Documents and texts stemming from the House investigation on January 6, 2021 offer new details about the extent to which House Republicans, particularly members of the Freedom Caucus, were involved in plans to reverse the election of 2020, even as White House lawyers warned them. their proposals could be illegal.
The content: Posted in the committee’s court battle against Mark Meadows and in a slew of text messages to the former chief of staff. obtained by CNN — describes a long list of Republicans involved in talks with the White House about planning for the Jan. 6 rallies and efforts to oppose voter certification that day.
Taken together, the messages show how early the White House reached out to lawmakers in its effort to keep former President Trump in office.
They also show a constant effort by various members to strategize on how to keep Trump in office after his electoral loss.
That effort ranged from selecting alternative lists of electors from swing states ahead of the Electoral College vote to leading the crowd to Capitol Hill after the Jan. 6 rallies and discussing the possibility of Trump declaring martial law days before he left office. position.
Testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to the president and Meadows, conveys that Meadows, a former chair of the Freedom Caucus, was the one who “outreached” to members of the Conservative caucus, including then-elected representatives. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Representatives Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Hutchinson identified those four as being involved in the early stages of efforts to undo the election.
Text messages to Meadows as early as three days after Election Day 2020 show lawmakers rallying around the idea of alternate electors.
“I’m sure you’ve heard of this proposal,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) texted Meadows on Nov. 6. “Is anyone on the team looking into and considering lobbying for that?”
As early as the first or second week of December, the White House’s own lawyer was rejecting the idea.
“Hey, this is not legally sound, we’ve developed it internally, it’s okay for you to think this, but we’re not going to consider this in an official White House capacity on behalf of the president, we’re putting a stop to it. to this,” Hutchinson told the White House Counsel’s Office.
That message was passed on to at least Perry, Jordan and representatives Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), according to Hutchinson.
By December 21, a larger group met at the White House with Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani, where the focus turned to ways former Vice President Mike Pence could evade his ceremonial duty to certify election results.
That group that attended that meeting included Jordan, Brooks, Biggs, Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert, Perry, and Reps. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.). ), Hutchinson said.
“They felt that he had the authority to, forgive me if my phrase is not correct on this, but to send votes to states or voters to states, more along the lines of Eastman’s theory,” Hutchinson said. , referring to John Eastman, who drafted two memos for the Trump campaign outlining how to challenge the election.
“I don’t recall anyone who has spoken out and definitely disagreed with that theory,” he said of lawmakers, adding that “the vice president’s team seemed a little skeptical.”
Later that day, Brooks suggested to Meadows that they try to frame the meeting as something positive and productive after being contacted by reporters.
“The media is contacting my office about the White House meeting this afternoon regarding the formulation of our strategies on January 6,” Brooks wrote to Meadows. “Does the White House want me to answer or stay quiet? Also, it’s one thing to discuss (in general terms) our meeting beforehand. It’s another to discuss later.
“If you think the discussion is positive, I suggest the message be: 1. Progress is being made. 2. More are joining our fight. 3. We cannot allow electoral fraud and electoral theft to occur if we are going to be a republic. Your choice. Let me know,” she concluded.
About a week after the meeting, Greene complained to Meadows that they didn’t have enough time to talk to Giuliani about strategy.
“We have to get organized for day 6. I would like to meet Rudy Giuliani again. We couldn’t talk much with him. Also anyone who can help. We are getting a lot of members on board. And we have to design the best case for each state,” he texted Meadows on New Year’s Eve.
As lawmakers coordinated with the legal team through the White House, Perry participated in Trump’s lobbying campaign at the Department of Justice (DOJ), texting Meadows on December 26 and 28 to encourage him to contact Jeffrey Clark. Trump would later consider appointing Clark, a mid-level Justice Department official who worked primarily on environmental issues, as acting attorney general to send investigations into his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
But new testimony released by the committee shows Justice Department staff resisted when Clark tried to send a memo directly to Pence encouraging him not to certify the results of the Jan. 6 election.
Clark suggested that the OLC provide a legal opinion to the vice president regarding his authority when it comes to opening the vote as president of the Senate on January 6,” said Steven Engel, who served as deputy attorney general for the Office. of Legal Affairs, a lawyer at the DOJ under Trump, told the committee.
“And I dismissed that idea, but I said, I said: that’s an absurd idea. The, you know, the vice president acts as president of the senate. It is not the role of the Department of Justice to provide legislative officials with legal advice on the scope of their duties. And, you know, and, not to mention it was 3 days from the date. OLC doesn’t tend to provide the legal opinions, you know, in those cases, you know, in that short amount of time,” he added.
As Jan. 6 approached, lawmakers were once again coordinating with the White House on preparations for the day, including a discussion about whether to actively encourage rally attendees to march on Capitol Hill.
“I remember that Mr. Perry had said that he had started tweeting that night, Congressman Perry, that he was going to start tweeting that night, and that he was a major participant on the call,” Hutchinson said.
“I don’t think there was a participant on the call that necessarily discouraged the idea,” he added. “I don’t remember everyone on the call that night, but I do remember it was a call from the Freedom Caucus.”
Gaetz would also announce on January 5 during an appearance on Fox News that there could be “tens of thousands of people potentially marching in the streets of Washington, DC, tomorrow.”
The same two treasures show that many Republican lawmakers were texting Meadows as chaos unfolded on Capitol Hill, with some pleading with the chief of staff to make Trump take action.
And other earlier reports show that some Republicans who were initially involved eventually walked away from the White House efforts amid their own misgivings.
Still, another text message from Greene just days before President Biden’s inauguration shows that Greene, and evidently other members, were hopeful that Trump would still try to resist any effort to swear in a new president and provide legislators tools to persecute the new president.
“In our private members-only chat, several say that the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for the Marshall Act. I don’t know about those things. He just wanted you to tell him,” he texted Meadows on Jan. 17.
“This election was stolen. We all know. They will destroy our country afterwards. Tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!” she added.
Reference-thehill.com