Text messages unveiled in court filings provide new details about how, long before the attack on the Capitol unfolded, several Republican lawmakers were participating directly in Donald Trump's campaign to reverse the results of a free and fair election.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows listens during an announcement of the creation of a new South Carolina Freedom Caucus based on a similar national group at a news conference on April 20, 2022 in Columbia, S.C. Rioters who smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, succeeded -- at least temporarily -- in delaying the certification of Joe Biden's election to the White House.
Since launching its investigation last summer, the Jan. 6 panel has been slowly gaining new details about what lawmakers said and did in the weeks before the insurrection. Members have asked three GOP lawmakers -- Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California -- to testify voluntarily. All have refused. Other lawmakers could be called in the coming days.
Despite the warning from the counsel's office, Trump's allies moved forward. On Dec. 14, 2020, as rightly chosen Democratic electors in seven states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- met at their seat of state government to cast their votes, the fake electors gathered as well.
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona didn't deny his public efforts to challenge the election results but called recent reports about his deep involvement untrue. "They felt that he had the authority to, pardon me if my phrasing isn't correct on this, but -- send votes back to the States or the electors back to the states," Hutchinson said, referring to Pence.