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Meadows’ aid details Boebert’s involvement in ‘beginning stages’ of White House Jan. 6 Pence planning

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April 26, 2022, 5:08 pm

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was involved in the “beginning stages” of talks with senior White House officials that ultimately led to efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to decertify the 2020 election results, a former top aide told congressional investigators.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, identified Boebert as one of a small group of Republican lawmakers who met with Meadows as early as the last week of November 2020 to “raise the idea” of former Vice President Mike Pence intervening to prevent the certification of election results by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The ensuing assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters that day led to the deaths of five people and Trump’s eventual second impeachment trial.

Hutchinson named Boebert, who represents part of Eagle County, in testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol in February. Portions of her testimony were made public this week as part of a legal filing made by lawyers for the committee in a lawsuit brought against it by Meadows in an effort to block several subpoenas.

Under questioning from committee investigators, Hutchinson recalled several meetings in the weeks after Thanksgiving in which “campaign officials and a few members of Congress” discussed the possibility of Pence aiding an effort to overturn the election results on Jan. 6.

“Mr. Scott Perry, Mr. Jim Jordan… Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are the four members that immediately jump out to me,” Hutchinson said.

“I recall those individuals being involved in the earlier stages at this time,” she added. “I’m sure there were other individuals involved, but those are ones that I remember specifically being involved that Mr. Meadows had outreach to.”

Boebert, a controversial first-term lawmaker from Silt, has been scrutinized for giving tours of the Capitol to a “large group” of people on the day prior to the insurrection, and for sending tweets that some characterized as relaying “intel” about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s location during the attack. On the morning of Jan. 6, she tweeted, “Today is 1776.”

Hutchinson also said that “Ms. Ellis” was among the campaign officials who had early meetings with Meadows on the issue — an apparent reference to Colorado attorney Jenna Ellis, a legal advisor to the Trump campaign. Ellis authored a memo sent to Meadows on Dec. 31, 2020, in which she argued Pence had the power to overturn the election, ABC News reported last year.

Constitutional scholars have overwhelmingly rejected the argument that vice presidents have any authority to influence the counting of electoral votes in the congressional certification process, and conspiracy theories alleging widespread fraud in the 2020 election have been exhaustively debunked by state and local officials, experts, law enforcement authorities and the courts.

Editor’s note: This story appeared on Colorado Newsline, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.