6-Person Team Briefs Hundreds of State Lawmakers on Election Irregularities

Then-White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro is seen outside the White House in Washington on Oct. 8, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A six-person team that included Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro briefed hundreds of state lawmakers about evidence of election irregularities, during a Jan. 2 meeting.

The virtual meeting included legislators from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Navarro said during an appearance on Fox News.

“These legislators, they’re hot, they’re angry, they want action,” said Navarro, the White House director of trade and manufacturing policy. “We gave them the receipts. We explained exactly how the Democrat Party, as a matter of strategy, stole this election from Donald J. Trump.”

According to Got Freedom?, a nonprofit election integrity watchdog, the meeting included an address by President Donald Trump. Nearly 300 legislators heard from the president, Navarro, and Trump’s lawyer, Giuliani.

John Eastman and John Lott were also part of the briefing. Eastman represented Texas in the now-dismissed interstate challenge to the outcome of the election, while Lott, a senior adviser for research and statistics for the Department of Justice, authored a recently released report on election theft.

Legislators were briefed on evidence of alleged voter, ballot, and election fraud, which can be viewed on a webpage hosted by Got Freedom?

“This information should serve as an important resource for state legislators as they make calls for state legislatures to meet to investigate the election and consider decertifying their state election results,” Phill Kline, who heads the Thomas More Foundation’s Amistad Project and who hosted the call on behalf of of the group, said in a statement.

“The integrity of our elections is far too important to treat cavalierly, and elected officials deserve to have all relevant information at their disposal as they consider whether to accept the reported results of the 2020 elections, especially in states where the process was influenced by private interests.”

Navarro released a report on Dec. 21 that summarized and categorized evidence of election theft. In the Jan. 2 interview, he said the report “shows beyond a shadow of a doubt this election was stolen” and that he planned to release another report on Jan. 4.

Trump’s legal team and a handful of third parties are litigating challenges to the election in court in six battleground states. Dozens of U.S. senators and House members have committed to lodging objections to electoral slates from those states when Congress counts the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.

Democrats have criticized the efforts and say the election ran smoothly, apart from a small number of voter fraud cases.

Navarro also suggested that a special counsel may be appointed to investigate if fraud had occurred.

“I would not be surprised to see a special counsel on this,” Navarro said.

Trump’s legal team testified before several panels and committees from state legislatures, including in Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia. The team argued that the mounting evidence of election theft and malfeasance necessitated that the legislatures assert their constitutional right to appoint presidential electors. None of the legislatures have so far followed the team’s advice.

Trump has called on his supporters to descend on Washington when Congress counts the electoral votes. Some of the senators who committed to objecting to the Electoral College votes that day said they will do so unless Congress appoints a special commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the election.

Individual state legislatures would then vet the findings and have the opportunity to convene and vote on a new set of electors.