WASHINGTON – Senator Ron Johnson has laid low since a revelation that he was enlisted to deliver a bogus document from Wisconsin on January 6 with the goal of reversing the presidential election. Johnson, a Trump devotee, was watching live tekevison coverage of the House investigation of the January 6 riot at the Capitol, unaware that he was about to be implicated deeply into evetns the day of the riot through text message that investigators had uncovered. s. Startled and also knowing reporters would be at his office right away for his side of the story, Johnson ran out of his Capitol office. The usually button-down Johnson was so hurried that didn’t even grab his suit coat. Halfway to his car, reporters caught up with Johnson. First he pretended he had more important things on his mind, Then, still almost jogging, he blurted out extemporaneous and confused responses between pants. He stumbled and contradicted himself. He claimed ignorance of details of what had happened with the fake elector list. Where did the list come from? Had he seen it or not? How could his chief of staff taken it on himself to himself try to forward such an important document to Vice President Pence, who was presiding that day over the certification process for the 2020 presidential ekection. ? If Johnson was indeed on the floor of the Senate at the time, as he claimed, could he not have been reached? Yes, he said he was aware of the document. Then he said he wasn’t. Reporters didn’t know what to believe. Here, pieced together from Johnson’s on-the-run interview, is what he said:
Who brought the envelope containing the list of fake Wisconsin presidential electors to Johnson’s office? It probably was “some staff intern” from some House office.” “I wasn’t involved.” “We got contacted by somebody — I don’t know who – who said, ‘We got this envelope for the vice president. Can you, Senator Johnson, deliver it?’ Because I’m obviously on the Senate floor. And the rest of the story is nothing.” “I didn’t offer to give the document to Vice President Pence. It was staff to staff.” “There’s no conspiracy here. This is a complete non-story.”
Later, Johnson’s spokesperson, Alexa Henning, trued to bring some order to Johnson’s explanation: “The senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office. This was a staff-to -staff exchange. Johnson’s new chief of staff contacted the vice president’s office. The vice president’s office said not to deliver alternate Wisconsin electoral list to the vice predient, and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story.”
Johnson. A bad day for the Wisconsin senator. Many questions reman unaddressed. Inferences are unflattering: Johnson’s lapses in knowledge about basic facts are suspiciously convenient, doubters say. Also: What kind of leader would shirk responsibility by blaming underlings? It didn’t help Johnson’s credibility that he has been a vocal supporter of the false and discredited Trump claim that the 2022 election was rigged. The document that Johnson was asked to deliver to Vice President Pence was part of the scheme to decertify the 2020 election and keep Trump in office.
Text exchange. Between Johnson aide Sean Riley and Pence aide Chris Hodgson. Posted as evidence at U.S. House committee hearing into the January 6 Capitol invasion.