During the Jan 6 hearing, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin referred to a meeting that took place on December 18, 2020, in the White House that, according to him, has been described as “unhinged”, “not normal”, and “the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency”.

According to former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, he walked into that meeting with attorney Sidney Powell, who propagated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the founder of Overstock Patrick Byrne. An image of a text between Cassidy Hutchinson, a White House aide who also testified before the committee, and Anthony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for operations, seems to confirm the same. 

What Raskin said

The Maryland Democrat said, “The outside lawyers who had been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it. As we will see, however, they brought to the White House a draft executive order that they had prepared for President Trump to further his ends. Specifically, they proposed the immediate mass seizure of state election machines by the US military”, CNN reported. 

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He explained how the outside advisors had visited then-president Donald Trump on that day. 

The 59-year-old noted that the night ended with Trump apparently rejecting the idea, and added, “In the wee hours of Dec. 19, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a “large and wild crowd” on Wednesday, Jan. 6 — the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes”. 

What Cipollone said

Cipollone said, “We were pushing back and we’re asking one simple question as a general matter: Where is the evidence?”. 

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The lawyer said he was being verbally attacked. Powell, meanwhile, told the committee that Cipollone and former senior adviser Eric Herschmann had shown “contempt and disdain” for Trump. 

What image of Hutchinson’s text shows

The texts between Hutchinson and Ornato confirm the presence of Flynn and Powell saying “there’s a brawl”. 

It states that the West Wing is “unhinged” and notes that the meeting ended around 00:11 on December 19, 2020. 

As per Raskin, Trump’s tweet “A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”, which allegedly led to the Capitol Hill insurrection, was sent out at 1:42 AM.