WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 03: Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) holds up a redacted document during a hearing about the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 03, 2020 in Washington, DC. Crossfire Hurricane is the code name for the FBI's 2016 counterintelligence investigation into possible links between President Donald Trump's associates and Russian officials. A Justice Department Inspector General report found no political bias in the initiation of the investigation, which resulted in the Mueller Report finding that the Trump campaign did not conspire or coordinate with the Russian government. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) denied a role in his office passing along fake electors to the office of then-Vice President Mike Pence after the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack unveiled new texts during their public hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
“That’s a complete non-story,” Johnson told reporters as he left the Capitol building. “I don’t know what you’re even concerned about here. This was a staff-to-staff exchange, and I was basically unaware of it. The chief of staff contacted the vice president’s staff and said, ‘Do you want this?’ They said no and we didn’t deliver it. That’s the end of the story.”
When pressed on why his staffer had even been asking to deliver the alternate electors to Pence, Johnson responded, “Because someone delivered this to our office and asked to deliver that to the vice president … I had no idea this had been delivered to us.”
The texts obtained by the committee showed communication between Johnson staffer Sean Riley and Pence’s legislative director Chris Hodgson. Johnson’s aide initiated contact with Hodgson telling him Johnson “needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.”
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“What is it?” Hodgson asked.
“Alternate slates of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Riley responded.
“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson said.
The texts were exchanged just before Pence was set to preside over the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral cotes and President Joe Biden‘s win and the Capitol attack.
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