Democrats scrutinize Pennsylvania congressman’s efforts to help Trump overturn 2020 election
The report cites Perry more than three dozen times and includes details about his phone call with the No. 2 official at the Justice Department and an email Perry sent afterward with alleged evidence of fraud.
Perry is one of three people Senate Democrats singled out whose connection to January 6 was “particularly notable” and warranted further investigation beyond the scope of their probe. The Senate report urges the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol to take a closer look at Perry’s actions in December 2020 and January 2021, when Trump considered replacing acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen with Clark after Rosen wouldn’t buy into his lies about election fraud.
Perry and the other two officials singled out by the report, Trump campaign legal adviser Cleta Mitchell and Pennsylvania state GOP Rep. Doug Mastriano, could all have firsthand knowledge about Trump’s efforts behind the scenes in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Perry, a five-term congressman and Army veteran who served in Iraq, is a member of the House Freedom Caucus that’s closely allied with Trump. He repeatedly echoed the former President’s lies about the election being stolen in the lead-up to January 6 and was involved with Trump’s efforts on Capitol Hill to try to overturn the election result through Congress.
Notably, on January 6 Perry formally objected to Pennsylvania’s results on the House floor in the hours after attack on the Capitol, sparking a tense debate that lasted into the early hours the following morning before the House and Senate reject the objection and certified Biden’s win.
In a July interview with Pennsylvania television station WGAL, Perry reiterated his position that the state legislature should have intervened in the presidential race, arguing the state’s constitutional voting rules were violated, even though the courts rejected those claims.
Trump was pushing the GOP-led legislature to overturn the will of the voters to send his electors to Congress.
“The courts should have sent it back to the legislature. We either have a process that we can trust or we don’t,” Perry said.
Asked if he would still object to certifying the results, Perry told WGAL, “I absolutely would. It’s not about President Trump, it’s not about President Biden. It’s about the process.”
On Tuesday, CNN asked Perry at the Capitol for comment about the Judiciary Committee report, but he declined to answer questions, saying he would not talk to CNN.
Perry had not responded to CNN’s earlier requests for comment about the report or his conversations with Justice Department officials.
‘I like that guy a lot’
“Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” Trump told Rosen and Donoghue on December 27, according to Donoghue’s notes of the conversation provided to the committee.
The Judiciary Committee report details how Perry was involved both with Trump’s push for Congress to vote to throw out electors on January 6 and to try to convince the Justice Department to support his false election conspiracies.
In the days that followed, Trump asked Perry to speak to Donoghue about his claims of fraud, and Perry talked up Clark in a December 27 call with the No. 2 at DOJ.
“He said, effectively, ‘I think, Jeff Clark is great. I like that guy a lot. He’s the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this,’ ” Donoghue told the Judiciary Committee.
‘Can I send you stuff?’
On December 21, Perry attended a White House meeting with Trump and members of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss the January 6 congressional certification. Soon, Trump turned to his pressure campaign of the top DOJ officials, and he named-checked Perry while lobbying Rosen and Donoghue to back the debunked fraud claims, according to the committee report.
In his December 27 call with Donoghue, Perry said he didn’t think the Justice Department had done its job on the election, according to note Donoghue took of the call.
Perry focused on fraud in his home state of Pennsylvania and asked Donoghue to provide him with evidence.
“Can I send you stuff? We’ve got a lot of evidence,” Perry asked, according to Donoghue’s testimony to the committee. “We’ve got a lot of information about things going on in Pennsylvania. Can I send it to you?”
According to emails obtained by the Judiciary Committee, Donoghue sent Perry’s email to US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady, who responded that the claims “were not well founded.”
This story has been updated with Perry declining to comment to CNN.
CNN’s Mallory Thompson and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.
