Text messages show Meadows had direct contact with operative who was trying to seize voting machines

Newly discovered texts reveal former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows exchanged messages with a conspiracy theorist who urged access to voting machine data and forwarded a powerpoint about the president declaring a national emergency claiming electoral fraud.

Meadows sometimes answered simply “OK” when Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel, would provide updates on far-fetched aspects of the election nullification attempt. But Meadows wrote “Pathetic” when Waldron informed him of an Arizona judge’s decision to rule on a lawsuit demanding access to voting machines in a state of Joe Biden.

The texts, obtained by CNNare just the latest evidence from top advisers to President Donald Trump pulling in information from a collection of allies looking for bits of information that could support the president’s claims of voter fraud.

The lyrics show that Meadows, a former head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, watched those efforts during the final weeks of the Trump administration as Trump and his allies looked for ways to stay in power and repeatedly claimed fraud, even as a series of courts have rejected their claims.

Waldron, an aide to the fired and pardoned former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, is a retired army colonel who owns a bar and came into contact with Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell after the election.

His theories have brought in figures such as the Chinese Communist Party, financier George Soros, and Dominion Voting Systems – who has sued numerous figures and media outlets for defamation.

The January 6 committee of the House of Representatives subpoenaed Waldron last year for a powerpoint presentation that he said he distributed entitled “Election fraud, foreign interference and options for JAN 6.”

The lyrics show that Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, is getting updates on doomed efforts to wipe out results in battlefield states.

“Pathful,” Meadows responded to a Waldron text about a judge’s ruling in Arizona

He worked directly with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to gain access to voting systems, sources told the network

It called on President Trump to declare a national emergency to delay certification of the election results, citing unverified claims by China and Venezuela that they monitor voting machines to change the outcome.

In the Dec. 23, 2020 exchange, Waldron expressed concern that the Arizona judge’s ruling would lead to “delaying tactics” that would prevent him and allies from accessing voting machines. He called Arizona “our leading domino we counted on to start the cascade.”

He also texted Meadows Dec. 28 about an analysis of voting irregularities in “several counties” that he said were part of a “southern robbery.” Meadows replied “OK” – indicating that he received the message.

Meadows handed over a wealth of email information early in the Jan. 6 inquiry, but both he and Waldron have tried to prevent the panel from accessing their mobile data.

Other texts and emails reveal that Waldron was in contact with other state officials who put forward fraud claims and helped secure a controversial private audit that ultimately reaffirmed Biden’s victory in the state.

Waldron has a bar outside of Austin, Texas

The committee of January 6 sued Waldron

A Dec. 11 email to state lawmakers asked if a member of his team could “take a hard drive” to the district election office to access voter data and “get the files to us.”

Waldron testified at some of the public hearings held in GOP-controlled states after the November election, including a December 2020 hearing along with attorney John Eastman, who has become a key figure for the Jan. 6 House panel.

Speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House, Eastman took part in a furious Oval Office argument about depraved then-Vice President Mike Pence, who had the power to refuse to accept votes that certified by states.

He worked directly with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to gain access to voting systems. “Waldron was responsible for planning and overseeing the execution” of attempts to access voting systems, a source told the network.

The Speaker of the House Jan. 6 Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said last year when the panel subpoenaed Waldron that he “allegedly played a role in promoting election fraud allegations and spreading possible strategies to challenge the results of the 2020 election.” He also apparently interacted with officials in the Trump White House and Congress to discuss his theories in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.”

He calls the PowerPoint presentation he distributed an “alarming blueprint for undoing national elections.”

It cited his public comments that he visited the White House eight to 10 times, educating lawmakers about election fraud theories.