Cnn Why Shell Vote for Trump Again
Washington (CNN)Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still existence tallied, Donald Trump's eldest son texted then-White Firm chief of staff Mark Meadows that "we have operational control" to ensure his begetter would get a 2nd term, with Republican majorities in the United states Senate and swing state legislatures, CNN has learned.
In the text, which has non been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Balloter College process, co-ordinate to the bulletin reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021.
"It'southward very unproblematic," Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same cannonball: "We have multiple paths We control them all."
In a argument to CNN, Trump Jr.'due south lawyer Alan S. Futerfas said, "After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded."
Immediately before his text to Meadows describing multiple paths for challenging the ballot, Trump Jr. texted Meadows the following: "This is what nosotros need to do please read information technology and delight get it to everyone that needs to run into it because I'1000 not sure we're doing it."
The Nov 5 text message outlines a strategy that is nearly identical to what allies of the one-time President attempted to carry out in the months that followed. Trump Jr. makes specific reference to filing lawsuits and advocating recounts to prevent certain swing states from certifying their results, as well as having a handful of Republican land houses put forrad slates of faux "Trump electors."
If all that failed, according to the Trump Jr. text, GOP lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump as President on Jan six.
"We accept operational control Total leverage," the message reads. "Moral High Footing POTUS must start 2nd term at present."
The text from Trump Jr. is revealing on a number of levels. It shows how those closest to the former President were already exchanging ideas for how to overturn the election months before the Jan six insurrection -- and before all the votes were even counted. It would be another two days before major news outlets declared Joe Biden the winner on Nov 7.
The text also adds to a growing body of evidence of how Trump's inner circumvolve was actively engaged in discussing how to challenge the election results.
On March 28, Judge David Carter, a federal judge in California, said that Trump, along with bourgeois lawyer John Eastman, launched an "unprecedented" campaign to overturn a democratic ballot, calling it "a coup in search of a legal theory."
George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for the House select commission declined to comment.
Foreshadowing the Trump campaign strategy
In the weeks following the 2020 election, Trump and his allies eventually filed more than lx unsuccessful lawsuits in key states, failing to convince the courts that his claims about a stolen election were justified, or uncover whatsoever bear witness of widespread voter fraud.
They likewise called for various recounts based on those same unfounded voter fraud claims. A number of states conducted recounts in the months after the election, though none of them revealed any fraud substantial enough to have inverse the outcome of the vote in any state.
While Trump Jr. was publicly pushing various voter fraud conspiracy theories and generally casting doubt about the results in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, his text to Meadows reveals there were other ideas being discussed privately.
Specifically, Trump Jr. previews a strategy to replace authentic electors with imitation Republican electors in a handful of states. That plan was somewhen orchestrated and carried out past allies of the one-time President, and overseen by his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani.
In his text to Meadows, Trump Jr. identifies two key dates in Dec that serve as deadlines for states to certify their balloter results and compel Congress to accept them. Though the dates are largely ceremonial, in his text Trump Jr. appears to point to them as potential weaknesses to be exploited by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election results.
Seeking Trump electors
Trump Jr.'southward November five text to Meadows came equally similar notions of faithless electors were starting to percolate publicly on bourgeois social media. Trump Jr. sent the text to Meadows at 12:51 p.1000., just minutes afterward conservative radio host Mark Levin had tweeted a similar idea and suggested state legislatures have final say on electors.
If secretaries of state were unable to certify the results, Trump Jr. argues in his text to Meadows that they should press their reward by having Republican-controlled state assemblies "step in" and put frontwards separate slates of "Trump electors," he writes.
"Republicans command Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina etc we get Trump electors," Trump Jr. adds.
Trump Jr.'south text, however, refers to an untested legal theory that country houses are the ultimate authorization in elections and can intervene to put forwards a different slate of electors than those chosen by the voters, when in reality this is a formalism procedure and the outcome is essentially a foregone conclusion.
The Justice Department and the House commission are both investigating the imitation electors plot within the context of what unfolded on January 6 and Trump'southward broader effort to overturn the election.
