The House Jan. 6 Committee announced on Thursday that it had sent a letter to former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich requesting info about his role in advising Trump’s team as it pushed the Big Lie — up to, and even after, the Jan. 6 insurrection.
In the committee’s letter to Gingrich, Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) writes that the committee has obtained emails between Gingrich and senior Trump advisors — including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller — in which Gingrich gave advice on advertising campaigns pushing the lie that the election had been stolen from Trump.
The ads, the letter says, were intended to air in the run-up to Dec. 14, 2020, the day electors from each state would meet to make the outcome of the election official.
“These advertising efforts were not designed to encourage voting for a particular candidate,” Thompson writes. “Instead, these efforts attempted to cast doubt on the outcome of the election after voting had already taken place. They encouraged members of the public to contact their state officials and pressure them to challenge and overturn the results of the election.”
As it has with current members of Congress, the committee requested Gingrich’s cooperation, stopping short of issuing a subpoena.
Thompson’s letter quotes from an email that Gingrich allegedly sent on Dec. 8, describing how Trump’s advisors should stoke anger as they rallied the public behind their election lie.
“The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before[.] . . . If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger[,] they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.”
“You sought to arouse anger just one week after Gabe Sterling, a senior Georgia official, warned the public of the violent threats made against Georgia election officials,” Thompson’s letter reads. “He specifically stated that, ‘[s]omeone is going to get hurt. Someone is going to get shot. Someone is going to get killed.’ He was exactly right.”
The committee suggests that Gingrich’s role advising Trump on his election steal effort started early, and cites a Nov. 12, 2020 email he allegedly sent to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone asking about contested electors — a seeming reference to Trump’s plan to field a bogus slate of electors, which was already taking form. “Is someone in charge of coordinating all the electors?” Gingrich purportedly asked.
Thompson’s letter also suggests that Gingrich’s support for the scheme continued up to — and through — the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
“You emailed Mr. Meadows at 10:42 p.m., after the Capitol had been cleared of rioters and members of Congress had returned to finish certifying the election results, and asked, ‘[a]re there letters from state legislators about decertifying electors[?]'” Thompson’s letter reads. “Accordingly, you appear to have been involved with President Trump’s efforts to stop the certification of the election results, even after the attack on the Capitol.”
The committee asked Gingrich to come in for an interview on Sept. 19, 2022. Read Thompson’s letter here.
