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Congressman Andy Harris (D-Maryland) was among at least 10 House Republicans who attended a White House meeting in December 2020 with President Donald Trump to discuss actions that could be taken to preserve Trump in office on January 6, 2021, the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol revealed in his last hearing.
Harris’ presence suggests he has been more closely involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results than previously known, making him one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress as the president desperately tries to to cling to power, even though White House and Justice Department lawyers said there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.
Testimony before the select committee on Jan. 6 described a Dec. 18, 2020, meeting in which Trump campaign officials clashed with White House officials. (Video: The Washington Post)
“In the weeks since the election, the White House has coordinated closely with President Trump’s allies in Congress to spread his false claims and encourage members of the public to fight the Jan. 6 result,” said Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla. ) , who chaired Tuesday’s hearing along with Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Med.). “We know the president met with various members to discuss Jan. 6 well before the joint session.”
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Murphy said White House visitor logs show the president had a “private meeting with Republican members of Congress” on Dec. 21, a meeting that also included Vice President Mike Pence, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The meeting was previously disclosed in reports at the time and in more recent court documents.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) had sent an email to Meadows to set up the meeting, with the subject line “White House meeting Dec. 21 re Jan. 6,” according to the committee. In the email, Murphy noted, Brooks said he did not ask anyone to join him in the “Jan. 6 effort” because he believed “only citizens can have the necessary influence on senators and congressmen to join this fight against massive voter fraud and election theft.”
Witnesses have told the committee since Jan. 6 that the meeting focused in part on “the vice president’s role during the electoral vote count,” Murphy said. Participants debated what became known as the “Eastman theory”: that Pence could unilaterally decide which electoral votes to reject or accept to keep Trump in power. Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, have repeatedly pressed Pence to either throw out the results in the contested states or delay the proceedings so that the contested states can review the results and possibly send alternate voters to Trump — plans White House lawyers have testified about. , that they consider them illegal.
Trump aides told him that using Pence to overturn the election was illegal
Murphy said the requests for clemency came from Brooks and “other members of Congress who attended that meeting.” The Jan. 6 panel previously named five Republicans who were said to have asked Trump for a pardon, though Harris was not among them.
The Jan. 6 panel named five Republicans who allegedly asked Trump to pardon him
Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Former Justice Department lawyer Richard Donohue testified last month that, according to notes he kept of the conversation, Trump told him on Dec. 27 that the Justice Department should “just say the election is corrupt + leave the rest to me and R. [Republican] congressmen.
Harris, despite previously saying he would reach a six-term limit, is running for a seventh term in Congress this year. He is unopposed in Maryland’s July 19 primary, but two Democrats are vying to defeat him in November, each of whom called Harris a “traitor” after his involvement in meetings with Trump around Jan. 6 was revealed.
“Yesterday we learned that my opponent, Andy Harris, was in the White House and conspired with Trump to overturn a free and fair election,” Heather Mizer, a former Maryland House delegate for Takoma Park, who raised nearly $2 million, tweeted in his race on Wednesday morning. “He is a traitor to our country and with your help I will remove him from power in November.”
Harris “dishonored his office, violated his oath and chose the pursuit of power over the rule of law,” Dave Harden, a former Foreign Service officer hoping to defeat Miser in the Democratic primary, tweeted on Wednesday. “He disgraced us.”
Along with Harris, Reps. Brian Babin (Texas), Andy Biggs (Arizona), Matt Goetz (Florida), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Paul A. Gosar (Arizona), Jody Heiss (Georgia), Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Scott Perry (Pennsylvania) attended the meeting at the White House on December 21 personal. Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) was also there.
In a taped interview in March, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows, said several other members who were not physically present pitched in during the meeting. She said she wasn’t in the meeting the whole time, but that during the parts she witnessed, “several members expressed their opinions and thoughts on January 6th what they thought the role of the vice president could potentially be.” , according to a transcript of her interview in court documents.
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“They felt that he had the power to … send votes back to the States or voters back to the States, more along the lines of the Eastman theory,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said that to his recollection, none of the lawmakers disagreed, according to the transcript.
Harris objected to the election results hours after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and in the early morning of Jan. 7 got into a heated verbal argument with a House Democrat, prompting his colleagues to intervene.
Democrats were eager to defeat Harris in November, especially after the Maryland General Assembly drew a congressional redistricting map that would have made it possible for Democrats to win in Harris’ Eastern Shore-based 1st District. However, those hopes were largely dashed when a Maryland judge found that map to be an illegal gerrymander and ordered a new one drawn.
Now, under the latest map, the district is solid red and political observers think Harris is safe in November.
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