Yesterday, the New Republic reported that Wisconsin GOP U.S. Senator Ron Johnson lied (shocker) in his early claims that “some staff intern” was responsible for delivering a slate of fake electors to his office. In reality that “intern” was actually someone with “extensive background as a Trump White House staffer, opposition researcher, and voter fraud alarmist.”
In efforts to distance himself from the fake elector scheme, Johnson has lied and finger-pointed to other offices. But the Senator still has not provided a coherent answer to how his office was in a position to aid a coup by attempting to send a fake slate of electors to the vice president.
Johnson’s actions show that he was deeply involved in and complicit in the Trump campaign scheme to overturn the election — and this new lie is the latest shoe to drop. No fake phone call can get him out of this one.
The New Republic: Ron Johnson Can’t Crawl out of the January 6 Hole He Dug for Himself
By Daniel Strauss | July 20, 2022
Key Points:
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“The latest development came late Friday night, when Politico revealed the name of the Republican operative who tried to pass the slates of electors to Johnson. That previously unknown operative, Mike Roman, has an extensive background as a Trump White House staffer, opposition researcher, and voter fraud alarmist. He is an alumnus of the Trump White House, the Koch brothers–backed outside groups, and multiple Republican presidential campaigns. In other words, he’s not the intern/ultra-green staffer Johnson initially described in response to questions from reporters.”
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“The involvement of someone with that kind of intensely partisan history challenges Johnson’s early claims that the January 6 committee grossly exaggerated the events in relation to him that day and that it was a nothingburger of a story about the greenest of green interns quixotically trying to pass something on to Johnson. […] Pence’s legislative director, Chris Hodgson, rebuffed that attempt, writing to Riley in a text message, ‘Do not give that to him.’”
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“[A]s more details about the episode have emerged, Johnson has been flailing in his explanation of what happened. He eventually changed the story from something going on between low-level staffers (does anybody think a Senate chief of staff, a former White House legislative affairs staffer, and the vice president’s legislative affairs director are low level?) to that the fake electors came from Republican Congressman Mike Kelly’s office. Kelly’s office has denied Johnson’s accusations. Finger-pointing has ensued.”
