Trump tried to contact witness, Cheney says, and he is re-stoking his baseless claims about Wisconsin's vote

Trump tried to contact a witness, Cheney says at the end of Day 7 of the Jan. 6 hearing

• In closing statements, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., committee vice chair, said the panel learned that Trump tried to contact a witness after the last hearing held in June. The witness, though part of the committee’s investigation, has not yet been seen in the hearings, Cheney said. Cheney said the witness declined to answer or respond to Trump’s call, instead alerting their lawyer who then told the committee. “This committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice,” Cheney said. “Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously.

• Stephen Ayres, an Ohio man criminally charged for his actions during the Capitol insurrection, said he lost his job and that Jan. 6 “changed my life, and not for the good.” When asked how it makes him feel that Trump is still promoting falsehoods about the 2020 election results, Ayres told the committee it “makes me mad, I was hanging on to every word he said.” When quizzed by Cheney about whether it would have made a difference if he knew the president had no evidence of election fraud, Ayres said it would have. “Who knows, I may not have even come down here then,” Ayres said.

• A good deal of Tuesday's hearing dealt with an extraordinary six-hour meeting in the White House that split Trump's team. Trump's White House legal team told him – repeatedly – he'd lost the election. But a group of outside advisors led by attorney Sidney Powell fed the president outlandish theories about foreign powers seizing voting machines. Trump followed the latter.

Trump uses Wisconsin Supreme Court decision on ballot drop boxes to re-stoke baseless arguments about the 2020 election

• To Trump, whose election loss was cemented when he lost Wisconsin, Friday's ruling by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court means the thousands of ballots deposited into the drop boxes should be invalid and therefore state lawmakers should reverse the election outcome — a message he and his allies have been pushing to voters for nearly two years. It's a legally impossible argument but Trump, who is scheduled to appear in Milwaukee next month, continues to press it as he prepares another campaign for president with the ear of a sizable portion of Wisconsin's electorate.

• "Speaker Robin Vos has a decision to make," Trump wrote. "Does Wisconsin RECLAIM the Electors, turn over the Election to the actual winner (by a lot!), or sit back and do nothing as our Country continues to go to HELL? Brave American Patriots already have a Resolution on the Floor!"

• While repeatedly blocked by Vos, Trump's push for lawmakers to take the impossible step of overturning the last presidential election result is not being rejected by the candidate for governor who was endorsed by Trump and is leading state polling in the Republican primary. Tim Michels, a construction executive who is favored by Trump, told WKOW on Tuesday he would "need to see the details" after being asked whether he would sign legislation pulling back Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes.

• But Rick Esenberg, president and chief counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the group that brought the drop box lawsuit, said interpretations of the ruling as having a retroactive effect on ballots cast in drop boxes are incorrect. "There's no retroactive impact," he said.

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The Money

HARD ROCK: For at least the fourth time since Indian casinos began legal operations in Wisconsin, a group appears to be eyeing Kenosha as a potential site for a tribal casino. A company headquartered at the same address as the corporate offices for Hard Rock International recently agreed to pay up to $100,000 for an option to buy 60 acres of land in Kenosha that is owned by the Village of Bristol.

NEENAH PAPER: Neenah Paper Inc. and Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. have completed their merger and are now operating under the name Mativ Holdings Inc.

The Fun Stuff

THE BOSS: After promising in May they'll be touring in 2023, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced the first 30 U.S. cities they'll be hitting next year, from February to April — and Milwaukee is one of them. The band will be at Fiserv Forum on March 7, their first show in town since playing "The River" front to back at the Bradley Center in March 2016.

PATIOS: Notable new patios in Milwaukee and suburbs to check out this summer.

The Games

BREWERS: It was a marathon but worth the wait. After three rain delays, the Brewers beat the Twins 6-3 at Target Field.

Today's Weather

Mostly sunny with a high of 74. Does it get better than that?

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump tried to contact witness, Cheney says,