“It’s very simple,” Trump Jr. wrote in Meadows on November 5, later adding to the same mission: “We have multiple roads, we control them all.” In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan S. Futterfas, said: “After the election, Don received many messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message probably came from someone else and was forwarded.” The November 5 text message outlines a strategy that is almost identical to that pursued by the former president’s allies in the months that followed. Trump Jr. makes specific references to lawsuits and recount support to prevent some states struggling to validate their results, as well as proposing a handful of Republican state bodies with fake Trump voter boards. If all else fails, according to Trump Jr.’s text, Republican lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to re-elect Trump as president on Jan. 6.
“We have operational control Total leverage,” the message said. “Moral High Ground POTUS should start the 2nd period now.” Trump Jr.’s text is revealing on many levels. It shows how those closest to the former president were already exchanging ideas on how to overthrow the election months before the January 6 uprising – and before all the votes were counted. It will be another two days before the big media announces Joe Biden the winner on November 7.
The text also adds to a growing body of evidence of how Trump’s inner circle actively participated in the debate over how to challenge the election results. On March 28, Judge David Carter, a federal judge in California, said Trump, along with conservative lawyer John Eastman, had launched an “unprecedented” campaign to overthrow the Democratic election, calling it a “coup d’etat” in search of a legal . George Terwilliger, Meadows’s lawyer, declined to comment on the story. A representative of the Parliamentary Select Committee declined to comment.

Predicting the Trump campaign strategy

In the weeks following the 2020 election, Trump and his allies eventually filed more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits in key states, failing to convince courts that his allegations of stolen elections were justified or to reveal widespread voter fraud. They also demanded various recounts based on the same unfounded allegations of voter fraud. Some states recounted the months after the election, although none of them revealed a fraud that was significant enough to change the outcome of the vote in any state.
While Trump Jr. has publicly pushed various conspiracy theories into voter fraud and generally cast doubt on the results in states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, his text in the Meadows reveals that there were other ideas that were privately discussed. Specifically, Trump Jr. is previewing a strategy to replace genuine voters with fake Republican voters in a handful of states. This plan was eventually orchestrated and implemented by allies of the former President and supervised by his then lawyer Rudy Giuliani. In his text to Meadows, Trump Jr. identifies two key dates in December that serve as deadlines for states to certify their election results and force Congress to accept them. Although the dates are largely ritualistic, in his text Trump Jr. seems to point them out as possible weaknesses that should be exploited by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election results.

Looking for Trump voters

Trump Jr.’s Nov. 5 text in the Meadows came as similar perceptions of unfaithful voters began to spread publicly on conservative social media. Trump Jr. sent the text to the Meadows at 12:51 p.m., minutes after conservative radio presenter Mark Levine posted a similar idea on Twitter and suggested that state legislatures have the final say on the electorate. If the foreign ministers could not confirm the results, Trump Jr. argues in his text to Meadows that they should use their advantage to “intervene” the Republican-controlled state assemblies and propose “separate elections”. “Trump,” he writes. .
“Republicans control Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, etc. “We have Trump voters,” Trump Jr. added.
However, Trump Jr.’s text refers to an untested legal theory that state houses are the ultimate authority in elections and can intervene to present a different voter list than those chosen by voters, when in fact it is a ritual process and the result is essentially a predetermined conclusion. The Justice Department and the House committee are investigating the fake voter turnout as part of what unfolded on January 6 and Trump’s broader effort to overthrow the election. The strategy presented by Trump Jr. is similar to that described by former Texas Gov. and Trump Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who sent a message to Meadows on November 4 proposing that three legislatures ignore the will of their constituents and surrender. their state voters to Trump.
HERE IS AN AGGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can’t the states of GA NC PENN and other controlled state parliaments declare that this is BS (where no clashes and elections were announced that night) and just send their own voters to vote? and tell him to go to SCOTUS “, wrote Perry’s message.
A Perry spokesman told CNN at the time that the former Secretary of Energy denied that he was the author of the text. However, many people who know Rick Perry have previously confirmed to CNN that the phone number the panel has associated with this text message is Perry’s number.

“We control them all”

Trump Jr. is also sending a message to Meadows that Congress could intervene on Jan. 6 and overturn the will of voters if, for some reason, they were unable to secure enough ballots to overturn Trump in favor by using the state strategy.
This choice, according to Trump Jr.’s text, includes a scenario in which neither Biden nor Trump have enough ballots to be declared winners, forcing the House of Representatives to vote by a state party delegation, with each state taking one vote. .
“Republicans control 28 states, Democrats control 22 states,” Trump Jr. wrote. “Trump is winning once again.”
“Either we have a vote that we control and WE WIN OR it will be led to Congress on January 6, 2021,” he sent a message to Meadows. In a series of memoirs in early January, Conservative lawyer John Eastman suggested a variation on this idea.
Eastman’s note contained a six-step plan for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the Trump election, which included rejecting the results in seven states because they allegedly had rival voters. In fact, no state had actually submitted an alternative voter list – there were simply Trump allies who claimed to have no power to vote.
Eastman, who has been summoned by the House Select Committee and is struggling to keep some of his files secret from investigators, has been accused by Carter of possibly being involved in a criminal conspiracy with Trump to overthrow the election.
“Dr. Eastman has an impeccable record as a lawyer and respects the judge’s findings with respect,” Charles Burnham’s lawyer said in response to the judge’s ruling.

Trump Jr. pushes Meadows to fire Ray, installs FBI loyalist

Trump Jr. ends his text on November 5 by calling for a series of staff moves to consolidate his father’s control over the government, placing loyalists in key jobs and launching investigations into the Biden family.
“Fire Wray, Fire Fauci,” he wrote, referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray and White House adviser on coronavirus Anthony Fauci. Trump Jr. then proposes that former National Intelligence Deputy Director Rick Grenell become the interim FBI chief, and then-Attorney General Bill Barr be asked to “choose a HardDrive Attorney General from his criminal family.” ».
As Trump refused to give up the days and weeks after the 2020 election, rumors circulated that he was still considering firing Ray, along with several other top officials with whom he had been disappointed. Trump and his allies sharply criticized Ray for not producing information that he claimed would be harmful to the president’s political enemies, including Biden. CNN previously reported that Trump’s prospect of firing Ray hung over the FBI for weeks before election day.
While Ray remains in office and Barr resigned in mid-December 2020 without appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens, Trump Jr.’s text underscores how precarious the situation was at the DOJ in the immediate aftermath of the election.
The same goes for Trump Jr.’s recommendation that Mandowe replace Ray with Grenell, who not only did not have the usual qualifications to head the FBI, but also had a proven track record of making the former president’s offers.
After serving a controversial three-month term as Trump’s deputy intelligence chief, Grenell launched his campaign in late 2020 to help advance Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud and to uphold his legal claims. : Nevada.
On November 5, Biden had a small lead over Trump in Nevada, but seemed ready to win the state’s six electoral votes. The same day, Grenell and Trump campaign officials announced that they had filed a new lawsuit to “stop the counting of illegal ballots,” but did not provide evidence to support their allegations of uncontrolled fraud. CNN’s Tara Subramaniam contributed to this report.