The strategy floated by Trump Jr. is similar to what was outlined by former Texas Governor and Trump Energy Secretarial assistant Rick Perry, who texted Meadows on November 4 suggesting three land legislatures ignore the will of their voters and deliver their states' electors to Trump.
"Hither'south an AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can t (sic) the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled land houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and but send their own electors to vote and have it become to the SCOTUS," Perry'due south text message read.
A spokesman for Perry told CNN at the time that the sometime Energy secretarial assistant denies existence the author of the text. Withal, multiple people who know Rick Perry previously confirmed to CNN that the phone number the committee has associated with that text message is Perry's number.
'We command them all'
Trump Jr. also texts Meadows that Congress could intervene on January vi and overturn the will of voters if, for some reason, they were unable to secure plenty electoral votes to tip the outcome in Trump's favor using the country-based strategy.
That selection, according to Trump Jr.'south text, involves a scenario where neither Biden nor Trump have enough electoral votes to be alleged a winner, prompting the House of Representatives to vote past state party delegation, with each state getting one vote.
"Republicans control 28 states Democrats 22 states," Trump Jr. texts. "Once again Trump wins."
"Nosotros either accept a vote Nosotros control and Nosotros win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021," he texts Meadows.
In a series of memos in early January, conservative lawyer John Eastman proposed a variation of that idea.
Eastman's memo laid out a six-step programme for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the ballot for Trump, which included throwing out the results in vii states because they allegedly had competing electors. In fact, no country had really put frontwards an alternate slate of electors -- there were merely Trump allies claiming without any dominance to be electors.
Eastman, who has been subpoenaed past the Business firm select committee and is fighting to keep some of his records clandestine from investigators, was accused by Carter of likely engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Trump to overturn the election.
"Dr. Eastman has an unblemished record as an attorney and respectfully disagrees with the approximate's findings," his attorney Charles Burnham said in response to the gauge's ruling.
Trump Jr. pushes Meadows to burn Wray and install loyalist at FBI
Trump Jr. ends his November 5 text by calling for a litany of personnel moves to solidify his father'southward control over the government by putting loyalists in central jobs and initiate investigations into the Biden family.
"Burn down Wray; Fire Fauci," he texts, referring to FBI Manager Christopher Wray and White Firm coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci. Trump Jr. and so proposes making former acting Managing director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell interim caput of the FBI and having then-Attorney General Bill Barr "select Special prosecutor on HardDrivefromHell Biden crime family unit."
As Trump refused to concede in the days and weeks afterwards the 2020 election, rumors swirled that he was nevertheless considering firing Wray, along with several other meridian officials with whom he had grown frustrated.
Trump and his allies sharply criticized Wray for failing to produce information that they claimed would be harmful to the President's political enemies, including Biden. CNN previously reported that the prospect of Trump firing Wray hung over the FBI for weeks, dating to before Ballot Day.
While Wray remains in his post and Barr resigned in mid-December 2020 without naming a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens, Trump Jr.'southward text underscores just how precarious the situation at DOJ was in the immediate aftermath of the ballot.
The same is true for Trump Jr.'due south recommendation that Meadows supervene upon Wray with Grenell, someone who non only lacked the usual qualifications to lead the FBI but too had a proven track record of doing the former President'southward behest.
After serving a controversial three-month stint as Trump'due south interim intel chief, Grenell hit the campaign trail in tardily 2020 to help promote Trump'due south unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and support his legal challenges in a key swing land: Nevada.
On November 5, Biden held a slim atomic number 82 over Trump in Nevada only appeared poised to win the state's half dozen electoral votes. That same 24-hour interval, Grenell and Trump campaign officials announced they were filing a new lawsuit to "stop the counting of illegal votes" but provided no testify to support their claims of rampant fraud.
This story has been updated with new details of a text bulletin Trump Jr. sent to Meadows.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/politics/donald-trump-jr-meadows-text/index.html
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