recall the exact words that the President used but told the Select Committee "that would be the sum or substance of what he had been saying and what he believed."[298] During the call, the President reportedly "referenced the planned protests in Washington" just days later on January 6th, and told the group "I don't think the country is going to take it."[299]
When reporting on the call, the Washington Examiner also provided details about what Giuliani told the assembled State legislators. Consistent with his team's "Strategic Communications Plan," Giuliani said, "[w]e need you to put excessive pressure on your leadership where the real weakness and cowardice is mostly located," and the report quoted Navarro telling them that "Your job, I believe, is to take action, action, action."[300] That evening, Navarro stated on Fox News that "these legislators—they are hot, they're angry, they want action," and "we explained exactly how the Democrat Party as a matter of strategy stole this election from Donald J. Trump."[301]
Organizers from Got Freedom? sent a follow-up email that evening to participants on behalf of Phill Kline, in which they described the event as "an important briefing for legislators who hold the power to decertify the results of their state elections."[302] It emphasized the following:
As elected officials in the House and Senate of your respective States, Professor Eastman laid out the Constitutional imperatives for you:
- Assert your plenary power
- Demand that your laws be followed as written
- Decertify tainted results unless and until your laws are followed
- Insist on enough time to properly meet, investigate, and properly certify results to ensure that all lawful votes (but only lawful votes) are counted.[303]
The email also recommended that they ". . . sign on to a joint letter from state legislators to Vice President Mike Pence to demand that he call for a 12-day delay on ratifying the election . . ." on January 6th.[304] The letter ultimately garnered more than 100 signatures by State legislators from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.[305] Doug Mastriano forwarded a copy of the letter via email to President Trump's executive assistant, and the National Archives produced to the Select Committee a printed version with a stamp at the top indicating, "THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN." [306]
But this plan would fail to sway its intended audience. As discussed in Chapter 5, the Vice President rejected this and numerous other attempts to convince him to act unlawfully on January 6th. The election had been
