Text messages and testimony released by the House Jan. 6 panel shows the deep involvement of some House Republicans in then-President Donald Trump's desperate attempt to stay in power.
The evidence provides new details about how, long before the attack on the Capitol unfolded in January 2021, several GOP lawmakers were directly participating in Trump's campaign to reverse the results of the election. The exchange of ideas happened in private calls and texts and at several White House meetings in the weeks leading to the insurrection.
The majority of the lawmakers have since denied their involvement in those efforts.
Rep. Jim Jordan texted with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a close ally and friend, writing that then-Vice President Mike Pence “should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all,” Jordan wrote.
“I have pushed for this,” Meadows replied. “Not sure it is going to happen.”
“It appears that a significant number of House members and a few senators had more than just a passing role in what went on,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the Jan. 6 committee.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the panel from Maryland wrote in a Tweet, “As the mob smashed our windows, bloodied our police and stormed the Capitol, Trump and his accomplices plotted to destroy Biden’s majority in the electoral college and overthrow our constitutional order.”