** News Roundup: Presidential Coups and Election Reviews
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* Ken Paxton’s Expensive Voter-Fraud Office
* Emergent BioSolutions

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The Big Story

New and alarming details about the involvement of key figures — from members of Congress to Kanye West ([link removed]) — in former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a free and fair election have continued to trickle out over the last week. And those details underscore the links from those efforts to the attempted coup of Jan. 6, to the ongoing election reviews that are seeking to help set the stage for what amounts to the next effort to upend democracy.

The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol building has released more text messages sent to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff. On Tuesday ([link removed]) , the House voted to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate further with the investigation.
* Among the texts are frantic messages from Fox News hosts ([link removed]) Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and others, who asked Meadows to have Trump tell his violent supporters to go home. (Of course, those same hosts would later downplay the attack.)
* American Oversight on Wednesday sued the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security ([link removed]) for the release of top officials’ communications with proponents of the Big Lie, including Fox News hosts, from the weeks surrounding the attack.
* Other records from Meadows — who the committee said conducted official business ([link removed]) using a personal cell phone, personal email accounts, and the messaging app Signal — included a Jan. 5 email ([link removed]) in which Meadows said the National Guard would be on hand to “protect pro Trump people.” The National Guard’s hours-long delay in responding to the Capitol Police’s requests for help on Jan. 6 is a major focus of the committee’s investigation (and ours ([link removed]) ).


We’ve also learned new details about the machinations of Trump’s allies both in and out of government who sought to keep Trump in power illegally ([link removed]) — and Meadows’ close involvement in those efforts.
* “I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday,” someone texted Meadows ([link removed]) on Jan. 3, referring to Trump’s failed ploy to oust Jeffrey Rosen ([link removed]) , then the acting attorney general, and replace him with a loyalist who would use the Justice Department to back up Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.
* Several Republican members of Congress also worked closely with Meadows in various schemes, from the Justice Department pressure campaign to farfetched lawsuits based on outlandish conspiracy theories. The New York Times has a detailed ([link removed]) run-through of how “a half-dozen right-wing members of Congress became key foot soldiers in Trump’s effort to overturn the election.”
* The Arizona Republic ([link removed]) outlines how two of those Congress members, Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, are among Arizona politicians “continuing on the same path” and are “riding similar rhetoric to tout election integrity measures.”
* The committee is also looking at the efforts of another one of those lawmakers, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, who in late December 2020 sued Vice President Mike Pence ([link removed]) over his refusal to assert control of the election certification.
* Also this week, Politico reported ([link removed]) on two memos authored by Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis in the week before Jan. 6, which made widely disputed legal arguments about Pence’s ability to prevent the certification.


Meadows’ communications have also put renewed scrutiny on Trump’s pressure campaign on state officials during that time.
* During Trump’s infamous Jan. 2 phone call in which he urged the Georgia secretary of state to “find” the votes to change that state’s election outcome, a Georgia state official texted Meadows ([link removed]) , “Need to end this call.”
* Text messages also revealed ([link removed]) the Trump White House attempted to get contact information for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich from a member of Congress.
* In another text ([link removed]) , a member of Congress suggested that Republican-led state legislatures “just sent their own [pro-Trump] electors” to Congress and then “have it go to” the Supreme Court. Meadows responded that Trump believed legislatures “have the power” to overturn the results.


Among other names that have resurfaced in the past week is that of Phil Waldron ([link removed]) , a former Army colonel who has been involved in several election-overturning endeavors. Waldron had worked with Trump’s legal team, and briefed members of Congress on various proposals to thwart the election of President Joe Biden.
* On Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee announced it had issued a subpoena to Waldron ([link removed]) , who two days before spoke at a meeting ([link removed]) of the Louisiana Voting System Commission.
* We’ve been investigating ([link removed]) Waldron’s involvement in the push for unnecessary election reviews in several states, and uncovered records showing Arizona Senate President Karen Fann consulted Waldron about hiring Cyber Ninjas to conduct the sham “audit” of Maricopa County results. Other records include evidence of his contact with prominent Big Lie proponents.
* American Oversight has issued a deposition notice ([link removed]) for Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, directing him to answer questions about the company’s failure to release public records related to the partisan “audit.”


In Wisconsin, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that the partisan election investigation being run by attorney Michael Gableman will last longer and cost taxpayers even more ([link removed]) than the $676,000 already authorized.
* Last week, we reported on ([link removed]) the investigation’s multiple problematic ties to partisan people and groups involved in efforts to overturn the election. This week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported ([link removed]) that Gableman ventured further into partisan politics at a Republican event, “telling the crowd he wouldn’t back down from Democrats and tipping his hand about his preferences in GOP primaries.”
* Vos, who this week declined to disavow election conspiracy theories ([link removed]) , has continued to attack the state’s bipartisan elections commission ([link removed]) . He has called for all the members to go — except for his own appointee ([link removed]) .
* A top Republican in the state Senate has criticized Gableman’s election ([link removed]) , calling it a “charade.”
* CNN tried to track down ([link removed]) Gableman to ask him questions. In its report ([link removed]) , CNN cited the records obtained by American Oversight that revealed taxpayers footed the bill ([link removed]) for Gableman’s August trip to the Arizona “audit.”


