Long before it was elected president of the Chamber, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., played a key role in efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the 2020 election.
Johnson, who was the vice chairman of the GOP caucus and is a Trump ally, led the Amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans in support of a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the results of the 2020 election in four swing states that Biden won: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, asked the Supreme Court to delay election voting in the four states so investigations into voting issues could continue amid Trump’s refusal to concede his loss. It alleged that the four states changed their voting rules without the express approval of their legislatures before the 2020 elections.
Johnson at that time sought his GOP colleagues’ support for the lawsuit by emailing them with the subject line “President Trump’s Temporary Petition.”
“President Trump called me this morning to express his great appreciation for our effort to file an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of concerned members of Congress,” Johnson wrote in the December 2020 email, which NBC News obtained.
“He specifically asked me to contact every Republican member of the House and Senate today and ask that they all join our writ,” he continued. “He said he will be anxiously awaiting the final list to review.”
Demand it quickly prompted a backlash from battleground state attorneys generalwho denounced it as a “publicity stunt” full of “false and irresponsible” allegations. Legal experts he also pointed to a number of obstacles he had faced in the lawsuit, saying Texas lacked the authority to claim that officials in other states did not follow the rules set by their legislatures.
Johnson’s role in pursuing efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election has recently regained attention amid his bid for the presidency. On Tuesday, the political team of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — who broke with Trump over his baseless claims of a stolen election — circulated a New York Times article who called him “the chief architect of the Electoral College objections” on January 6, 2021, aimed at keeping Trump in office even after he loses.
The Times reported last year that many Republicans who voted to discount pro-Biden voters cited an argument developed by Johnson, which was to ignore false claims about massive election fraud and instead hang the objection to the statement that the voting changes of certain states. during the Covid-19 pandemic they were unconstitutional.
As rioters marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Johnson told Fox News in an interview that there was “nothing unusual” about Republican lawmakers’ objections to Electoral College certification and that “there have been a lot of objections along the years”.
“I’m here as one of the advocates on the Republican side, expressing our concern about this election and the allegations of fraud and impropriety and all of that,” he said.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court rejected the Texas effort annul the election results.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the way another state conducts its elections,” the court said in a brief, unsigned opinion.
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