Take a stepTwo Texas businessmen with ties to former Governor Rick Perry met with former President Donald Trump a week after the 2020 election and floated a fringe theory that state lawmakers could overturn the election results. says the Jan. 6 congressional report.
The theory fueled a major strategy promoted by Trump’s closest allies to overturn the 2020 election results, despite legal experts, including those in the Trump White House, dismissing the idea as illegal, saying there were no evidence of widespread fraud.
The two Austin-area businessmen, Morgan Warstler and John S. Robison, met with Trump in a meeting in the Oval Office on Nov. 10, 2020, according to the report.
The exact nature of what they discussed was not detailed, but Warstler tweeted in June that he told “the entire Trump team at the Oval” that “state lawmakers get to pick voters no matter what the voters say.” current state law”. essentially empowering Republican-controlled state lawmakers to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
After the meeting, Robison sent an email to the White House to “explain the plan for moving forward with what was discussed,” including using a parallel set of state voters who would vote for Trump in the Electoral College .
Then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino said Robison’s email was “Bat. Shit. Crazy,” according to the congressional report.
Neither Warstler nor Robison returned requests for comment on Friday. But Warstler acknowledged he was named in the social media report.
“I’m on the Jan. 6 report!” he tweeted. “Trump should have listened to me!”
The report did not say whether Warstler and Robison were the first to float the idea of using alternative voters to Trump. But, according to the report, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien told congressional investigators that Trump was intrigued by the idea and “very interested in keeping the paths open to victory.”
It’s also unclear how or why Warstler and Robison accessed an Oval Office meeting with Trump to discuss election strategy. The two are not known in Texas or in national politics and appear to have no legal or electoral background. None of them are major Trump aides in a state where the former president has a healthy pool of billionaire mega-donors.
Warster does not appear to have donated any money to Trump and rarely contributes to elected officials. Robison gave a total of $805 to Trump and his associated PACS in 2020.
But the two share an extraordinary history with Perry, who was Trump’s first energy secretary. Warstler is the founder and CEO of GovWhiz, a cryptic tech company with a limited digital presence and a LinkedIn page that describes it as “still stealthy.” Robison is the president of the company. Perry drew criticism in 2015 for helping introduce GovWhiz representatives to high-ranking officials at the Texas Lottery Commission who raised questions about his dealings with the company, The Austin American Statesman reported at the time.
Warstler and Robison have largely flown under the radar in the months-long saga of the Congressional investigation into the January 6 attack, which saw a wide cast of characters, from low-level office workers to congressmen, become the targets national. The 895-page report was the long-awaited culmination of the committee’s efforts, which dissolved just before Republicans took control of the House. In a final summary of his work, the committee referred Trump and some of his close allies to prosecution by the Justice Department. The department will have the final say on whether to press charges.