Here are some recent headlines related to bogus election reviews and hunts for widespread voter fraud:
* Texas secretary of state sends ‘exhaustive’ election audit ask to Dallas, Tarrant, Collin counties (Dallas Morning News ([link removed]) )
* Who’s at the door? It may be Trump loyalists, hunting for Michigan ‘ghost voters’ (Bridge Michigan ([link removed]) )
* Pa. court to hear arguments over releasing voter information as part of election investigation (Pennsylvania Capital-Star ([link removed]) )
* Republicans in Potter County, Texas, to run their own 2022 primary, seeking ‘election integrity’ (Votebeat ([link removed]) )
* Texas election officials went looking for illegal voters. They found some U.S. citizens. (Texas Monthly ([link removed]) )

On the Records

Ken Paxton’s Expensive Voter-Fraud Office
The Houston Chronicle reported ([link removed]) on records we obtained from the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, showing that his office’s election integrity unit closed just three cases in the last year and opened just seven new ones. During that time, the unit’s budget increased to $2.2 million (up from $1.9 million the year before), with a larger staff and more than 20,000 hours devoted to the task. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we uncovered records last year ([link removed]) showing the office had closed just over a dozen prosecutions in 2020.

“Paxton’s office has not uncovered any evidence of voter fraud in 2020 beyond isolated incidents affecting a handful of votes in an election in which more than 11 million Texas cast ballots,” the Chronicle wrote.
* Meanwhile, a new Associated Press analysis ([link removed]) of “every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states” disputed by Trump found fewer than 475 cases, a small fraction (0.15 percent) of Biden’s victory margin in those states.
* “The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.”


Emergent BioSolutions
In February, Emergent BioSolutions’ Baltimore factory ruined millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses. We asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for records of any investigations into the CEO’s sale of his company’s stock just before ([link removed]) its stock price began to fall. The SEC said it could neither confirm nor deny ([link removed]) the existence of such records.

Other Stories We're Following

Jan. 6 and the Big Lie
* Dominion Voting wins key decision in lawsuit against Fox News (CNN ([link removed]) )
* The U.S. military men spreading Trump’s baseless fraud claims (Reuters ([link removed]) )
* The network of election lawyers who are making it harder for Americans to vote (Guardian ([link removed]) )
* ‘Big Lie’ proponent John Eastman uses Christian crowdfunding site to raise money for his legal bills (Forbes ([link removed]) )
* Project Veritas nearly doubled its funding in 2020 while amplifying baseless election fraud claims (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Former Houston cop who thought A/C repairman was a voter fraud mastermind indicted on felony assault charge (Houston Chronicle ([link removed]) )
* When the myth of voter fraud comes for you (Atlantic ([link removed]) )
* Guardsman in Jan. 6 mob gets probation, still serving in the Guard (Military.com ([link removed]) )
* Inside Trump’s unprecedented nationwide hunt for ‘disloyal’ Republicans (Axios ([link removed]) )


The Coronavirus Pandemic
* The unvaccinated are pushing hospitals past the brink (Bloomberg ([link removed]) )
* Five governors ask Pentagon to reconsider National Guard vaccine mandate (NBC News ([link removed]) )
* Amtrak loosens worker vaccine mandate, will allow testing option to avert service cuts (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Some hospitals cancel worker vaccine requirements with Biden rule tied up in courts (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* U.S. Air Force dismisses 27 members over vaccine refusals (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Kansas City doesn’t actually know how much of its police force is vaccinated against Covid-19 (KCUR Kansas City ([link removed]) )
* Cass County, Mo., passes measure ending health department’s Covid orders and quarantines (Kansas City Star ([link removed]) )
* Long Covid is destroying careers, leaving economic distress in its wake (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Meat packers’ profit margins jumped 300% during pandemic (Reuters ([link removed]) )


National News
* USPS built and secretly tested a mobile voting system before 2020 (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Operation Whistle Pig: Inside the secret CBP unit with no rules that investigates Americans (Yahoo News ([link removed]) )
* Trends in Arctic report card: ‘Consistent, alarming and undeniable’ (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* FDA will permanently allow abortion pills by mail (New York Times ([link removed]) )


In the States
* Small group of GOP lawmakers, mapmakers controlled congressional line-drawing, depositions show (Columbus Dispatch ([link removed]) )
* States’ high courts poised to draw new congressional maps (Politico ([link removed]) )
* DeSantis pushes bill that allows parent to sue schools over critical race theory (Politico ([link removed]) )
* Biden’s cash fuels DeSantis’s budget wishlist (Politico ([link removed]) )
* Missouri AG’s ‘campaign of litigation terror’ sows fear, confusion among local leaders (Kansas City Star ([link removed]) )
* ‘Prison gerrymandering’: How inmates are helping the Texas GOP maintain its power (Dallas Morning News ([link removed]) )
* Official: License for Noem’s daughter got unusual treatment (Associated Press ([link removed]) )


Trump Accountability
* Agency overseeing Trump’s D.C. hotel lease failed to examine ethical, constitutional conflicts, report says (NBC News ([link removed]) )
* Trump’s longtime accountant testifies to N.Y. grand jury in criminal probe (Washington Post
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* Trump donor allegedly used embezzled money to support the former president’s campaign and lead a lavish lifestyle (Forbes ([link removed]) )
* Trump rang in birthday by inflating golf club’s value by $42 million (Daily Beast ([link removed]) )
* GOP agrees to pay up to $1.6 million of Trump’s legal bills in N.Y. probes (Washington Post ([link removed]) )

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