Utah Senator Mike Lee was so shocked by an inadvertent phone message he’d recieved from former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani during the Capitol riot that he told then-White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien that Mr Giuliani was the embodiment of lawyerly malfeasance.
The House January 6 select committee report reveals Mr Lee reacted badly to the phone message from Mr Giuliani, who had mistakenly called him thinking he was Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville.
In the voicemail, which was first reported by The Dispatch last year, Mr Giuliani said he wanted to discuss “how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you”.
The message was recieved at approximately 7pm on the day of the riot, as Congress was making plans to return to session in order to complete the electoral vote counting that had been interrupted by a pro-Trump mob.
“I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow. I know McConnell is doing everything he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head because it’s one thing to oppose us, it’s another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it,” said the disgraced former mayor, who told Mr Lee – thinking he was Mr Tuberville – that if he could “object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state,” it would “delay” proceedings “a lot” while giving the Trump camp a chance to “get” legislators who were considering reversing their stance on certifying the election back on board.
Mr Lee’s response was to send a text to Mr O’Brien, telling him: “You can’t make this up” and revealing that he got the call from Mr Giuliani, “who apparently thought he was calling Senator Tuberville”.
“You've got to listen to that message. Rudy is walking malpractice,” he added.
Mr Lee’s assessment of Mr Giuliani may have been correct. Earlier this month the District of Columbia bar association ethics regulators recommended that he be disbarred – banned from the practice of law – because he committed misconduct when arguing Mr Trump’s failed challenge to election results in Pennsylvania.
Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton Fox, whose office is prosecuting the misconduct claim against Mr Giuliani, argued at a December hearing that the ex-mayor’s conduct caused “fundamental harm to the fabric of the country that could well be irreparable”.
