States United’s Bipartisan Testimony to the January 6th Select Committee

State’s United Democracy Center’s Bipartisan Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol

May 27, 2022

Chair Thompson, Vice Chair Cheney, and distinguished members of the Select Committee, we are pleased to submit this statement in our capacity as members of the Bipartisan Advisory Board of the States United Democracy Center. States United is a nonpartisan organization advancing free, fair, and secure elections. We focus on connecting state officials, law enforcement leaders, and pro-democracy partners across America with the tools and expertise they need to safeguard our democracy. We are more than a think tank—we are an action tank. Together, we are committed to making sure every vote is counted, every voice is heard, and every election is safe. Our founders and Advisory Board are comprised of former administration officials, law enforcement leaders, and former state and local leaders from both the Republican and Democratic political parties who are committed to engaging and empowering pro-democracy leadership.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this statement to help the Select Committee in its ongoing review of issues connected to the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. As we will discuss, the attack that occurred on January 6, 2021, was not an isolated event involving random protestors. Rather, it was the logical next step in a continuing anti-democracy movement, instigated and fomented by various people, including former President Donald Trump, which was put into motion years earlier. But the movement does not begin or end solely with Trump; a host of diverse groups of people are involved, including lawyers such as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and John Eastman; advisors to Trump, like Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Mike Lindell; and state and local officials from all over the country, including Pennsylvania state Senator and Republican nominee for the governorship of Pennsylvania Doug Mastriano, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

January 6 was also merely a next step, not a final one. Events leading up to and following that day reveal a sustained and coordinated effort by the former president and his anti-democracy allies to suppress voting rights, delegitimize free and fair elections, and subvert the will of the voters by overturning election results deemed undesirable to their movement. As we explain in our testimony, many of the tactics used to produce the January 6 attack and many of the people who affirmatively helped make it happen are still hard at work undermining our democracy today.

Read the full testimony here.