Former Trump Campaign Manager Withdraws from January 6 Hearing at Last Minute
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Less than an hour before he was scheduled to appear, former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien suddenly announced he would no longer be testifying before the January 6 committee on Monday morning, citing a family emergency, the panel confirmed.
The committee was informed Monday morning that Stepien’s wife was in labor, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press before the scheduled hearing.
Stepien was expected to be a pivotal witness in the January 6 committee’s exposé of the mob riot, allegedly fueled and coordinated by the former president, that aimed to interfere with the certification of the 2016 election results for Joe Biden.
The Trump ally’s attorneys are set to release a statement on the record shortly. Last week, the committee held its prime-time presentation on the attack on the Capitol that reportedly attracted 20 million viewers.
Stepien, a longtime Trump ally, helped facilitate the transition within Trump’s presidential campaign to a “Stop the Steal” drive, which alleged widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and sought to invalidate its outcome, according to a subpoena issued by the committee last fall. Committee members, including mostly Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans, were likely to ask Stepien about what Trump’s team was reporting to the president about the circumstances of the election.
Journalist Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News Channel political editor, is set to take the stand before the committee Monday as well. He is likely to be asked to attest to the network’s decision to call Arizona for Biden the night of the election. At the time, Fox News’ election desk came under fire for projecting Biden’s victory in Arizona ahead of multiple other networks and before many late mail-in ballots in the state had been tabulated. Stirewalt later commented on the episode in an op-ed.
Other witnesses to testify Monday include election officials, investigators, and experts who may speak to the many litigation attempts by the Trump campaign in several swing states where it contested the election results.
