Meadows received, but did nothing, with document that detailed ways to undermine the 2020 election, lawyer says, in NYT report

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The 38-page document, which is among the thousands of pages of materials Meadows provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, was initially distributed by a retired colonel. of the military that was working to contest the results, according to the Times. . CNN has not independently verified the content of the PowerPoint.

Phil Waldron, a retired colonel who spread misinformation about voter fraud in the presidential elections, told the Times that he circulated the PowerPoint to allies of former President Donald Trump, including lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Waldron told the Times that he did not send the document directly to Meadows, but that it was possible that someone on his team had passed it on to the former chief of staff.

Separately, Waldron told The Washington Post that he spoke to Meadows “maybe eight to ten times” and visited the White House multiple times after the 2020 election.
CNN previously reported that in the committee’s letter to Meadows attorney George Terwilliger III, announcing his decision to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Meadows for failing to cooperate with the panel, he wrote that the committee members were in possession. from “an email from January 5, 2021 about a 38-page Power Point briefing titled ‘Voter Fraud, Foreign Interference and Options for January 6’ to be provided ‘on the hill.”

The committee has not released that document and has not provided details on its content.

Terwilliger told the New York Times that Meadows provided the document to the committee because he received it in an email and did nothing with it.

“We produced the document because it was not a privilege,” Terwilliger told the Times.

CNN has contacted Terwilliger for comment.

Waldron told the Times that Meadows “would have obtained a state-of-the-art copy of what was being reported about Hill at the time.”

Waldron told the newspaper that members of his team spoke with a group of senators on January 4 and that he personally briefed a small group of House members the next day on the content of the PowerPoint. He added that the PowerPoint was made available to lawmakers. CNN has reached out to Waldron for comment.

The fact that Meadows received and was in possession of the PowerPoint with this title is noteworthy, regardless of the content of the document and what he did with it. Meadows played a central role in trafficking electoral lies and attempted to use the power of the executive branch to intervene and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, CNN previously reported.

A separate 36-page PowerPoint has been circulating on Twitter, but CNN has not confirmed the veracity of this document, and the committee tells CNN that it is different from the document members have in their possession.

The PowerPoint is part of nearly 6,000 pages of documents that Meadows voluntarily provided to the committee prior to its decision to stop cooperating with the panel. Between those pages, a source told CNN, Meadows provided the committee with important information from both his personal email account and personal cell phone that are relevant to the committee’s investigation.

In addition to PowerPoint, Meadows delivered a significant number of text messages, including a November 6, 2020, text exchange with a member of Congress, where Meadows allegedly said “I love it” in a discussion about the possibility of naming alternate voters. in certain states, and the member acknowledged that the plan would be “highly controversial.”

The committee also has in its possession a text exchange between Meadows and an organizer of the January 6 rally from early January 2021, and text messages about the need for Trump to issue some kind of public statement to stop the attack. January 6 at the Capitol. .

CNN also previously reported that in the tranche of documents Meadows provided to the committee, he was interacting “with a wide range of people while the attack was taking place,” according to a source with knowledge of the communications.

The messages on Meadows’ personal cell phone and email account, which were voluntarily delivered without any claim of executive privilege, relate to “what Donald Trump was doing and not doing during the riot,” the source added.

These communications provide a window into what people were texting Meadows on January 6, what he was telling them about Trump in real time and what the former president was doing during those hours while the Capitol was under attack and the Rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” according to the source.

According to multiple sources, including former Trump officials and others with direct knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes at the White House, Meadows also reached out to some of the country’s top national security officials in an effort to connect them with allies. from Trump who were pushing unfounded claims of foreign election interference and election fraud.

Not only did Meadows try to get top government officials to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories championed by the likes of Rudy Giuliani, Mike Flynn, and Sidney Powell, but it also relayed conspiratorial materials, including YouTube videos and other information allegedly widespread voter evidence. . fraud, sources say.

Despite the sheer volume of documents Meadows has turned over to the committee, it recently made a total change and decided to stop cooperating and not appear for a scheduled deposition. Therefore, the committee has begun criminal contempt proceedings against Meadows, which the House is due to vote on Tuesday. If the criminal contempt report goes through the House, it will be forwarded to the Department of Justice, which must decide whether or not to prosecute.

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