Jim Jordan had 10-minute call with Trump

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan’s memory has been hazy about talking with President Donald Trump on the day rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol.

The Urbana Republican told Spectrum News’ Washington reporter, Taylor Popielarz, last summer that he couldn’t remember whether it was before or after the insurrection on Jan. 6. He said much the same thing to Fox News.

In August, Jordan told Politco that he talked to Trump more than once the day of the riot, but couldn’t recall when.

Jordan told a House panel last fall he couldn’t remember when or how many times he talked to the president that day.

The Washington Post cleared things up a bit Tuesday, revealing that phone records show that Trump had a 10-minute call starting at 9:24 a.m. with Jordan, shortly before the congressman urged the House to overturn the election of Joe Biden.

It was the second-longest call Whether additional calls were made remains unknown. The White House call logs have about a seven-hour gap as rioters invaded the Capitol and Jordan and other top officials were whisked to safety.

CNN had earlier reported the 10-minute conversation, but did not have details on exactly when it happened Jan. 6.

Jordan has refused requests from the House panel probing the events surrounding Jan. 6 to provide further information.

‘Contempt’ proceedings for Ohio GOP

For a second time in about five weeks ks, the question of whether members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission should be held in contempt of court is before the state Supreme Court. A court filing is due Monday from the commission defending how it formed its latest legislative redistricting plan in response to the court’s March 16 ruling that the previous map was unconstitutional.

The contention not only is that the new (fourth) map still doesn’t pass legal muster, but that the miniscule changes the commission’s GOP majority (minus Auditor Keith Faber) made to the unconstitutional plan “evinces manifest contempt for the court’s orders and the Ohio Constitution.” That’s from a motion by a branch of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, headed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“The ‘new’ plan is exactly the same as the last unconstitutional plan with the exception of minute cosmetic changes – to 26 precincts affecting less than 0.3% of Ohio’s population,” Holder’s group said. That’s out of nearly 9,000 precincts statewide.

One Democratic strategist said all 26 precincts changed lie in three of Ohio’s 88 counties: Franklin, Stark and Columbiana.

Republicans vs Supreme Court

Here’s a comparison of what the high court’s four-member majority said in its previous ruling and what the Republicans who control the Redistricting Commission (again, minus Faber) actually did:

● The court ordered the commission to “draft and adopt an entirely new General Assembly–district plan.”

As noted, the “new” map is merely the old, unconstitutional map with minor changes to “toss-up” districts.

● The court said: “We expect the commission to abide by its (constitutional) duty to draft a plan, not to simply adopt one drafted by legislative staff at the direction of members of one political party.”

The changes to the latest map were drafted by GOP legislative staffers at the direction of GOP leaders.

● “In all three of our opinions in these cases, we have identified a flawed process in which the General Assembly–district plan adopted by the commission has been the product of just one political party.”

The latest plan was solely the product of Republicans.

● The court found “Senate President (Matt) Huffman’s concern for not drawing any incumbent Republican caucus member out of a district (based on current voting residence) to be grounded in a desire to protect Republican officeholders . ... Thus, efforts to protect these incumbents in noncompliant districts can neither be a legitimate and neutral goal nor comport with (the state constitution).“

Huffman once again directed mapmakers to attempt to avoid new districts that held more than one Senate incumbent.

● “To promote transparency and increase public trust, the drafting should occur in public and the commissioners should convene frequent meetings to demonstrate their bipartisan efforts to reach a constitutional plan within the time set by this court . ...

“The commission should retain an independent map drawer – who answers to all commission members, not only to the Republican legislative leaders – to draft a plan through a transparent process.”

This is the part that frustrates critics the most. The seven-member commission actually followed this directive for several days, working together in public meetings. They hired a Republican and a Democratic mapmaker, whose detailed joint work was live-streamed.

But as Monday’s midnight deadline approached and the bipartisan map wasn’t quite finished, the GOP legislative leaders reverted to the rejected map, made the minor changes, and passed it with the support of Republican Gov. Mike Dewine and Secretary of State Frank Larose.

Lawmakers get impeachment research

Reporters across Ohio are trying to gauge the strength of the House GOP’S push to impeach fellow Republican Maureen O’connor as chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

O’connor has sided with the three Democratic justices to form four-member majorities in the redistricting rulings that so far has declared every Republican map unconstitutional.

Whether the effort is just a few vocal GOP lawmakers or actually will result in an impeachment resolution, one fact is unquestioned. Legislators have researched the issue.

In February, the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission provided lawmakers with a four-page guide to removing public officials.

“The Ohio Constitution provides for the impeachment of the governor, judges and all state officers for any misdemeanor in office,” the commission attorney wrote.

She noted that only a simple majority of the House is needed for impeachment, but a two-thirds majority of the Senate is required to convict. drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland