But shortly after the election, both men encouraged Trump to keep fighting. In a series of Meadows posts on November 7, Lee offered his “unequivocal support for exhausting all legal and constitutional means at your disposal to restore American credibility in our election.” Lee continued: “This fight is about the fundamental justice and integrity of our electoral system. The nation depends on your continued determination. Stay strong and keep fighting, Mr. President.” Also on Nov. 7, Roy wrote to Meadows, “We need ammunition. We need examples of fraud. We need it this weekend.” In a statement to CNN, Lee’s communications director, Lee Lonsberry, said: “I would like to emphasize that Senator Lee was fully transparent,” noting that Lee had called for an investigation into allegations of fraud in the 2020 election but eventually acknowledged him. Biden was elected president and voted to ratify the election results on January 6. Roy’s communications director Nate Madden told CNN that the text messages “speak for themselves”. A Meadows lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. A representative of the selection committee declined to comment. A source familiar with the commission’s work told CNN that Lee’s writings “reflect that he was a cheerleader before he was against him.

“Can you help her get in?”

Within days of November, Lee pressured the Meadows to allow attorney Sidney Powell access to Trump. “Sydney Powell says she has to come in to see the president, but they keep her away,” Lee wrote in the Meadows on November 7. “Obviously he has a strategy to keep things alive and bring many states back into the game. Can you help her get in? “ Lee then sent Meadows Powell her cell phone number and email. On November 9, Lee again pressed Meadows for Powell, calling her a “straight shooter.” On the same day, Roy warned Meadows of Trump’s approach, sending him the message: whip his base into a conspiracy. frenzy.” This was followed by the now-famous November 19 press conference, in which members of Trump’s legal team – including Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis – made a series of false allegations and conspiracy theories about alleged voter fraud.
The messages began to take on a more critical tone. “Hello bro – we need substance or people will break,” Roy wrote Nov. 19, just hours after the press conference. Two hours later, Lee sent a message to Meadows with serious concerns, saying he was “worried about Powell’s press conference.” Lee told Meadows, “The possible responsibility for defamation of the president is significant here. “For the campaign and for the president personally. “Unless Powell can support everything he said, which I doubt he can.” Meadows replied, “I agree. Very worried.” The press conference came as Trump’s legal losses piled up in an attempt to challenge the results in key states.

From Powell to Eastman

In late November, Lee ousted Powell and began promoting right-wing attorney John Eastman, who a California federal judge said last month may have been plotting a crime with Trump as they tried to cut off his presidential credentials. Congress on January 6. calling it a “coup in search of a legal theory”. In particular, Roy also sent messages to the Meadows in support of Eastman and criticized Giuliani. “Did you talk to John Eastman?” Roy sent a message on November 22. “Receive data in front of a public sector. “Frigging Rudy must be silent.”
By December, both Republican lawmakers were expressing serious concerns to Meadows about the plan to challenge the certification of the Jan. 6 election. On December 16, Lee asked Meadows for guidance: “If you want senators to object, we need to hear from you about ideally getting some guidance on the arguments you need to make. “I think we have overcome the point where we can expect anyone to do it without any direction and a strong argument.” On December 31, Roy expressed even greater concern in a text in Meadows. “The president must withdraw everyone. It is the only way. If we replace the will of the states through the electorate with a vote by Congress every four years … we have destroyed the electorate … With respect,” Roy wrote. Until then, Trump and his allies were working behind the scenes to recruit sections of the federal government in an effort to overthrow the election. This included urging Justice Department officials, including then-Attorney General William Barr, to investigate the fraud even after the agency said it did not exist. Trump also put a lot of pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence not to ratify the January 6 election. In a Jan. 3 text in Meadows, Lee argued that Trump’s attempt to ask states to send alternative voter lists to Congress was illegal. “I only know that this will end badly for the President, unless we have the Constitution on our side,” Lee wrote in a note to Meadows. “And if those states do not submit new Trump voter lists under state law, we will not do so,” Lee wrote to Meadows. As previously reported by CNN, the plan to replace genuine voters with fake swing states was orchestrated by allies of the former president and overseen by then-Giuliani’s lawyer. None of these alternative voters in favor of Trump received approval from state officials, nor did they appear before Congress.
While Lee and Roy both voted in favor of endorsing Biden, more than 100 of their Republican counterparts in both House and Senate did not. Leading among them were Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Missouri-based Josh Hawley, whom Lee both shouted at in Meadows. “I have serious concerns about the way my friend Ted is making this effort,” Lee wrote in the Meadows. “This will not be in the president’s favor.” Lee added that unless new, competitive voter lists were submitted under state law, the net result “could help people like Ted and Josh at the expense of the DJT.” When January 6 finally came, neither Lee nor Roy reunited with their colleagues in disagreement with the results of the 2020 presidential election.
After the violence unfolded and Congress returned to the House, Roy told the House of Representatives: “The President should never have encouraged some Americans to believe something that simply could not be done.”
He also sent a message to Meadows, “This is a show. “Fix it now.”