Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who already has pledged to contest the certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, has been joined by 18 Congress members in a request for hearings on election fraud before the joint session.
The letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and various House and Senate committee chairs asks them to “do their jobs,” Brooks’ office said in a news release.
The letter, the news release said, calls on the congressional leaders to “conduct voter fraud and election theft hearings and investigations so that Congressmen and Senators will be better informed when Congress faces contests and questions about the legitimacy and validity of various federal elections held on November 3, 2020.”
This week, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro issued a comprehensive report to back the Trump campaign’s claim of election “theft by a thousand cuts.”
Titled “The Immaculate Deception: Six Key Dimensions of Election Irregularities,” it employs charts and other graphics to summarize the evidence from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Navarro charges Democrats carried out a “coordinated strategy to effectively stack the election deck against the Trump-Pence ticket.”
He concludes that “the weight of evidence and patterns of irregularities uncovered in this report are such that it is irresponsible for anyone – especially the mainstream media – to claim that there is ‘no evidence’ of fraud or irregularities.”
Navarro identifies six major dimensions of alleged election irregularities across the six states: “outright voter fraud, ballot mishandling, contestable process fouls, Equal Protection Clause violations, voting machine irregularities and significant statistical anomalies.”
In a Senate hearing Wednesday that erupted into a heated exchange between the chairman and the ranking member, Republican Sen. Rand Paul charged the 2020 election was “stolen,” arguing courts never addressed the evidence.
“The courts haven’t decided the facts. They never looked at the facts,” the Kentucky senator said.
“The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen and the only way it will be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws,” he said.
Paul’s remarks came after former independent counsel Ken Starr affirmed that some 60 court cases brought by the Trump campaign and its allies were rejected primarily for procedural reasons as opposed to their merits.
“I think it’s important that we look at this and understand what courts are saying and not saying,” Paul said. “The courts have not said there wasn’t fraud. The courts simply didn’t rule on or hear [about] the fraud.”
18 House colleagues joined me in sending a letter to @senatemajldr, @SpeakerPelosi, and various House & Senate committee chairs seeking election fraud hearings ahead of the Jan 6th Electoral College vote submissions. pic.twitter.com/IcRvZ5pSED
— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) December 17, 2020
The signatories of Brooks’ letter are Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mike Rogers of Alabama, Jim Banks of Indiana, David Rouzer of North Carolina, Paul Gosar of Ariona, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Lance Gooden of Texas, Brian Babin of Texas, Bob Gibbs of Ohio, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Gregory Steube of Florida, Jody Hice of Georgia, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Randy Weber of Texas, Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee and Mike Garcia of California.
Meanwhile, The Hill report Tuesday that in a private call, McConnell warned Republican senators not to join any effort to support President Trump’s challenge to the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.
Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis said Wednesday the legal team will continue to contest the election results even after Jan. 6.
“We’re going to continue to press for these critical investigations and I’m happy to see, you know, that Michigan, and Georgia, and other states, and Arizona are starting to make some moves in their state legislatures,” she said told Newsmax.
She insisted it’s not a partisan issue.
“This is something that every American should be concerned with, so we’re going to continue to fight that battle,” she said. “We’re gonna fight regardless of what happens come January 6, and I hope that we do rectify the correct results of this election.”
‘The law is very clear’
Brooks said Monday he is trying to build support for a challenge when the votes are read Jan. 6.
“The law is very clear,” he said in a Fox Business “Lou Dobbs Tonight” interview. “The House of Representatives in combination with the United States Senate has the lawful authority to accept or reject Electoral College vote submissions from states that have such flawed election systems that they’re not worthy of our trust.”
He said he’s confident that if only lawful votes in the Nov. 3 election are counted, Trump would win the Electoral College.
“We should not be counting illegal votes and putting in an illegitimate President of the United States,” he said.
To mount a challenge in Congress, Brooks would also need a senator to object. The New York Times reported Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have indicated they would be open to objecting.
However, there appears to be no support from Republican leadership in the Senate.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Newsweek it’s “a pretty wild idea.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said it “does not sound to me like that would add any credibility to our electoral process.”
On Tuesday morning, McConnell declared “the Electoral College has spoken,” saying he he wanted to “congratulate President-elect Joe Biden” and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.