U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has bragged that he was “leading the charge” to ensure Joe Biden was not certified as the rightful winner of the 2020 election. But until now the depths and extent of his actions, including that he was “working directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power,” have not been widely known.
That’s according to a report by The Washington Post on Monday that reveals one day after major news outlets called the election for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, still the President of the United States, made “an urgent call” to Sen. Cruz, asking him if he would be willing to argue Trump’s just-filed case at the Supreme Court.
“Sure, I’d be happy to” if the court granted a hearing, Cruz said he responded.
The call was just one step in a collaboration that for two months turned the once-bitter political enemies into close allies in the effort to keep Trump in the White House based on the president’s false claims about a stolen election.
The Post adds another important revelation: Cruz’s longtime friend is John Eastman, the author of the “coup memos,” who retired from his post at the Chapman University School of Law after news of he memos became public. Eastman, who still serves as the chairman of an anti-LGBTQ organization, the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), is currently facing an ethics investigation from the California State Bar Assoc.
The House Select Committee of the January 6 Attack is now interested in Cruz’s relationship with Eastman.
“As Eastman outlined a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence could deny certifying Biden’s election, Cruz crafted a complementary plan in the Senate,” the Post explains. “He proposed objecting to the results in six swing states and delaying accepting the electoral college results on Jan. 6 in favor of a 10-day ‘audit’ — thus potentially enabling GOP state legislatures to overturn the result.”
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the top Republican on the Committee, has said: “I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.”
Eastman pleaded the Fifth when asked by an attorney for the Committee if he had “any communication with Senator Ted Cruz regarding efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election.”
Cruz canceled a scheduled interview with The Post, and through a spokesperson said: “To the best of his recollection, he did not read the Eastman memo until months after January 6, when it was publicly reported.”
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license