WASHINGTON – The rioters who made their way to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 succeeded, at least temporarily, in delaying the certification of Joe Biden’s White House pick.
Hours earlier, Rep. Jim Jordan had been trying to accomplish the same thing.
In a text message with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a close ally and friend, at nearly midnight on January 5, Jordan offered legal justification for what President Donald Trump was publicly demanding: that Vice President Mike Pence, in his ceremonial role presiding over the vote count, somehow asserts the authority to turn away voters from states won by Biden.
Pence “should call all electoral votes he believes to be unconstitutional no electoral vote,” Jordan wrote.
“I’ve pushed for this,” Meadows responded. “I’m not sure it’s going to happen.”
The text exchange, in an April 22 court filing by the congressional panel investigating the January 6 riots, is on a shocking batch of evidence showing the deep involvement of some House Republicans in the desperate attempt to Trump for staying in power. A review of the evidence finds new details about how, long before the attack on Capitol Hill, several Republican lawmakers were directly involved in Trump’s campaign to reverse the results of a free and fair election.
It’s a connection House Jan. 6 committee members are making explicit as they prepare to open public hearings in June. The Republicans who conspired with Trump and the rioters who attacked Capitol Hill were aligned in their goals, if not in the violent tactics of the mob, creating a convergence that nearly disrupted the nation’s peaceful transfer of power.
“It appears that a significant number of House members and some senators had more than a passing role in what happened,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, told The Associated Press last week.
Since it began its investigation last summer, the Jan. 6 panel has slowly gained new details about what lawmakers said and did in the weeks leading up to the insurrection. Members have asked three Republican lawmakers — Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — to testify voluntarily. They have all refused. Other legislators could be called in the coming days.
So far, the Jan. 6 committee has refrained from issuing subpoenas to lawmakers for fear of repercussions from such an extraordinary step. But a lack of cooperation from lawmakers hasn’t stopped the panel from getting new information about their actions.
The latest court document, filed in response to a Meadows lawsuit, contained excerpts from just a handful of the more than 930 interviews the Jan. 6 panel conducted. It includes information about several high-level meetings attended by nearly a dozen House Republicans where Trump allies flirted with ways to give him another term.
Among the ideas: naming fake voter lists in seven swing states, declaring martial law and seizing voting machines.
The efforts began in the weeks after The Associated Press declared Biden president-elect.
In early December 2020, several lawmakers attended a meeting at the White House counsel’s office where they were informed by the president’s attorneys that a plan to present an alternate list of electors declaring Trump the winner was not “legally sound.” “. One lawmaker, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, rejected that position. So did Republican Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House special assistant.
Despite the warning from the attorney’s office, Trump allies pressed on. On December 14, 2020, when correctly elected Democratic electors in seven states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) gathered at their state headquarters to cast their ballots, fake electors also gathered.
Legitimate voters declared themselves and presented false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the true winner of the presidential elections in their states.
Those “substitute electors” certificates were then sent to Congress, where they were ignored.
Since then, most legislators have denied involvement in these efforts.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia testified at a hearing in April that she has no recollection of conversations she had with the White House or text messages she sent to Meadows about Trump invoking martial law.
Gohmert told the AP that he also doesn’t remember being involved and isn’t sure he can help the committee’s investigation. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia downplayed her actions, saying it’s routine for members of the president’s party to come and go from the White House to speak on a range of issues. Hice is now running for secretary of state in Georgia, a position responsible for state elections.
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona did not deny his public efforts to challenge the election results, but called recent reports of his deep involvement false.
In a statement Saturday, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona reiterated his “serious” concerns about the 2020 election. “Discussions on the Voter Count Act were appropriate, necessary and warranted,” he added.
Requests for comment from the other lawmakers were not immediately returned.
Less than a week after the White House meeting in early December, another plan emerged. In a meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus and Trump White House officials, the discussion centered on the decisive action they believed Pence might take on January 6.
Those who attended virtually and in person, according to committee testimony, included Hice, Biggs, Gosar, Representatives Perry, Gaetz, Jordan, Gohmert, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Greene, then a congresswoman-elect.
“How was the conversation?” the committee asked Hutchinson, who was a frequent presence at the meetings that took place in December 2020 and January 2021.
“They felt like I had the authority to, forgive me if my wording is wrong on this, but to send votes to states or voters to states,” Hutchinson said, referring to Pence.
Asked if any of the lawmakers disagreed with the idea of the vice president having such authority, Hutchinson said none of the Republican lawmakers objected.
In another meeting about Pence’s potential role, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis joined Perry and Jordan again, as well as Greene and Lauren Boebert, a Republican who had also just been elected to the House of Representatives. Colorado representatives.
Communication between lawmakers and the White House did not abate as Jan. 6 approached. The day after Christmas, Perry texted Meadows a countdown.
“11 days for 1/6 and 25 days for the inauguration,” the text said. “We have to get going!” Perry urged Meadows to call Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general who has defended Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results. Perry has acknowledged introducing Clark to Trump.
Clark clashed with Justice Department superiors over his plan to send a letter to Georgia and other battleground states questioning the election results and urging their state legislatures to investigate. It all culminated in a dramatic White House meeting in which Trump considered elevating Clark to attorney general, only to back down after top Justice Department officials made it clear they would resign.
Pressure from lawmakers and the White House on the Justice Department is among several areas of investigation in the Jan. 6 investigation. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the panel from Maryland, has hinted that more revelations are to come.
“While the mob smashed our windows, bloodied our police and stormed the Capitol, Trump and his accomplices conspired to destroy the Biden majority in the Electoral College and overthrow our constitutional order,” Raskin tweeted last week.
When the results of the panel’s investigation come to light, Raskin predicted, “America will see how the coup and the insurrection converged.”
Reference-abcnews.go.com