Brian Babin, Louie Gohmert attended 2020 election meeting at White House

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WASHINGTON — Two Republican Texas congressmen — Brian Babin of Woodville and Louie Gohmert of Tyler — participated in a December 2020 White House dialogue about whether or not former Vice President Mike Pence might reject former President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection loss, the U.S. House Committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol revealed Tuesday.

But it wasn’t instantly clear how Babin or Gohmert participated. The revelation, based mostly on White House customer logs, got here throughout the seventh meeting of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot throughout which Trump supporters sought to cease Pence and Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election win. Babin and Gohmert didn’t instantly reply Tuesday to requests for remark in regards to the meeting.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a committee member who helped lead Tuesday’s listening to, mentioned the Dec. 21, 2020, meeting included dialogue of Trump adviser John Eastman’s try to overturn the previous president’s election loss. Eastman authored a memo that outlined the steps for Pence to take to overturn the 2020 election outcomes by rejecting a few of Biden’s Electoral College votes. But on Jan. 6, 2020, Pence went in opposition to Eastman and Trump and authorized Biden’s win — after individuals storming the Capitol brought about a delay.

Trump supporters referred to as for Pence to be hanged as they descended on the constructing and disrupted the certification.

The December 2020 meeting additionally included a few of Trump’s most ardent Republican supporters in Congress, based on customer logs obtained by the committee: Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Harris of Maryland, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Jody Hice of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia additionally attended.

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone objected to efforts to overturn the outcomes and was not allowed to be part of a meeting between Trump, Pence and Eastman on Jan. 4, 2021.

“I thought that the vice president did not have the authority to do what was being suggested under a proper reading of the law. I conveyed that,” Cipollone mentioned in recorded testimony that was performed at Tuesday’s listening to.

The meeting is the newest proof of Gohmert’s inside position in aiding Trump’s plan to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. Babin’s title had not beforehand surfaced within the committee’s hearings.

The committee’s hearings have sought to put out how Trump and his allies launched a coordinated effort to overturn Biden’s electoral victory, regardless of realizing claims of widespread voter fraud had been unsubstantiated. The committee has devoted hearings to the strain Trump positioned on state legislators in swing states and Trump’s actions instantly following Election Day. The committee has simply two GOP members of Congress after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled different Republicans from the panel final 12 months.

Tuesday’s listening to chronicled the time between Dec. 14, 2020 — the day the Electoral College voted to verify Biden’s victory — till the day earlier than the Capitol assault, charting how Trump and his allies continued last-ditch efforts to overturn the election outcomes, even after it had grow to be clear there was no widespread voter fraud.

The listening to had probably the most references to Texans of any listening to to this point. Also talked about had been Alex Jones and Ali Alexander, two distinguished far-right figures who referred to as on their supporters to problem the election outcomes.

These calls grew to become most distinguished after Trump tweeted a name for his supporters to journey to Washington on Jan. 6.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, simply after a contentious meeting within the White House the place Trump’s attorneys repeatedly mentioned there was no proof of fraud.

Jones, a far-right radio host, urged Trump supporters to heed Trump’s name.

“President Trump in the early morning hours today tweeted that he wants the American people to march on Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021,” Jones instructed his supporters in a video performed at Tuesday’s listening to. “He is calling on we the people to take action and show our numbers. … The time for games is over. The time for action is now. Where were you when history called? Where were you when you and your children’s destiny and future was on the line?”

Alexander led the “Stop the Steal” motion after Biden received the election.

“These degenerates in the deep state are going to give us what we want or we are going to shut this country down,” Alexander mentioned in a speech proven at Tuesday’s listening to.

The listening to linked Alexander and Jones to Roger Stone, a Trump adviser who helped lead conspiracy theories in regards to the election. Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer for the far-right group Oath Keepers, instructed the committee in recorded testimony that the three individuals main the “Stop the Steal” motion had been Stone, Jones and Alexander.

“Those are the ones that became the center point for everything,” SoRelle mentioned in recorded testimony.

The committee revealed there was a gaggle chat referred to as “Friends of Stone,” during which Alexander was a member. Texan Stewart Rhodes, founding father of the Oath Keepers, was additionally within the group.

Alexander and Jones’ presence within the occasions main as much as the riot apprehensive Katrina Pierson, a longtime conservative fixture in Dallas who was concerned within the lineup of audio system for the Jan. 6 rally. Pierson later texted a former marketing campaign staffer that she didn’t assume Trump’s rhetoric led to the violence on Jan. 6.

Pierson texted one other rally organizer that Trump “likes the crazies.” She messaged Trump’s chief of workers Mark Meadows saying, “Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please.”

Pierson additionally emailed Caroline Wren, additionally a Texan and a longtime Trump fundraiser, that “POTUS expectations are to have something intimate at the ellipse, and call on everyone to march to the capitol.” That echoed an analogous textual content that Alexander despatched to a conservative journalist on Jan. 5: “Ellipse then US Capitol. Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol but we’ll see,” proving that folks exterior the White House knew of a plan to march to the Capitol.

Stephen Ayres, a member of the Oath Keepers who testified at Tuesday’s listening to, mentioned he was not planning to march to the Capitol till Trump referred to as on individuals to take action.

“The president got everybody riled up and told everybody to head on down, so we basically were following what he said,” Ayres mentioned.

Jason Van Tatenhove, a former Oath Keepers spokesperson, was the opposite witness at Tuesday’s listening to. He mentioned Rhodes, the Texan who based the Oath Keepers, is a “militia leader.” Rhodes implored Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, which permits the president to name up militias to place down a rise up.

“He had these grand visions of being a paramilitary leader, and the Insurrection Act would’ve given him a path forward with that,” Van Tatenhove testified.

Gohmert’s title has come up typically throughout the House committee hearings. A former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, mentioned in a recorded testimony that Gohmert was one among 5 members of Congress to seek a pardon from Trump after the riot. Gohmert denied that he ever requested for a pardon associated to the Capitol assault.

The House Committee additionally revealed in an earlier listening to that Gohmert’s chief of workers was copied on an e-mail that mentioned Pence “would benefit greatly from a briefing” by Eastman, who’s generally known as the architect of the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcomes. The e-mail was additionally despatched to different individuals linked to the plot to overturn the election outcomes.

In that very same earlier listening to, the House Committee performed a video from Gohmert blasting the Justice Department for not investigating the unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.

“There’s widespread evidence of fraud because people haven’t done their jobs,” Gohmert mentioned within the clip shot on Dec. 3, 2020. “[John] Durham and [William] Barr will deserve a big notation in history when it’s written of the rise and fall of the United States if they don’t clean up this mess, clean up the fraud. Do your jobs and save this little experiment in self-government.”

The U.S. Capitol Police additionally flagged feedback from Gohmert days earlier than the riot as probably inciting violence. In an interview on the conservative news community Newsmax, Gohmert mentioned letting Biden’s electoral victory stand could be “the end of our republic, the end of the experiment in self-government.”

“The ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter],” Gohmert mentioned. He later mentioned he was not advocating for violence.

Hours after the assault ended, Gohmert voted in opposition to the certification of electoral ends in Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The committee plans to carry its eighth listening to subsequent week. It will concentrate on Trump’s actions on Jan. 6.

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