Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over a PowerPoint presentation detailing plans to overturn the election to the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, The New York Times reports.
Meadows along with thousands of documents turned over a 38-page PowerPoint presentation detailing a baseless conspiracy theory claiming that voting machine companies were purportedly secretly bought by China and rigged the election against Trump.
The document recommended that Trump declare a national emergency to delay the certification of the election results.
Meadows’ lawyer told the Times that the document was emailed to Meadows and he turned it over because it was not privileged.
Meadows ultimately reversed and refused to cooperate with the committee. The committee is preparing to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over additional documents or show up for a deposition last week.
Lawmakers were briefed on presentation:
Election conspiracist Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel with ties to Trumpworld, told the Times that he circulated the document among Trump’s allies and members of Congress, though he denied that he personally sent it to Meadows.
It’s unclear who prepared the document but it appears to be based on conspiracy theories pushed by Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, a Texas entrepreneur who has appeared with Waldron on podcasts.
Members of Waldron’s team briefed a group of senators on the document on January 4 and a group of House members on January 5, according to Waldron.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani later cited Waldron as a source of information during his legal bid to overturn the election results.
Waldron met with Meadows at White House:
Waldron told The Washington Post that he visited the White House multiple times after the election and spoke with Meadows “maybe eight to 10 times” ahead of the Capitol riot.
Waldron said he worked with Trump’s outside lawyers as well.
“The presentation was that there was significant foreign interference in the election, here’s the proof,” Waldron said. “These are constitutional, legal, feasible, acceptable and suitable courses of action.”
Waldron said he and Meadows discussed steps needed to investigate his made-up fraud claims “using the powers of the world’s greatest national security intelligence apparatus.”
