(CNN) — Eleven days following the January 6, 2021 riots At the US Capitol, and just three days before Joe Biden was sworn into office as the 46th president, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sent a text message to Mark Meadows, secretary general to then-President Donald Trump.
“In our private chat with only deputies, several are saying that the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to ask for the Marshall law (sic). I don’t know regarding those things. I just want you to tell them. They stole this election. All we know that. Next thing is for them to destroy our country. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go following Biden and anyone else.” Greene wrote to Meadows on January 17, 2021.
The message is one of the most 2,000 text messages that Meadows sent or received between Election Day 2020 and Biden’s inauguration obtained by CNN. (Meadows did not appear to respond to this message from Greene.)
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, speaks at a rally outside the Capitol on January 5, 2021.
First things first: it’s spelled “martial” law, not “Marshall” law. And in case you skipped some civics classes in high school, invoking martial law essentially means putting the military in charge instead of civilian authorities. It is normally used only in cases of war or natural disaster. It’s not the kind of thing to be said lightly, or at least should be said lightly, especially if you don’t know how to spell it.
Now, let’s take a step back and consider the context of why Greene pushed the idea of martial law.
The US Capitol had been overrun by those denying the 2020 election results less than two weeks before Greene sent Meadows this text message. Several people lost their lives and more than 100 police officers were injured. It was the first time the Capitol building had been stormed since the War of 1812.
It was, ultimately, a catastrophe. A fact, it should be noted, that Greene seemed to acknowledge as Jan. 6 unfolded. “Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol. Please tell the president to calm people down. This is not the way to solve anything,” it read. a message to Meadows that day.
And, it was a cataclysm built on, well, nothing. No evidence of widespread voter fraud of the kind alleged by Trump existed at the time, nor has it been found until now.
Greene’s defense of the possibility of invoking martial law also seems to contradict, or at least question, the testimony that she gave under oath last Friday on precisely that issue at a hearing on whether she should be barred from seeking re-election this year because of her role in the Jan. 6 assault.
How noted CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Greene said he did not “remember” and might not “remember” if he had ever advocated the use of martial law as a way for Trump to retain power.
The idea of martial law had been floated by Trump allies in the post-election period, most notably by former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The idea had even been floated at a contentious Oval Office meeting Flynn attended in December 2020.
The fact that Greene and, according to his message, “several” members of Congress were still trying to get the White House to declare martial law just days before a new president was sworn in speaks to the lengths they were willing to go to directly undermine the peaceful transition of power and, well, democracy in general.
The violent assault on the US Capitol did not deter Greene and his supporters from pushing false electoral theories. He empowered them to go even further, as these messages show. A scary thing.
If you want to read in detail the revelations of the text messages reported exclusively by CNN, click here to see the research in English.
