Several Republican lawmakers sent text messages to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows ahead of the January 6th riots at the United States Capitol in which they advocated having Vice President Mike Pence throw out certified electoral college votes.
Although the House Select Committee investigating the riots has not made the names of the lawmakers public, Politico has confirmed that one person who sent such a text was Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Jordan’s office admitted that he was the one who sent a text that pushed for Pence to toss out votes from key states, although they say that he didn’t write the argument himself but rather forwarded it from a third party.
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The text message reads as follows:
“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916).”
According to Politico, the analysis was originally written by former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz.