WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump summoned Michigan state lawmakers to the White House just two weeks after the November 2020 election, his directive was for the group to "have some backbone and do the right thing."
That's according to the report released Monday by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, citing a previously undisclosed interview with Republican then-state House Speaker Lee Chatfield, who told the panel he understood Trump to be urging the lawmakers to overturn the election by naming Michigan’s Electoral College electors for Trump.
In addition to Trump, the Oval Office meeting included his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, by phone, going through a “litany” of false allegations about alleged fraud in Michigan’s election, according to testimony by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey to the committee.
