NEW More Meadows texts: A Plot To Overturn An American Election (Talking Points Memo)

[Nevilledog]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/a-plot-to-overturn-an-american-election

The messages you are about to read are the definitive, real-time record of a plot to overturn an American election.

TPM has obtained the 2,319 text messages that Mark Meadows, who was President Trump’s last White House chief of staff, turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Today, we are publishing The Meadows Texts, a series based on an in-depth analysis of these extraordinary — and disturbing — communications.

The vast majority of Meadows’ texts described in this series are being made public for the very first time. They show the senior-most official in the Trump White House communicating with members of Congress, state-level politicians, and far-right activists as they work feverishly to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The Meadows texts illustrate in moment-to-moment detail an authoritarian effort to undermine the will of the people and upend the American democratic system as we know it.

The text messages, obtained from multiple sources, offer new insights into how the assault on the election was rooted in deranged internet paranoia and undemocratic ideology. They show Meadows and other high-level Trump allies reveling in wild conspiracy theories, violent rhetoric, and crackpot legal strategies for refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory. They expose the previously unknown roles of some members of Congress, local politicians, activists and others in the plot to overturn the election. Now, for the first time, many of those figures will be named and their roles will be described — in their own words.

Meadows turned over the text messages during a brief period of cooperation with the committee before he filed a December 2021 lawsuit arguing that its subpoenas seeking testimony and his phone records were “overly broad” and violations of executive privilege. Since then, Meadows has faced losses in his efforts to challenge the subpoena in court. However, that legal battle is ongoing and is unlikely to conclude before next month, when the incoming Republican House majority is widely expected to shutter the committee’s investigation. Earlier this year, Meadows reportedly turned over the same material he gave the select committee to the Justice Department in response to another subpoena. These messages are key evidence in the two major investigations into the Jan. 6 attack. With this series, the American people will be able to evaluate the most important texts for themselves.

*snip*

[Botany]

1. Lock 'em up.

"The vast majority of Meadows’ texts described in this series are being made public for the very first time. They show the senior-most official in the Trump White House communicating with members of Congress, state-level politicians, and far-right activists as they work feverishly to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The Meadows texts illustrate in moment-to-moment detail an authoritarian effort to undermine the will of the people and upend the American democratic system as we know it."

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. Well, this could sure be a BFD

An appetizer for the J6 committee report to be released next week.

I’m definitely interested in the messages to/from sitting members of congress, and those to/from Ginni Thomas.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. Is TPM the only outlet releasing these? Nt

[Nevilledog]

4. Initially, I believe it's an exclusive.

I'm sure other outlets will pick up the story, but not sure they'll have the texts.

[ancianita]

6. The release of these to the public could undermine and politicize the DOJ and Jack Smith efforts.

[mjvpi]

9. My understanding is that the January 6th committee was going to make all of .....

…….what they uncovered public. The involvement of members of Congress, as a general point, was stated in at least one of their presentations. Not naming names before the midterms was too much restraint, in my humble opinion.

[ancianita]

12. It is. And they are. Because as the reps of The People they're supposed to make all of it public.

But we don't know if the Committee has these texts. If they did, I doubt they would be the leakers. Some other third party has done this, and probably not in good faith.

Regardless, when the public evidence comes out that the Jan 6 Committee does have, it's registered in the court of public opinion. And when their criminal referrals go to the DOJ, the Jan 6 Committee's evidence becomes legal evidence used to prosecute for justice. There's no contradiction in how the evidence is used per branch of government.

But if these are leaks of info they don't have, then the DOJ won't want this to be politicized and/or undermine its credibility. Meadows is the only holdout for a reason. As with the Jan 6 Committee, we've yet to know what the DOJ has on him.

During the hearings, however, the naming of names without presenting all the evidence was probably the committee's decision to not open themselves up to defamation suits, and leave their colleagues to be appropriately dealt with by the DOJ. Once it's in DOJ hands, no such claims or suits can be brought.

Which is why their only recourse right now is vengeful investigations and impeachment. They think they've got evidence, once in the majority, but they've really got nothing but the same kinds of empty, failed claims they brought to 60+ courts and circuits over 2020 election results. Their congressional activity is going to be a shitshow.

[MOMFUDSKI]

19. DOJ had 2 years

to get their shit together prior to the J6 folks releasing this info. I believe J6 would've cooperated with DOJ had DOJ shown them any will to go forward. J6's reticence to hold back their own info from DOJ told DOJ just what they thought of DOJ's slow walk. Let the chips fall now.

[ancianita]

20. I hear you. The chips are gonna fall with the DOJ. Whether this info leaks to the press or not.

All we have to know is that the "Meadows files" didn't leak from the DOJ. And they didn't. We've got a no-leak DOJ.

Just because I said the info "could" doesn't mean I think it will. That's not to say that the Right won't use the texts being "out there" as some baseless attack on the DOJ, though. It will. But the DOJ has more of its shit together than we know. It's got a number of legal cases it's building. And it will do a good job, however the trifling "witch hunt" Right tries to undermine it.

This Meadows stuff means the rabid base has red meat, but the adults carry on.

[peggysue2]

5. Well, Well, Well

If this teaser is as yummy as it sounds, the breathlessly released Twitter Files and Hunter Biden's dick pics may take a nose dive into the Land of Irrelevance.

Looking forward to it!

[Red Pest]

7. Here is the link to the messaged from Meadows (posted on CNN):

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/politics/read-mark-meadows-texts-january-6-capitol-riot/index.html

[Nevilledog]

10. Those are only some of them.

This new story is about a group of about 2400 texts

[Ms. Toad]

11. Thank you!

I'd been scouring the TPM site and hadn't found the actual texts.

[pnwmom]

13. Did you see this page? I didn't see it the first time I looked at TPM.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/mark-meadows-exchanged-texts-with-34-members-of-congress-about-plans-to-overturn-the-2020-election

[Ms. Toad]

14. Nope.

I followed both links in the OP in anohter thread (at least twice for each link), and even followed links at the bottom of each article which said they were links to the texts.

The comments to the articles suggested I was not the only one who couldn't find the texts.

ETA: Looks like the texts were only published in the last half hour, based on the time of the article.

[pnwmom]

16. I suspect they'll be adding more links to this other page, as they report on more emails.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/meadows-texts

[ShazzieB]

15. I didn't see that either!

I was like, dude, what texts? All I see is a bunch of verbiage telling me how wonderful they are!

[pnwmom]

17. I think they'll probably be dropping more stories here:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/meadows-texts

[Eyeball_Kid]

8. A previous poster was correct in the terminology that must change:

This was NOT an attempt to overturn an election.

It was an attempt to overthrow the government.

[crickets]

18. +1000000

[peggysue2]

21. YES!

Despite all the harassment and abuse, a lot of which seemed stupid and ludicrous, the intent has always been to chip away the public's confidence in our democratic institutions so that an autocratic/authoritarian form a governance could be installed. Or in Trump's case continued despite a significant loss.

January 6th wasn't all about Trump. It was absolutely an attempt to overthrow the US government.

These people aren't done. We held the line last month and most recently in Georgia, but the anti-democratic elements are already gearing up for 2024.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. GOP lawmakers who texted Mark Meadows

Link to tweet