The House January 6th Inquisition acknowledged Wednesday that it doctored a text message between former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan.
On Monday, Rep. Adam Schiff, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, showed a graphic during a hearing on communications between Meadows and others, including Jordan, the Epoch Times reports. The graphic was displayed while the committee discussed whether to hold Meadows in criminal contempt.
The graphic boasted 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,” Schiff said. “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.”
The message, however, was actually a direct quote from former Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph Schmitz. The text included an attachment of Schmitz’s determination that Pence could object to electoral votes from states.
Additionally, the message was edited to cut off the rest of the sentence, which read: “in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence.”
A spokesman for the Inquisition confirmed to the Epoch Times that the message was altered.
“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 the graphic, the period at the end of that sentence was added inadvertently,” the spokesman added. “The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error.”
