Former White House chief of staff texted voter fraud conspiracy theorist

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published 26 September 2022

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) says that text messages between former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and top conspiracy theorists seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election provide a "roadmap to an attempted coup," CNN reports.

Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel, has been identified as one of the top people seeking to prove that Trump's re-election loss resulted from voter fraud. As he and other Trump allies sought access to voting machines in states like Arizona and Georgia, he kept Meadows updated on their progress via text messages, per CNN.

In the messages, Waldron called Arizona the "lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade" and said the court's dismissal would allow opponents to use "delay tactics" to keep Waldron and his team from getting access to the machines. Meadows replied, "Pathetic."

The text messages illuminate how strong Waldron's influence was among GOP White House leaders at the time. CNN reports that court documents suggest that the extent of Meadow's connection to the attempts to overturn the election has stirred the interest of prosecutors investigating efforts to prove Trump's claims of voter fraud.

In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, Riggleman said, "The Meadows text messages show you an administration that was completely eaten up with a digital virus called QAnon conspiracy theories."

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.