One day before Congress was supposed to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a text message to Mark Meadows, then the Trump White House’s chief of staff, outlining a legal strategy to overthrow Joe Biden’s win.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) read part of the text on the House floor earlier this week, but didn’t identify its sender. Jordan’s office confirmed it was from him on Wednesday and added that the text was actually a forward originally authored by Joseph Schmitz, a former Department of Defense inspector general who served as an advisor on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
According to multiple outlets, the full message read:
On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all.
The legally dubious argument that Pence could unilaterally invalidate or refuse to count any state’s electoral votes was rejected by Pence himself, despite Trump pressuring him to do so.
Schmitz’s argument, which was forwarded to the president’s top aide by a sitting member of Congress, gives insight into the ways Trump’s allies at all levels were sharing ideas about how to change the outcome of the democratic election.
Schiff said the text underscores why the House select committee investigating the events culminating in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol wants to speak to Meadows.
“You can see why this is so critical to ask Mr. Meadows about,” Schiff said. “About a lawmaker suggesting that the former vice president simply throw out votes that he unilaterally deems unconstitutional in order to overturn a presidential election and subvert the will of the American people.”
The House recommended contempt of Congress charges against Meadows earlier this week. He had been cooperating with investigators – Jordan’s text was part of a large tranche of documents he gave to the committee – but abruptly withdrew his compliance. The Department of Justice must now decide if they should indict Meadows.