By Ron Benvenisti. Bill Stepien, former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, was scheduled to testify this morning but will no longer testify before the House Jan. 6 sub-committee as planned due to a “family emergency.”
The committee said an hour before its second hearing began June 13 that a family emergency prohibited him from participating. The New York Times reported his wife went into labor. Jan. 6 Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said he was “not sure” if Stepien would appear before the committee at a later date. Republican election attorney Ben Ginsberg was among the witnesses testifying Monday before the House select committee.
New Jersey Senate Republicans’ campaign arm currently pays his firm, National Public Affairs, for political consulting. Stepien is considered responsible for formerly imprisoned criminal Ocean County GOP Chair George Gilmore’s (Who said he could still be Ocean County Committee Chair from jail!) pardon (Stepien was allegedly also complicit in Christie’s Bridgegate scandal eight years ago as a former advisor to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Shortly after that, the Gilmore-connected GOPAC put him on the payroll).
Mr. Stepien, is appearing under subpoena, raising questions about how willing a witness he will be against Mr. Trump.
In its subpoena to Stepien, the committee indicated it was particularly interested in Stepien’s involvement in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign claiming there were voting machine inaccuracies during the 2020 election, that was allegedly repeated by “rioters” who “attacked” the Capitol. The January 6th sub-committee, spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer accused the campaign of asking states to delay or deny the election results.
Stepien, who was a former advisor to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is currently helping a candidate challenging one of Trump’s few Republican critics and also a member of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Stepien was a participant in the allegations about election integrity after the vote. Will he remain on the Gilmore-connected GOPAC if in his testimony if he disses Trump? Most likely he’ll be disowned by much of the GOP. If he’s uncooperative likely he’ll stay with the Gilmore GOPAC. When he was associated with the former president, he refused to acknowledge that a free and fair election took place. Considering the Trump accolades and photos of Trump on Stepien’s firm’s National Public Affairs website he’ll likely be history.
The opinions in this article are those of the author.
Ron Benvenisti, Ocean County Committee, District 4, Lakewood District 26
I don’t understand this article, why if he defends Trump he is history? He will make history again when we find out that the election was in fact stolen.
Why, oh why, has no real evidence emerged. Every story that I have researched seems like stupider than the next.
I wish I could believe the fraud stories, believe me, but they all sound like huey.
He’ll be history to the J6 sub-committee because he’s an election fraud denier, (even if he changes his tune) and his website associates him publicly with Trump, of which the J6 witch-hunt is really all about. Maybe Gilmore will keep him in GOPAC, outside of the hearing he’s been pretty invisible anyway.
“I can work under a lot of circumstances for a lot of varied candidates and politicians. But a situation where — and I think along the way, I’ve built up a pretty good, I hope, a good reputation for being honest and professional. And I didn’t think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time. So that led to me stepping away.” — Bill Stepien during his taped deposition, parts of which were aired by the committee investigating Jan. 6 .
He will be in the same category as Ivanka and Bill Barr. It seems that the only people who pushed the theory were either inebriated or שכרת ולא מיין. They are all backpedaling and pretending they had nothing to do with the ‘election fraud story’.
As soon as they were under oath, they are saying a different story. Like Giuliani, who testified under oath, ‘we are not alleging fraud occurred’, and then went to the ‘four seasons’ and said differently.