Jan. 6 committee requests information from Newt Gingrich on 2020 election scheme
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has requested information from former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich regarding his alleged involvement "in a scheme to overturn the 2020 election," the committee said Thursday.
According to a letter released Thursday by committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thomson, the committee has obtained emails that Gingrich exchanged with former President Donald Trump's senior advisors, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller.
In those emails, according to Thompson, Gingrich "provided detailed input into television advertisements that repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election."
Thompson's letter states that those advertisements were designed to air after the 2020 election but prior to Dec. 14, 2020, when state electors would meet to cast their votes.
"These efforts attempted to cast doubt on the outcome of the election after voting had already taken place," Thompson wrote. "They encouraged members of the public to contact their state officials and pressure them to challenge and overturn the results of the election. To that end, these advertisements were intentionally aired in the days leading up to December 14, 2020, the day electors from each state met to cast their votes for president and vice president."
According to Thompson, one email that Gingrich sent to Kushner, Miller and media consultant Larry Weitzner on Dec. 8, 2020, in response to a proposed script for a television advertisement, read: "The goal is to arouse the country's anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before … If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger[,] they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors."
Thompson noted that in another email Gingrich allegedly sent on the night of Jan. 6, 2020 — just after the Capitol riot — Gingrich wrote to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, "[a]re there letters from state legislators about decertifying electors[?]"
Thompson said the committee is seeking a voluntary transcribed interview with Gingrich the week of September 19.
In a phone interview with CBS News' chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa on Thursday evening, Gingrich called the Jan. 6 committee a "Stalinist show trial" and a "publicity stunt."
Gingrich added that he was unaware of the committee's request until he spoke with Costa.
"I'll have my attorney talk with them," Gingrich said, adding that he would "follow the advice of counsel" on how to handle the request.
The House Jan. 6 committee has so far held nine public hearings into the events surrounding the insurrection, and more than 700 people have been criminally charged.
Earlier Thursday, a former New York Police Department officer convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the Capitol riot was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the longest sentence imposed so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6.
