White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged text messages with at least 34 Republican members of Congress as they plotted to overturn President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
Included among that total are Pennsylvania congressmen Scott Perry (R-10), Fred Keller (PA-12) and Mike Kelly (R-16).
“This was a broad plot at every level of government and really every level of the Republican Party,” said co-author Hunter Walker on Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC.
Talking Points Memo (TPM) obtained 2,319 text messages from Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack. The membership-funded news site is now publishing The Meadows Texts, a series based on an in-depth analysis of these communications.
Walker wrote that “Meadows’ text log shows what the scheme to subvert the 2020 election looked like behind the scenes. It reveals the roots of the violence and its key enablers in Washington. The messages show the plot began well before Jan. 6 and continued afterward. They are essential documentation of a dark day in American history.”
On November 4, two days after the election, messages began to arrive to Meadows from members of Congress about instituting legal challenges in certain states.
One came from the Keystone State and Kelly, the 16th District Republican from Butler.
“We’re in Philadelphia suing Pa. Sec. of State for her illegal meddling in this election and will continue to expose fraudulent actions. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to fight these MF’ers in Pa.? Our President is heroic !! Thank you for all you’ve done and please let the President know just how much he’s loved and appreciated in Pennsylvania! Sincerely, Mike Kelly.”
Kelly’s number was identified by committee investigators and independently verified through public records by TPM.
The messages obtained also show Perry was extremely involved in the attempt to reverse President Trump’s electoral loss.
A week after the election, Perry wrote Meadows about his efforts to set up a “cyber team,” that would seize voting machines around the country and put them under “lock and key.”
11/10/2020 at 8:49 p.m.
“Mark, these are instructions are from the cyber forensic team. Please ensure widest dissemination and action. Plz tell every state senior that they need to:
1. Preserve the specific voting machines (scanners) used at the polling places where the glitch occurred. (Put them under lock and key – nobody touches them)
2. Preserve the machines at the precinct or tally location that were used to total the votes and upload them to the Internet or state counting facility. (Put them under lock and key – nobody touches them )
3. Preserve all email communications with the officials responsible for the software updates, authorization software updates, and deploying software updates to the voting machines.
4. Preserve all non-email communications by the officials related to the same (text messages, imessages, whatsapp, etc) – and fact of phone calls (date/time stamps)
5. Preserve all communications (as listed in 3 and 4) by the voting machine technicians or corporate officials responsible for the creation and deployment of software updates.
6. Preserve all software logs, source code, continuous deployment/continuous integration logs, associated with the software updates process that resulted in the glitch.
7. Preserve the technicians, laptop, ipad, phone, or any other device used in the official execution of their duties to update voting machines.”
On November 12, Perry sent messages to Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that began with a six-part strategy, that Perry said he was forwarding from a legislator in the state, for challenging the vote in Pennsylvania .
“People think Dominion (Voting Systems) software was hacked,” the lengthy text said. Multiple Trump administration officials have testified that the claims about Dominion had no merit. In some of his text messages, Meadows actually indicated he was skeptical of the theory. Dominion ultimately filed a series of defamation lawsuits against Trump allies who pushed the theory publicly.
Perry followed that message up by sending Meadows and Jordan what he described as a tip received “from an intel friend.”
“DNI needs to task NSA to immediately seize and begin looking for international comms related to Dominion – was china malware involved?” Perry wrote.
Perry also expressed a desire to push U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Trump appointee Bill McSwain to investigate the vote.
“What will it take for Bill Mcswain to open an investigation?”
McSwain’s decision not to challenge the results was apparently a source of frustration for Trump. During McSwain’s unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, the former president slammed him for doing “absolutely nothing on the massive election fraud that took place in Philadelphia and throughout the commonwealth.”
At the end of the month, Perry was pressing Meadows to install Jeffrey Clark, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s natural resources section, as acting attorney general.
It was hoped that Clark and the White House could make use of a 2018 executive order that “granted broad power to the president and his Cabinet to impose sanctions if law enforcement officials declared there had been foreign meddling.”
Perry appeared to be convinced there had been foreign interference. Per the texts obtained by TPM, “he was fixated on what later became known as “ItalyGate.” This conspiracy theory focused on a story that satellites from an Italian defense contractor were corrupting voting machines and switching votes from Trump to Biden, the DOJ officials testified.
A House committee found last year that Meadows urged senior DOJ officials to investigate the theory, while the Jan. 6 committee found that a Trump appointee got the Pentagon to examine it. Per the Senate report, on both Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, 2020, Meadows urged DOJ officials to investigate ItalyGate.”
Perry continued to press Meadows to get Trump on the phone with the Italian government. According to the log, Perry sent Meadows messages that seemed to suggest Trump should reach out to former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose name was misspelled in Perry’s text.
“Why can’t we just work with the Italian government?”
“Also,has POTUS been able to have a conversation with Conti? Can he move the ball today?” Perry asked.
Finally, after the fateful January 6 attack, Perry had one more text for Meadows the following day.
“Mark, please call when you can.”
According to TPM, Perry and Meadows exchanged at least 62 messages in the period from Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020, through Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Walker. “There are hints in the messages that this log that Meadows provided to the select committee is incomplete, particularly in his exchanges with Scott Perry. He talks about moving over to Signal, an encrypted messaging app. There are also discussions that seem to pop up out of nowhere and blatantly lack context.”
