The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has obtained significant quantities of evidence from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to a letter from that committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).
I have written that we are one, maybe two elections from a constitutional crisis over election certification. We may see it in 2022 before we see it in 2024.https://t.co/xbVgniZNUx
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 8, 2021
Thompson outlined some of what had been handed over from Meadows in a letter responding to the abrupt assertion that the ex-Trump official wouldn’t be further complying with a subpoena from the riot investigation committee after all. What has been produced includes “a November 7, 2020, email discussing the appointment of alternate slates of electors as part of a ‘direct and collateral attack’ after the election; a January 5, 2021, email regarding a 38-page PowerPoint briefing titled ‘Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN’ that was to be provided ‘on the hill’; and, among others, a January 5, 2021, email about having the National Guard on standby.” At least in part, these materials indicate close involvement by the Trump administration in efforts to overturn the election outcome.
.@MaddowBlog: In just one week, three members of former President Trump's inner circle have said they'll plead the Fifth in the Jan. 6 investigation. The latest is Roger Stone. https://t.co/JmGFUMmmcT
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 8, 2021
Separately, it’s come out that the riot investigation committee has obtained data seeming to indicate that an individual or individuals within the Trump administration also had some sort of role in the preparation of a letter pushed by then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The letter claimed — falsely — that federal investigators had identified reasons to doubt the legitimacy of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, and it subsequently promoted the idea to state officials there that they should kickstart a special state legislative session to examine the imaginary issues. State legislators in locales where Biden won faced consistent pressure from Trump World to appoint members of the electoral college who would back Trump instead of Biden.
“I will never forgive” Trump and “his lackies” for the “trauma” of Jan. 6, Pelosi says
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 8, 2021
Referring to the letter, which was never sent out but which Clark tried to get even then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to sign onto, the chief legal counsel for the riot investigation committee said recently that they’d hoped to speak with Clark “about metadata in that draft letter that indicates some involvement with the White House Communications Agency [in] the drafting or preparation of that letter.” Meanwhile, the evidence that was obtained from Meadows keeps going as well — the riot investigation committee has obtained “a November 6, 2020, text exchange with a Member of Congress apparently about appointing alternate electors in certain states as part of a plan that the Member acknowledged would be ‘highly controversial’ and to which Mr. Meadows apparently said, ‘I love it.'” Read Thompson’s letter here or by clicking onto the post below:
NEW letter from Jan. 6 Committee chair Bennie Thompson to Mark Meadows’ lawyer: “There is no legitimate legal basis for Mr. Meadows to refuse to cooperate with the Select Committee and answer questions about the documents he produced…” pic.twitter.com/isKIAa9E3u
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) December 8, 2021
