Sen. Mike Lee is not named in the 165-page legal brief from Special Counsel Jack Smith that details former President Donald Trump's alleged efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. However, Lee has ties to three co-conspirators who were part of the scheme to have states submit fake electors to derail congressional certification of Joe Biden's win on Jan. 6, 2021. Lee also had direct communications with two of them as the plot to keep Trump in power illegally took shape.
Although many of the names in Smith's filing have been redacted, several people can be identified based on quotes or social media posts.
CC2 - Trump lawyer John Eastman
Eastman was one of the architects of a scheme to have GOP-controlled legislatures in states won by Biden to submit alternate slates of electors. In theory, those competing electors would allow then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw out both sets of electors from that state, delaying the certification vote or throwing the election to the House of Representatives, where Trump would likely win.
- Lee's involvement in Eastman's plan was revealed in a book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which soft-pedaled Lee's role in the plot.
Lee claimed he received a confidential memo from the White House about the plan and was "surprised" by the idea. Lee said he made "phone call after phone call" to officials in those states but found no evidence they were ready to submit alternate electors. - When CNN published leaked text messages between Lee and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, we learned Lee took a much more active role in Eastman's plot.
- On Nov. 23, 2020, Lee brought up Eastman's plan in text messages to Meadows.
"Also, I have an additional idea for the campaign. Something is not right in a few states. I think it could be proven or disproven easily with an audit (a physical counting of all ballots cast) in PA, WI, GA, and MI."
"John Eastman has some really interesting research on this. The good news is is that Eastman is proposing an approach that unlike what Sidney Powell has propose could be examined very quickly."
"But to do this, you’d have to act very soon. Some believe today might be the deadline for some of this in PA."
- The final report from the House Jan. 6 committee said Lee "spent a month encouraging the idea of having State legislatures endorse competing electors for Trump."
- According to transcripts, Eastman repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when the House Jan. 6 Committee asked about his conversations with Lee.
Wood: Did the Trump legal team ask you to prepare a memorandum regarding the Vice President’s role in the counting of electoral votes at the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021?
Eastman: Fifth.
Wood: Dr. Eastman, did you have a conversation with Sen. Mike Lee?
Eastman: Fifth.
Wood: Dr. Eastman, when asked about a call with Sen. Mike Lee by the National Review, you stated to the National Review that you had a conversation with Sen. Lee and that, quote, “We were working on broader things,” close quote. Dr. Eastman, what were those broader things on which you were working with Sen. Mike Lee?
Eastman: Fifth.
Lee eventually abandoned Eastman's plan, texting Meadows on Jan. 3 that the effort to send alternate slates to Congress was "not legitimate."
CC3 - Sidney Powell
Lee played an instrumental role in introducing Powell to Trump.
- On Nov. 7, 2020, Lee texted Meadows asking that he help Powell gain access to Trump's legal team.
"Sydney (sic) Powell is saying she needs to get in to see the president, but she's being kept away from him. Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you get her in?"
- Two days later, Lee again asked Meadows to assist Powell.
“Sidney told us the campaign lawyer who I do not know are not focused on this and are obstructing progress. I have no way of verifying or refuting that on my own, but I’ve found her to be a straight shooter,”
- Transcripts of Powell's interviews with the Jan. 6 committee suggest Lee and Powell met several times following the 2020 election. She described one such meeting that Lee had arranged with several members of Congress.
- Lee turned on Powell after a press conference where she alleged a wild conspiracy to rig the election against Trump masterminded by George Soros, the CIA and deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, among others.
CC5 - Trump lawyer Ken Chesebro
- As Chesebro formulated his plan to delay congressional certification of Biden's victory, he wondered if he could get Lee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on board.
- In 2018, Chesebro represented Lee and Cruz in a "friend of the court" brief in the Utah Republican Party's lawsuit seeking to invalidate the ability for candidates to collect signatures to qualify for the primary ballot.
- Chesebro worked closely with attorney Jim Troupis on the fake elector scheme in Wisconsin. Troupis also assisted Lee and Cruz with the Supreme Court filing in support of the Utah GOP.
Lee has other connections to individuals referenced in Smith's filing.
Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell, identified as P31, was part of the infamous phone call where Trump pressured Georgia election officials to find 11,780 votes. Lee and Mitchell communicated frequently about the fake electors scheme following the 2020 election.
- According to her testimony to the House Jan. 6 Committee, Mitchell pinned the entire fake electors plot on Sen. Lee.
"It wasn't my idea. It was actually Mike Lee's idea."
- Mitchell and Lee exchanged text messages on Dec. 7, 2020, about how best to get the Senate on board with the fake elector scheme.
- On Dec. 9, Lee contacted Mitchell to ask if there was "any chance we will see competing slates of electors named in some states."
- On Dec. 30, 2020, Mitchell asked Lee if the Senate could conduct a hearing to allow her to present the Trump campaign's claims of election fraud in Georgia.
Mitchell: We need a day in the court of public opinion. Can you do that please"
Lee: "Let me see what I can arrange"
Mitchell: I talked with Mark Meadows this am. Need Lindsey (Graham) to convene Judiciary. And invite all other Senators to attend. This matters. We need to present and make a record.
Lee: Indeed we do. January 6th is, however, a dangerous idea. Not just for the republic itself, but also for the president.
Mitchell: I want to do the hearing the day before.
Lee: If we could pull this off, might it obviate the need for the January 6th strategy?
- In that same text exchange, Lee worried that the false electors idea would create a "slippery slope problem" for future presidential elections.
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