Several notable Republicans were busted in the recent revelations made by the January 6th House Committee regarding text messages that were sent to Trump’s now-former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the infamous Capitol siege. Most reports have seemed to focus on the fact that many of those Republicans — such as Fox’s Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, as well as Donald Trump’s own son, Don Jr. — were privately begging Meadows to do something to make Trump make it stop. Despite the fact that many of them went on to peddle the Big Lie to the American people in public.
However, not all of the text messages received by Meadows on that day had that panicked, desperate tone. Some of them remained loyal to the cause and were calling on the then Chief of Staff to push Vice President Mike Pence to blatantly ignore the US Constitution and help Donald Trump steal the 2020 presidential election.
One of those text messages came from Jim Jordan.
The Ohio Republican House Rep. sent a text to Meadows on January 6th reading:
On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916).”
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POLITICO has confirmed that the message was sent to Mark Meadows from Jim Jordan. Jordan’s office has since confirmed that the GOP Rep. was the one to send the message to Donald’s Chief of Staff, but has claimed that Jordan didn’t pen the message himself, but rather forwarded it from an unknown third-party.
Either way, according to one former federal prosecutor, by forwarding that message to Mark Meadows, Jordan may have just screwed himself in the worst sort of way.
Former U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner revealed during a recent segment on MSNBC that Jordan’s message was a federal felony, one that carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
“What Jim Jordan did by forwarding that text was to obstruct an official proceeding, and that statute, which is a 20-year felony, says if you actually obstruct, or you attempt to obstruct, or you endeavor to impede an official congressional proceeding like the electoral vote count, you’ve committed the federal felony of obstructing an official proceeding,” Kirschner said.
Will this shake out to be real-life charges for Jim Jordan? Probably not. But the January 6th Committee has been on a warpath here lately with no signs of slowing down — so I’d watch my back all the same if I were you, Jim.
You can watch the MSNBC clip here:
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
