There is a lot of evidence of the Republican Party’s participation in Trump’s election schemes – Reading Eagle

Written by FARNUSH AMIR

WASHINGTON (AP) – Participants in the riots that broke out in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, managed – at least temporarily – to delay the certification of the election of Joe Biden to the White House.

Hours before, spokesman Jim Jordan was trying to achieve the same.

Nearly midnight on Jan. 5, speaking to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a close ally and friend, Jordan offered a legal justification for what President Donald Trump publicly demanded – that Vice President Mike Pence in his ceremonial presidency. approve the power to expel voters from states that won Biden.

Pence “should name all the votes, which, in his opinion, are unconstitutional, because there are no votes at all,” – wrote Jordan.

“I wanted that,” Meadows replied. “Not sure it will happen.”

The exchange of texts, shown in court material from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, is included in a series of staggering evidence showing the deep involvement of some Republicans in the House of Representatives in Trump’s desperate attempt to stay in power. Evidence provides new details of how long before the attack on the Capitol, several Republican lawmakers were directly involved in Trump’s campaign to overturn free and fair elections.

This is the connection that the members of the House of Representatives committee on January 6 clearly express in preparation for the start of public hearings in June. The Republicans who plotted to conspire with Trump and the rebels who attacked the Capitol were in line with their goals, if not with the violent tactics of the crowd, creating a convergence that nearly overturned the nation’s peaceful transfer of power.

“A significant number of members of the House of Representatives and several senators seem to have had more than just a passing role in what was happening,” Democrat spokesman Benny Thompson, chairman of the Democratic Party’s committee on January 6, said last week.

Since the investigation began last summer on January 6, the board has gradually received new details of what lawmakers said and did a few weeks before the uprising. Members asked three Republican lawmakers – Jordan from Ohio, MP Scott Perry from Pennsylvania and minority leader in the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy from California – to testify voluntarily. Everyone refused. Other lawmakers may be summoned in the coming days.

While the committee on January 6 refrained from issuing summonses to lawmakers, fearing the consequences of such an extraordinary step. But the lack of cooperation with lawmakers did not prevent the board from getting new information about their actions.

The latest court document submitted in response to Medeaz’s lawsuit contained excerpts from only a handful of the more than 930 interviews conducted by the panel on Jan. 6. It includes information on several high-level meetings attended by nearly a dozen Republicans in the House of Representatives, at which Trump’s allies flirted with ways to give him another term.

Ideas include naming fake voter lists in seven weight states, declaring martial law and taking away voting machines.

The effort began a few weeks after the Associated Press announced Biden as president-elect.

In early December 2020, several lawmakers attended a meeting at the White House attorney’s office, where the president’s attorneys told them that the plan to nominate an alternative voter list that declared Trump the winner was not “legally sound.” One of the lawmakers, MP Scott Perry from Pennsylvania, postponed the position. Republicans Matt Getz of Florida and Louis Homert of Texas did the same, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special aide to Trump’s White House.

Despite a warning from the lawyer’s office, Trump’s allies have moved forward. On December 14, 2020, Democratic voters in seven states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — gathered at the state government headquarters to cast their ballots, as well as fake voters.

They declared themselves legitimate voters and presented fake credentials to a board of voters that declared Trump the real winner of the presidential election in their states.

These testimonies from “alternative voters” were then sent to Congress, where they were ignored.

Most lawmakers have since denied involvement in the effort.

Georgia MP Marjorie Taylor Green testified at a hearing in April that she did not remember conversations with the White House or texts she sent to Meadows that Trump was referring to martial law.

Homert told the AP that he also does not remember what was involved and that he is not sure it could be useful in the committee’s investigation. Georgia MP Jody Hayes has belittled his actions, saying members of the president’s party usually come in and out of the White House to speak on a number of topics. Hiss is currently running for the post of Secretary of State of Georgia, in charge of state elections.

Arizona MP Andy Biggs did not deny his public efforts to challenge the election results, but called recent reports of his deep participation untrue.

In a statement Saturday, Arizona MP Paul Gossar reiterated his “serious” concern about the 2020 election. “The discussion of the law on counting the elections was appropriate, necessary and justified,” he added.

Requests for comments from other lawmakers were not returned immediately.

Less than a week after the meeting in early December, another plan emerged at the White House. At a meeting with members of the House of Representatives and representatives of the White House of Trump, the discussion turned to decisive action, which, in their opinion, Pence could take on January 6.

According to the committee, Hys, Biggs, Gossar, Perry, Goetz, Jordan, Homer, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Moe Brooks of Alabama, Debbie Leska of Arizona and Green, then elected congresswoman, attended virtually and in person.

“How was the conversation?” the committee asked Hutchinson, who frequently attended meetings in December 2020 and January 2021.

“They thought he had the power, excuse me if my wording is wrong, but send votes back to the States or voters back to the States,” Hutchinson said, referring to Pence.

Asked if any of the lawmakers disagreed with the view that the vice president had such powers, Hutchinson replied that none of the Republican lawmakers objected.

At another meeting on Pence’s potential role for Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenny Ellis were re-joined by Perry and Jordan, as well as Green and Lauren Bobert, a Republican who has also just been elected to the House of Representatives from Colorado.

As January 6 approaches, ties between lawmakers and the White House have not waned. The day after Christmas – more than two months after the election was announced for Biden – Perry sent Meadows a countdown message.

“11 days before 1/6 and 25 days before the inauguration,” the text reads. “I have to go!” Perry called on Meadows to call Jeffrey Clark, the assistant attorney general who defended Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results. Perry admitted to introducing Clark to Trump.

Clark has clashed with Justice Department officials over his plan to send a letter to Georgia and other states fighting over the election results and urging state legislatures to investigate. It all ended with a dramatic meeting at the White House, at which Trump considered Clark’s promotion to the post of Attorney General, but withdrew after senior Justice Department officials made it clear they would resign.

Pressure from lawmakers and the White House on the Ministry of Justice is one of several areas of investigation in the January 6 investigation. MP Jamie Ruskin, an MP from the Democrats from Maryland, hinted that there will be more autopsies.

“As the mob smashed our windows, bled the police and stormed the Capitol, Trump and his accomplices planned to destroy Biden’s majority in the electorate and overthrow our constitutional order,” Ruskin tweeted last week.

When the results of the board’s investigation are released, Ruskin predicted: “America will see how the coup and the uprising came together.”