Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer of the Georgia Secretary of State, is expected to testify at the fourth committee hearing on Jan. 21.
Sterling is a voting official in Georgia, and helped manage the 2020 presidential election and recount in Georgia, which Donald Trump just lost to Joe Biden. Consequently, Trump and his allies inculcated in the state as an example of their false and unfounded allegations of voter fraud.
LOOK: January 6 Committee examines how Trump put pressure on Pence to overthrow the 2020 election
Georgia both audited the vote count and repeated the votes because Biden’s lead was so sharp. Sterling has consistently said his office takes claims of election law violations seriously, but ultimately the state found no widespread fraud.
Trump continued to carry out the false allegations of fraud, but worried government officials that people would become violent in response. In early December 2020, Sterling held an emotional press conference where he admonished Trump’s attempts to overthrow the election and pleaded with him to stop claiming fraud.
“It all went too far. All this, ”said a visibly angry Sterling.
“Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling said, addressing Trump. “Someone is going to get hurt. Someone is going to be shot. “Someone is going to be killed,” he said.
Sterling suggested that Trump’s advisers might be misleading him or the public.
“The people around the president know better,” he said.
The January 6 committee tried to substantiate that idea by showing clips from Trump advisers admitting they knew there was no fraud.
After a recording was released of Trump calling George Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asking him to “find” thousands more votes because he thought he had won the state, Sterling called Trump again exclaimed falsehoods.
“It’s all easy, provably false. “Yet the president persists, undermining Georgians’ faith in the electoral system,” he said.
Sterling is expected to testify with Raffensperger.
Last week, Sterling testified before a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, over Trump’s phone call to the Secretary of State.
For more information on the key players in the January 6 committee hearings, click here.
