Utah Sen. Mike Lee is not mentioned in the 45-page indictment charging Donald Trump with four criminal counts in connection with his efforts to remain in office following his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. But Lee’s links to many key players in the attempt to overturn the will of American voters are once again under the spotlight.
On Wednesday, Lee reacted to the news of Trump’s latest indictment by alleging it was politically motivated to hurt Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“Nothing says ‘election interference’ quite like prosecuting one’s principal political opponent,” Lee posted on social media.
The indictment, made public on Tuesday, lists six unnamed co-conspirators who could still face charges for the assistance they provided to Trump in the run-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters on Jan. 6.
The identities of five of those six unnamed conspirators are known due to quotes attributed to them in the indictment and other documents, The Washington Post and others have reported. The five include three former lawyers for Trump — Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell. The other two are former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro.
Eastman was the architect of a legal strategy to have Republican-controlled legislatures in states won by Biden in 2020 submit alternate slates of electors to Congress. If Eastman’s scheme had played out, then-Vice President Mike Pence could throw out all of the electoral votes from that state, which could either delay certifying Biden’s win or throw the election to the House of Representatives.
The final report from the House Jan. 6 Committee concluded that Lee “spent a month encouraging the idea of having State legislators endorse competing electors for Trump.” Lee has claimed he was merely investigating “rumors” that some states were sending alternate electors, but the available evidence does not support that.
Lee’s text to the White House
At first, Lee said he only learned about Eastman’s plan on Jan. 2 after receiving a copy of a confidential memo from the White House. Lee told authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa he was “surprised” by the plan. In reality, Lee’s involvement started earlier.
Leaked text messages between Lee and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows following the 2020 election show Lee repeatedly offering to help with the alternate electors’ plan.
On Dec. 8, 2020, Lee texted Meadows, “If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternate slates of electors, there could be a path.”
On Dec. 16, Lee again texted Meadows to ask if the White House wanted any senators to object to the certification of electoral votes, which was part of Eastman’s plan.
On Jan. 4, 2021, Lee texted Meadows to warn him that there was no legal or constitutional basis to object to Biden’s win, but he was furiously working to find a justification.
“I’ve been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for him,” Lee wrote of his efforts to help Trump. “We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate and to have any hope of winning. Even if they can’t convene, it might be enough if a majority of them are willing to sign a statement indicating how they would vote.”
Lee also communicated several times with top Trump legal adviser Cleta Mitchell about strategies for implementing Eastman’s plan.
The senator has repeatedly said his decision not to go along with Eastman’s plan exonerates him. His Senate office did not respond to a request for comment on the latest Trump indictment from The Salt Lake Tribune.
Lee’s ties to Sydney Powell
The senior senator from Utah also played an instrumental role in introducing Sidney Powell to Trump.
On Nov. 7, 2020, the day before Democrat Joe Biden was named the winner of the election, Lee texted Meadows to help Powell gain access to Trump and his legal team.
“Sydney (sic) Powell is saying she needs to get in to see the president, but she’s being kept away from him. Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you help her get in?” Lee texted Meadows.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump at Phoenix Goodyear Airport Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Two days later, Lee again went to bat for Powell.
“Sidney told us the campaign lawyer who I do not know are not focused on this and are obstructing progress. I have no way of verifying or refuting that on my own, but I’ve found her to be a straight shooter,” Lee texted Meadows on Nov. 9, 2020.
But Lee soured on Powell following a disastrous press conference where she alleged a grand conspiracy to rig the election against Trump involved George Soros, the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, the CIA and thousands of election officials.
“I’m worried about the Powell press conference,” Lee wrote. “Unless Powell can back up everything she said, which I kind of doubt she can.”
Lee’s contact with Powell went beyond those texts to Meadows. Transcripts of her interviews with the House Jan. 6 Committee suggest she spoke and met with Lee several times following the election. Powell told investigators Lee invited her to a meeting with several members of Congress.
“The one meeting I remember in connection with the election was at the request of Sen. Lee, who asked me to come meet with whoever wanted to show up to listen to what I was seeing at that point,” Powell said.
Former GOP political consultant and author Rick Wilson says Lee’s hands are far from clean even though his name did not appear in the indictment against Trump.
“There are a number of arguments that Lee was not only proximate to the conspiracy to overturn the election but vital to it,” Wilson said. “Lee connected Trump to many of the people who now face criminal exposure.”
Wilson, a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, added that he does not think Lee is out of the woods yet.
“His role in the Senate on this matter has been obscured until now. If I were Mike Lee, I’d sleep with one eye open,” Wilson said.
