UTAH (ABC4) – A slew of newly-released text messages on Friday show Utah Senator Mike Lee reportedly wanted to overturn the 2020 election results.
According to CNN, Lee exchanged texts messages with both Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s White House Chief of Staff and U.S. Representative Chip Roy from Texas. The texts have never been seen by the public before this report.
The report released over 100 text messages between the two Republican lawmakers and allies of Former President Donald Trump, spanning the period of Nov. 7, 2020 to the day of the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
The exchange showed both legislators supported legal challenges to the election results, but later show the two withdrawing from the idea.
In a text exchange with Meadows on November 7, Lee expressed his “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans faith in our elections.”
In a statement to CNN, Lee’s communications director, Lee Lonsberry, said, “I’d like to highlight that Senator Lee has been fully transparent,” referring to Lee’s initial call for an investigation into fruad claims, but later acknowledging President Joe Biden’s victory.
The released texts show at one point, Lee worked to get attorney Sidney Powell access to Trump inside the White House saying, “Sydney Powell is saying that she needs to get in to see the president, but she’s being kept away from him,” Lee wrote to Meadows on November 7. “Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you help get her in?”
In a text sent to Meadows on Jan. 3, Lee switched gears, saying Trump’s effort to send alternate electors to Congress was not legitimate.
“I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side,” Lee texted Meadows. “And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not.”
Lee and Roy later voted to officially certify the electoral resorts, ushering in Biden’s presidency. Over 100 Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate were still on the opposing side at that time.
When ABC4 reached out for a statement, Lee’s Director of Communication, Lee Lonsberry, had this to say:
“The text messages tell the same story Sen. Lee told from the floor of the Senate the day he voted to certify the election results of each and every state in the nation. They tell the story of a US Senator fulfilling his duty to Utah and the American people by following the Constitution. I would direct you to the full text of Sen. Lee’s remarks on January 6th where this is explained clearly in his own words.”
To see the full text exchange, click here.
