WATCH: Rep. Thompson's full opening statement for Day 5 - Jan. 6 hearings - PBS NewsHour

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Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., delivered opening remarks on June 23 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public.

The committee chairman said public servants resisted former President Donald Trump’s efforts to “misuse the Justice Department as part of his plan to hold onto power,” adding that the former president’s demands that the department investigate his false claims of election fraud extended into January 2021.

“But Donald Trump didn't just want the Justice Department to investigate,” Thompson said. “He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies, to basically call the election corrupt, to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud.”

The hearing, the fifth of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee, focused on Trump’s pressure on the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day. Aired on 06/23/2022.

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