- Ex-Trump lawyer Alex Cannon testified about a conversation he had with Trump aide Peter Navarro.
- Cannon said he told Navarro he had doubts about the Dominion voting machine conspiracy theory.
- In response, Cannon said Navarro called him a "deep state" agent working against Trump.
Alex Cannon, a former Trump campaign lawyer, testified in front of the House Committee on January 6 and said that Trump aide Peter Navarro accused him of being a "deep state" operative because he expressed doubt over Dominion voting machine conspiracy theories.
Cannon's testimony was broadcast on Monday as part of the second of six public hearings on the committee's investigation.
During his deposition, Cannon said that he had a conversation with Navarro in mid-November, after the 2020 presidential election, about voter fraud allegations.
Cannon said he spoke to Navarro specifically regarding the conspiracy theory that Dominion voting machines were used to flip votes from Trump to Biden. This conspiracy has continually been pushed by Trump-allied lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Dominion named all three in a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit.
"I recall him asking me questions about Dominion. And maybe some other categories of allegations of voter fraud. And I remember telling him that I didn't believe the Dominion allegations because I thought the hand recount in Georgia would resolve any issues with a technology problem and with Dominion, or Dominion flipping votes," Cannon said.
A hand recount held in late November 2020 confirmed Joe Biden won the state by a narrow margin.
Cannon told the panel's investigators that he mentioned to Navarro that Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had released a report saying the election was secure. Trump fired Krebs after the election for contradicting Trump's baseless claims of election fraud.
"And I believe Mr. Navarro accused me of being an agent of the deep state working with Chris Krebs against the President. And I never took another phone call from Mr. Navarro," Cannon said.
The term "deep state" is often used in QAnon conspiracy theorist circles to refer to the idea of an individual working for a shadowy, government-linked entity. QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that posits without substantiation that Trump is battling such a "deep state" cabal of satanic pedophiles.
In addition to his comments on Navarro, Cannon said he met former Vice President Mike Pence briefly and told Pence that he "didn't believe" the Trump campaign was finding "anything sufficient to alter the results of the election." Pence, he said, thanked him.
Navarro was indicted in June for contempt of Congress after repeatedly refusing to comply with the House investigation into the January 6 riot. Most recently, he claimed without substantiation that the FBI treated him like an "Al Qaeda terrorist" during the few hours that he was in custody.