- Donald Trump Jr. texted Mark Meadows ideas to overturn the 2020 election, CNN reported.
- "We have multiple paths. We control them all," the text message sent on November 5, 2020 read.
- The messages are in the possession of the January 6 committee.
Donald Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump's eldest son, texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows ideas to overturn the results before most major news networks had called the election, according to a CNN report published Friday.
"It's very simple," Trump Jr. wrote in a text message to Meadows on November 5, 2020, two days before the major news networks declared Joe Biden the winner. "We have multiple paths We control them all."
The messages are part of a trove of records being examined by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, CNN reported.
Trump Jr.'s lawyer disputed that the message was written by him.
"After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded," Alan S. Futerfas told CNN.
Trump Jr.'s texts advanced a version of lawyer John Eastman's six-point plan to overturn the 2020 election on the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
Eastman had suggested, among other legally baseless theories, that Congress could reject slates of Biden electors at the joint session and instead count slates of electors submitted by Trump supporters in seven states that voted for President Joe Biden.
The certificates, however, had no legal force or weight, since they had not been signed by a government official like a governor or secretary of state, and thus were not in any way included in the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress to count electoral votes.
Legal scholar Matthew Seligman previously told Insider in a January 2022 interview that the fake electors had as much legal sway as "a bunch of people sitting in an Arby's across the street from the Capitol building writing on a napkin."
The January 6 Committee and the Department of Justice are now investigating the slates of fraudulent electors.
Trump Jr.'s texts also referenced another one of Eastman's ideas for overturning the election, which was to have Congress reject enough slates of electors such that neither Trump nor Biden had a majority of 270 electoral votes, forcing a contingent election where the House of Representatives would vote by state delegation to elect the president.
"Republicans control 28 states Democrats 22 states," Trump Jr. said. "Once again Trump wins."
"We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021," Trump Jr said.
Trump Jr. also suggested that if none of those plans worked, Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump for a second term, which is not possible under any existing US election laws.
"We have operational control Total leverage," Trump Jr wrote in a message to Meadows. "Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now."
This report is developing. Please check back for updates