Trump Jr. texts sent ideas to Meadows to overturn vote
Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still being tallied, Donald Trump's eldest son texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that “we have operational control” to ensure his father would get a second term, with Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and swing state legislatures, CNN has learned.
In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021.
“It's very simple,” Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on Nov. 5, adding later in the same missive: “We have multiple paths We control them all.”
In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr.'s 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.”
The Nov. 5 text message outlines a strategy that is nearly identical to what allies of the former 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 state houses put forward slates of fake “Trump electors.”
Looking to Congress
If all that failed, according to the Trump Jr. text, GOP lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump as President on Jan. 6.
“We have operational control Total leverage,” the message reads. “Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.”
The text from Trump Jr. is revealing on a number of levels. It shows how those closest to the former president already were exchanging ideas for how to overturn the election months before the Jan. 6 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 Donald Trump's inner circle 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 conservative lawyer John Eastman, launched an “unprecedented” campaign to overturn a democratic election, calling it “a coup in search of a legal theory.”