Newly-released textual content messages from Senator Mike Lee of Utah present that the senator urged prime Trump officers to arrange a gathering with legal professional Sidney Powell earlier than she joined Trump's authorized staff in its efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election.
In texts to former White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows, Lee referred to Powell as a "straight shooter" and advocated that she meet with former President Donald Trump to share the authorized "technique" she had been engaged on to assist overturn Joe Biden's victory.
"Sydney [sic.] Powell is saying that she must get in to see the president, however she's being evaded him. Apparently she has a technique to maintain issues alive and put a number of states again in play. Are you able to assist her get in?" Lee wrote to Meadows on November 7, 2020, based on messages obtained by the Home committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot and reported by CNN.
Powell was named to Trump's authorized staff on November 14, 2020, however the Trump marketing campaign shortly distanced itself from her after she started selling baseless election fraud claims.
Only a week after Powell joined Trump's authorized staff, Trump legal professional Rudy Giuliani issued a press release that Powell was "working towards legislation on her personal" and was not part of the staff.
The messages from Lee to Meadows mirror the Trump marketing campaign's sudden shift on Powell.
Ten days after Lee hosted an government assembly with Powell because the visitor speaker, he instructed Meadows that he was "nervous in regards to the Powell press convention."
"Until Powell can instantly substantiate what she mentioned immediately, the president ought to in all probability disassociate himself and refute any claims that may't be substantiated," Lee wrote on November 19, 2020, including that "I sort of doubt" Powell would be capable of "again up all the pieces she mentioned."
Days earlier than, the Utah senator mentioned he needed Powell to fulfill with Republican senators to assist bolster the concept that Trump ought to pursue obtainable authorized cures prompt by Powell, who he prompt can be instrumental in forming "the precise authorized staff."
"You've gotten in us a gaggle of prepared and dependable advocates who will go to bat for him, however I concern this might show short-lived until you rent the precise authorized staff and set them free instantly," Lee mentioned in a November 9, 2020 textual content message.
In a press release despatched to Newsweek, Lee's workplace mentioned the newly reported texts "inform the identical story Senator Lee instructed from the ground of the Senate the day he voted to certify the election outcomes of every state within the nation."
On January 6, 2021, the senator mentioned that the Senate's solely job within the election was "to convene, to open the ballots, and to depend them. That is it."
Lee mentioned he did not publicly state objections to the outcomes of the election as a result of he "needed to provide the individuals serving in authorities within the contested states the chance to do no matter they felt they wanted to do to ensure that their election was correctly mirrored."
"I spent an infinite period of time reaching out to state authorities officers in these states, however in not one of the contested states—no, not even one—did I uncover any indication that there was any probability that any state legislature, or secretary of state, or governor, or lieutenant governor, that had any intention to change the slate of electors."
After expressing his considerations over Powell in November 2020, the senator nudged the Trump staff to think about assembly with John Eastman, who turned a authorized adviser to the previous president and who infamously implored Vice President Mike Pence to dam the certification of the electoral faculty votes.
"John Eastman has some actually fascinating analysis on [audits]. The excellent news is is that Eastman is proposing an method that in contrast to what Sidney Powell has suggest may very well be examined in a short time," Lee instructed Meadows.
Final month, a federal decide in California alleged that Eastman "engaged in a felony conspiracy to defraud america" by interfering within the U.S. electoral course of.
"Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a marketing campaign to overturn a democratic election, an motion unprecedented in American historical past," Decide David Carter wrote within the March 28 court docket ruling. "The plan spurred violent assaults on the seat of our nation's authorities, led to the deaths of a number of legislation enforcement officers, and deepened public mistrust in our political course of."
Newsweek reached out to Powell for remark.
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