripts released by the committee, a deposition released by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems last week revealed that known Trump ally and Fox News host Sean Hannity did not believe claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.

"I did not believe it for one second," Hannity said, as per The New York Times.

The deposition was part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News, alleging the company is spreading false claims that its voting machines were involved in stealing the election by switching votes, leading to financial loss.