WASHINGTON Donald Trump knew his big lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him was, in fact, a big lie, according to testimony the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol laid out at the public hearing Monday morning.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat handling much of Mondays questioning of witnesses, said the testimony of Trumps own aides was clear. On election night, he claimed even before the votes were counted that his loss was because of fraud, she said. Mr. Trumps election fraud claims were false. Mr. Trumps closest advisers knew it. Mr. Trump knew it.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who had been scheduled to testify in person Monday, withdrew at the last minute when his wife went into labor and Stepien went to join her.

In a video clip of Stepiens taped deposition, Stepien said he and other top campaign aides recommended that Trump say that votes were still being counted, that it was too early to tell, it was too early to call the race.

But Trump refused to accept that advice, he told investigators. He thought I was wrong, Stepien said. He told me so that he was going to go in a different direction.

Among the witnesses appearing in person was Chris Stirewalt , the Fox News journalist who was pushed out of his job after his team correctly called Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden on election night.

Stirewalt said Trumps chance of winning the presidency was none after election night was over and votes continued to come in favoring Biden. Remember, he needed three of these states to change. And in order to do that youre better off to play the Powerball, he said.

The most compelling witness, though, was likely one who did not appear in person, but whose video testimony devastatingly took apart Trumps claims of fraud and a stolen election.

Trumps own attorney general, William Barr, called the fraud claims being pushed by his campaign bogus and silly. He called the allegations of rigged voting machines idiotic. He likened having to knock down one conspiracy theory after another to a game of whack-a-mole. He mocked the movie recently pushed by Trump and his allies, 2000 Mules, as failing to prove any of its fraud claims.

Barr also pointed out that Trump did better in Detroit supposedly a hotbed of voter fraud in 2020 than he did in 2016, and that Trump did worse on the ballot in Pennsylvania than a pair of statewide Republicans , and worse than the states congressional candidates. Generally he was a weak element on the Republican ticket, Barr said.