He continued by saying “I’m starting to become aware of multiple instances of things that should be in the log if it were complete that are not there. What we’re seeing is a broad plot, particularly involving members of Congress, deranged conspiracy theories, questionable legal logic and a blatant authoritarianism and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
TPM concludes that “The texts between Perry and Meadows show the congressman attempting to involve himself in nearly every aspect of the campaign to block Biden’s win. They also reveal Perry to be someone who appeared to sincerely buy into outlandish conspiracy theories that the election was stolen by an array of shadowy international cyber warriors — and who was willing to use his position and influence in government to sow doubt and subvert the vote based on those deeply paranoid convictions. “
Perry and his office have yet to comment on the story.
16 Responses
More troubles for Scott the Traitor! Judge Howell released to the FBI a bunch of emails between Scooter and Clark and Eatman. Judge says the FBI prioritized and expedited the review of any emails going to Scut’s email address at “Patriots for Perry.” I guess that was the insurrection clearinghouse? Politico has the deets.
If Scott Perry didn’t commit any crimes, then he should have no problem turning over all his Signal messages. But he hasn’t, and is still fighting in a secret course case over his text messages. Hardly the acts of an innocent man.
Mike Kelly is the epitome of a corrupt politician. Doesn’t care about anyone else but himself. Also doesn’t respect the will of the majority of voters, apparently. The day he’s gone for good can’t come soon enough. He should also be investigated for sedition.
I live in rural western Texas surrounded by people who have become lost to the truth about what the GOP really is here . We have closed hospitals , antique water systems with un-drinkable water , crumbling infrastructure and roads , rail roads that pulled up the tracks and sold them for scrape , no mental health professionals , no counselors in some entire school districts , no money , no jobs just decay . Many GOP candidates ran unopposed here , but they All were re-elected . The state has a 27 billion $ surplus but can’t constitutionally spend enough to actually help Texans because of a balanced budget provision . But unfortunately there are no plans to change it . People here should know by now but they don’t , that no matter how rich this state is , this part of it Ain’t gettin no money .
Why are you on this site? I barely know anyone from PA who looks at this, let alone from Texas.
Also, who cares about Texas on PoliticsPA? I can go.to Philadelphia and insert Democrat for Republican with your comments, while adding massive corruption and scandal – documented and prosecuted. It’s not unique to a party.
Jail every stinking one of them Now. Anybody else would already be there.
OR ARE YOU DUMB ENOUGH TO GIVE THEM A 3RD CHANCE ???????????
The insurrectionists should be kicked out of Congress. Perry who swore an oath to defend the Constitution while in military and now does exact opposite. He’s a seditious traitor.
Scott Perry wanted to seize voting machines around the United States for a forensic audit? This is really disturbing. Is this what our politics has come down to when we lose and our first instinct is to seize voting machines? Whatever happened to graciousness? Whatever happened to fighting the good fight and shaking hands afterwards no matter who wins or loses? It’s all about winning at all costs and looking out for number one.
Mike Kelly has always been a disgrace to western PA.
Why does he keep winning? We need term limits. Yes he is an embarrassment as are the others. Traitors!
Scott Perry needs to be charged, removed from office and barred from ever running again. He and those like him are enemies of the state.
Remove Perry? For what? Sending texts? Questioning? Remember, it took until the Saturday after the Tuesday election for AP to call the election for Biden. 2020 was one weird election because of COVID and first time PA and other states widely used mail in ballots. Trump fueled the fire, no doubt about that. I don’t agree with what Perry did, but I agree it was his right as an American to question the process. At the end of the day, I believe he even attended Biden’s Inauguration Ceremony at the Capitol.
Question the process ? , he didn’t legitimately question it he Lied about it and illegally tried to subvert it . Free Speech is not free to Liers and Fraudsters deceiving millions of Americans and perverting Our Democracy . But unfortunately here in Texas they all got Re-elected .
You are correct he has a right, both as a citizen and as an elected official to question the process. However he crossed that line. He crossed far over it.
There are formal and legal means to question election results. Getting the NSA to investigate is not one of those means, nor is pushing a US Attorney without citing any evidence, nor is a plan to seize voting machines.
Do you really see this as nothing more than sending texts and questioning? The man is either a huge liar or he is mentally unfit for office. Want proof? The only conspiracy theories he pursues are those that benefit his party. Point to any conspiracy theory he endorses that does not do so.
Can you point to 1 other conspiracy theory he believes? I mean, it only appears to be this, so there isn’t room for bipartisanship in his loony files.
See write up on PennLive today’s date, “U.S. Rep. Scott Perry shared plan to seize voting machines nationwide: report”
It lists these
1. Italian Defense Contractor, military-grade satellites to “zap” voting machines.
2. PA Vote counting, anonymous researcher in Chinese-language edition of the Epoch Times.
3. Jeffrey Clark to replace US Attorney General … for reasons unknown.
4,5,6…: I’m sure it doesn’t end at three.
Quote from Penn Live:
“Besides the conspiracy theory involving the Italian defense contractor, Perry also shared one concerning Pennsylvania’s vote counting that was based on an anonymous researcher who spoke to the Chinese-language edition of the Epoch Times, a far-right publication that TPM said is affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement.
Perry was also clamoring for Meadows to speak with Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist and assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s natural resources section, in a plan to have Clark elevated to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.”