The House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol acknowledged on Wednesday that it doctored a text message between former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), excluding content about how they wanted former Vice President Mike Pence to handle electoral votes during the Joint Session of Congress earlier this year.
On Monday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the head of the House Intelligence Committee, showed a graphic during a hearing on newly obtained communications between Meadows and others, including Jordan. The graphic was displayed as the Jan. 6 panel was discussing whether to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over information related to the probe.
The graphic included the title “Lawmaker Text to Meadows.”
The message was presented as follows: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.”
“You can see why this is so critical to ask Mr. Meadows about. About a lawmaker suggesting that the former vice president simply throw out votes that he unilaterally deems unconstitutional in order to overturn a presidential election and subvert the will of the American people,” Schiff said.
However, the message was actually a direct quote from former Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, according to The Federalist. The text included an attachment of Schmitz’s determination that Pence could object to electoral votes from states.
The text was also altered to cut off the rest of the sentence, which stated, “in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,” the outlet said.
A spokesman for the House panel confirmed to The Epoch Times that the message was doctored.
“The select committee on Monday created and provided Representative Schiff a graphic to use during the business meeting quoting from a text message from ‘a lawmaker’ to Mr. Meadows,” the spokesman said in an email.
“In the graphic, the period at the end of that sentence was added inadvertently,” the spokesman added, without elaborating on how the error was introduced. “The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error.”
Jordan and Schiff did not respond to requests for comment.
Jordan’s office and Schiff’s office have not responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
“Expect a lot more of this. Schiff and the contemptible Jan6 committee will twist and smear the narrative every chance they get,” wrote Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) on Twitter Wednesday. Added Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Schiff is the “Jussie Smollet of Congress,” referring to the former “Empire” actor who was convicted of concocting a hate crime hoax earlier this month.
The panel, which later voted to hold Meadows in contempt, previously acknowledged privately that one of its subpoenas contained misinformation, but has still not updated the public on that matter.
By Jack Phillips and Zachary Stieber
