Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is reportedly scheduled to speak to investigators for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Friday, according to a report from CNN. That meeting comes after the committee provided painstaking detail about a wild Oval Office meeting Byrne took part in just weeks before the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Byrne would not confirm or deny the Friday interview in a text message to The Tribune. But on his social media, Byrne seemed to confirm the CNN report.
“For the record: do not assume this leaked from me. There are numerous details in the story that I have mentioned to no one,” Byrne wrote.
On Tuesday, the Jan. 6 committee provided details of an “unhinged” Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18 that included Byrne and several others who pushed former President Donald Trump to issue an executive order to have the military seize voting machines in several states Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
“The meeting has been called unhinged, not normal, and the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said Tuesday.
On Dec. 18, Byrne, Sydney Powell, Michael Flynn and others gained access to the Oval Office to present the plan to seize voting machines. The meeting lasted six hours, moving from the Oval Office to the presidential residence. At times the discussion grew heated and included challenges to “physically fight.”
“I was not happy to see the people in the Oval Office,” former White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in taped testimony. “The Overstock person — I didn’t know who this guy was. I walked in and looked at him and said, ‘Who are you?’”
When reached for comment, Byrne disputed Cipollone’s account, specifically the idea to use the military to seize voting machines was floated during the meeting.
“The Chinese have a song, ‘See cat, paint tiger.’ On Dec. 18, Cipollone saw a cat, and for the Jan. 6 committee he painted a tiger,” Byrne said.
Byrne revealed details of the meeting on social media shortly after the first media reports surfaced.
“I can promise you: President Trump is being terribly served by his advisers. They want him to lose and are lying to him. He is surrounding (sic) by mendacious mediocrities,” Byrne tweeted on Dec. 20. His account has since been permanently suspended.
On Tuesday, Byrne commented on the accounting of that Dec. 18 meeting during an election fraud event in Las Vegas.
“Evidently, today’s hearing seems to be about this kind of crazy guy from Overstock.com who walked into the Oval Office on Dec. 18. It’s kind of funny. I’ve been offering for nine months to go in and talk. I’ll come in. No lawyer, under oath, public or private,” Byrne said.
Byrne recently confirmed to The Tribune he met with Trump lawyer John Eastman in Washington, D.C., following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but it did not amount to much.
“I met him only one time for about 45 minutes,” Byrne said.
Byrne is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.73 billion for making false claims that the company’s voting machines helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump.
