Testimony: Rep. Debbie Lesko was at White House planning meeting to avert 2020 Trump loss

Rep. Debbie Lesko was said to be among a group of House Republicans who attended a late December 2020 meeting at the White House as President Donald Trump and his advisers strategized about how to sidestep the election results.

The special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol released documents late on Friday that included testimony detailing the attendees at the Dec. 21, 2020, meeting that also included Arizona GOP Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

Biggs and Gosar were widely known to have attended the meeting, but Lesko's alleged involvement was not previously disclosed. It would only add to Arizona's heavy presence at a meeting that included eight House members in person, according to the documents released on Friday.

The new information came as part of a lengthy filing by the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee seeking to prevent Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, from blocking its subpoenas for more information from him about the runup to the riot.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to Meadows, testified that the meeting largely involved members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which Biggs headed at the time and had been Trump's most loyal faction on Capitol Hill. 

Lesko's chief of staff Rachel Harris said Lesko wasn't at the meeting. She said Hutchinson testified that she "believes" Lesko was present, suggesting she "is not sure and cannot confirm her attendance. There is no record of Congresswoman Lesko attending any such meeting on her calendar and the Congresswoman has no recollection of participating in the meeting."  

Hutchinson testified that during the meeting members were briefed on a legal theory devised by law professor John Eastman that suggested the vice president had the authority to set aside state results or send them back to the state legislatures, who could then pick the winner of the state's electors, rather than voters.

No one objected to the plan, Hutchinson said.

While Biggs and Gosar have long been seen as deeply involved in the effort to reverse Trump's election loss, Lesko has seemed to play a secondary role. 

With votes still being counted, Lesko participated in a Nov. 5 press conference in Phoenix decrying the election process along with Gosar, former Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., former Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.

Privately, Lesko seemed less sure about what to make of the unfolding election results.

Eight days later, Biggs, Gosar and Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., sent a letter to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors asking them to manually audit every ballot cast, “allowing tabulators to review ballot images and compare the results to current totals.”

The slim margin between Trump and Biden, “together with questions regarding anomalies and potential errors, is more than enough reasoning” for a full audit, the letter said. An audit would inspire public confidence in the result, the Congress members said.

Lesko called Clint Hickman, who at the time chaired the county supervisors and, like Lesko, also hails from the West Valley.

“What is going on?” she asked. Hickman defended the county's processes. 

“It doesn’t feel right. I’m not signing that letter,” Hickman remembered Lesko telling him. Lesko did not respond to The Republic's repeated requests last year to discuss the matter.

Whatever her misgivings, by Dec. 10, 2020, Lesko was more involved in the effort to avert Trump's election loss. 

She and Biggs were among 120 House Republicans to join a long-shot lawsuit that day asking the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The high court rejected the case within hours.  

Eleven days later, Lesko was said to be at the White House listening to another legal plan to get around the election results.

The same day as the White House meeting, Biggs and Gosar participated in a videoconference with Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, in an effort to persuade him there was evidence of widespread fraud in Maricopa County. State Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, also was on the call asserting fraud in the election.

Finchem, who is running for Arizona secretary of state with Trump's endorsement, is under scrutiny by the select committee.

The Dec. 21 videoconference, first detailed by The Arizona Republic in its November series "Democracy in Doubt," left Bowers unconvinced, though he did seek further information from county officials about election procedures.

Arizona's other Republican member, Schweikert, didn't attend the Dec. 21 meeting.

On Jan. 6, the date when Congress formally certified President Joe Biden's victory, Schweikert voted to set aside Pennsylvania's results, but not Arizona's. 

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Subscribe to our free political podcast, The Gaggle.