Washington (CNN) --
In the weeks between the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol, nearly 100 text messages from two staunch allies of then-President Donald Trump within the Republican Party reveal a aggressive attempt to pressure, encourage and eventually warn the White House about its efforts to nullify the election, according to messages obtained by the House select committee and reviewed by CNN.
The previously unreported messages were sent by Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas to then-White House Secretary General Mark Meadows.
The messages show that both members of Congress initially supported legal challenges to the election, but ultimately turned against the effort and tactics used by Trump and his team.
"We are driving a stake through the heart of the federal republic," Roy wrote to Meadows on January 1.
The House select committee first published that text message in December, as written by a member of the House Freedom group of lawmakers.
Roy's authorship had not previously been reported.
When Lee and Roy's messages are contrasted with the general timeline of events between the election and Jan. 6, they provide new details about how two Trump allies went from fierce advocates of the former president's push to overturn victory. of Joe Biden to be discouraged spectators.
By January 3, Lee was sending Meadows a message saying the effort "could go wrong."
But shortly after the election, both men were urging Trump to keep fighting.
Senator Mike Lee speaks about a bill to end US support for the war in Yemen on December 13, 2018.
In a series of messages to Meadows on November 7, Lee offered his "unequivocal support for him to exhaust all legal and constitutional remedies available to him to restore Americans' confidence in our elections."
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Lee continued, "This fight is about the fundamental fairness and integrity of our electoral system. The nation depends on your continued resolve. Stay strong and keep fighting, Mr. President."
Also on November 7, Roy wrote to Meadows, "We need ammunition. We need examples of fraud. We need it this weekend."
Lee's director of communications, Lee Lonsberry, told CNN, "I'd like to stress that Senator Lee has been totally transparent," noting how Lee had called for an investigation into allegations of fraud in the 2020 election but ultimately acknowledged Biden as president-elect and voted to certify the election results on January 6.
Roy's communications director, Nate Madden, told CNN that the texts "speak for themselves."
An attorney for Meadows did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
A select committee spokesman declined to comment.
A source familiar with the commission's work told CNN that Lee's messages "reflect that he was a supporter before he was against. He uses legal language to push conspiracy theorists into Trump's orbit."
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'Can you help her in?'
For a few days in November, Lee pressured Meadows to give attorney Sidney Powell access to Trump.
"Sidney Powell says she needs to go inside to see the President but is being kept away from him," Lee wrote to Meadows on Nov. 7.
"Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put various states back into play. Can you help her get in?"
Lee then sent Meadows Powell's cell phone and email address.
Sidney Powell pushed the baseless claims of voter fraud as one of Trump's leading lawyers in the former president's efforts to impeach the 2020 election.
On November 9, Lee again pressed Meadows about Powell, describing her as a "direct person".
That same day, Roy warned Meadows about Trump's approach, sending him a text message: "We must urge the President to tone down the rhetoric, and approach the legal challenge firmly, intelligently and effectively, without resorting to throwing punches." desperate or throw your base into conspiracy hysteria.
Then came the now-infamous Nov. 19 press conference, in which members of Trump's legal team, including Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, exposed a series of false claims and conspiracy theories about alleged voter fraud.
The messages began to take on a more critical tone.
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"Hey bro, we need substance or people are going to snap," Roy sent a text on Nov. 19, a few hours after the news conference ended.
Two hours later, Lee texted Meadows with serious concerns, saying he was "concerned about Powell's press conference."
Lee told Meadows, "The president's potential libel liability is significant in this case."
"For the campaign and for the president personally.
" "Unless Powell can back up everything he said, which I doubt he can."
Meadows responded, "I agree. Very concerned."
The news conference came as Trump's legal losses mounted in his effort to challenge the results in swing states.
From Powell to Eastman
By late November, Lee had distanced himself from Powell and started promoting right-wing attorney John Eastman, whom a California federal judge said last month may have been plotting a crime with Trump as they tried to disrupt election certification. presidential elections by Congress on January 6, calling it a "coup in search of a legal theory.
Privately, Roy also texted Meadows supporting Eastman and criticizing Giuliani:
"Have you talked to John Eastman?"
Roy sent a text message on November 22.
"Have Eastman appear before the Pa election board…"
"Get the data in the public domain."
"Damn Rudy has to shut his mouth."
In December, both Republican legislators express to Meadows their serious concerns about the plan to challenge the certification of the elections on January 6.
On December 16, Lee asked Meadows for guidance: "If you want senators to oppose, we need some guidance from you on that, ideally what arguments to make."
"I think we're past the point where we can expect anyone to do it without some guidance and a strong evidentiary argument."
On December 31, Roy further expressed his concern in a message to Meadows.
"The president should convene everyone. It's the only way. If we substitute the will of the states through the electors for a congressional vote every 4 years... we will have destroyed the electoral college... Respectfully," wrote Roy.
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By then, Trump and his allies were working behind the scenes to enlist parts of the federal government in the effort to nullify the election.
That included urging Justice Department officials, including then-Attorney General William Barr, to investigate the fraud even after the agency declared there was none.
Trump was also heavily lobbying then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election on January 6.
In a Jan. 3 message to Meadows, Lee argued that Trump's effort to get states to send alternate lists of voters to Congress was not legitimate.
"I just know this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side," Lee sent in a note to Meadows.
"And unless these states submit new lists of Trump electors in accordance with state law, we don't have it," Lee wrote to Meadows.
As CNN previously reported, the plan to replace real voters with fake ones in a handful of swing states was orchestrated by allies of the former president, under the supervision of his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks as the House of Representatives reconvenes to debate the objection to the confirmation of the Arizona Electoral College vote, after rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6 of 2021.
None of those alternative lists of pro-Trump voters received the go-ahead from state officials or came before Congress.
While Lee and Roy voted to certify the election results in favor of Biden, more than 100 of their Republican colleagues in both the House and Senate did not.
The main ones were Senators Ted Cruz, from Texas, and Josh Hawley, from Missouri, whom Lee rebuked in his messages to Meadows.
"I am very concerned about the way my friend Ted is running this effort," Lee wrote to Meadows.
"This will not be for the benefit of the president."
Lee added that unless new lists of competing voters were submitted according to state law, the net effect "could help people like Ted and Josh to the detriment of DJT."
When January 6 finally arrived, neither Lee nor Roy joined their colleagues in challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.
After the violence broke out and Congress was back in session, Roy said on the House floor, "The President should never have led certain Americans into believing something that simply cannot be."
He also texted Meadows: "This is s**t."
"Fix this now."
