Here Are All Of Marjorie Taylor Greene's January 6 Text Messages With Mark Meadows

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) during a debate on October 16, 2022. (Screengrab via Georgia Public Broadcasting)

Just when I thought I was out of focusing this newsletter solely on January 6, it pulled me back in. I really will be writing about other topics soon too!

If you want to read more please subscribe! For the time being, it’s completely free.

During a debate on Sunday night, firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) insisted she had “nothing to do with what happened” on January 6. That’s simply not true. Text messages she appears to have exchanged with President Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, indicate Greene was involved in organizing the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol that day. You can read all of those texts here for the first time.

The texts also indicate that, without any evidence, Greene tried to blame the violence that took place alongside the push to reverse Trump’s loss on far left “antifa” activists. Other messages show Greene working to defend Trump against impeachment charges for inciting the violence.

Greene delivered an angry rebuttal on the debate stage when her Democratic Party opponent, Marcus Flowers, accused her “participation” in “the events of January 6.”

“You cannot accuse me of insurrection. I was a victim of the January 6 riot just as much as any other member of Congress,” Greene said, adding, “That was the third day I had on the job. I had nothing to do with what happened there that day and I will not have you accuse me of that. That is wrong of you to do. You’re lying about me and you will not defame my character in that manner.”

However, there is already ample public evidence that Greene was involved in the efforts to protest and overturn Trump’s loss on January 6. Greene was one of 147 Republican members of Congress who voted against the electoral certification that day. Those Republicans objected despite the fact a slew of officials and experts including Trump’s own attorney general have declared there was no credible evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Greene was also a top advertised speaker at the “Wild Protest,” which was one of the major demonstrations against the electoral certification that was planned by Trump supporters in Washington that day. The “Wild Protest” drew crowds to the Capitol but it ultimately did not proceed as Trump supporters brawled with law enforcement and stormed into the building.

I have obtained the 2,319 messages Meadows provided to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. Those texts, which are only a partial sampling of his communications, apparently included 16 different messages identified as being exchanged between him and Greene. Meadows, Greene, and spokespeople for the committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.

In “The Breach,” a book I co-wrote with Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and adviser to the committee, we detailed how Meadows’ text messages were acquired. We also described how Riggleman and other committee investigators identified the people who were texting with Meadows with a high degree of confidence. The identification of Greene was based on this work. For this story, I kept all of the original spelling and grammar as it appeared in the text log apart from changing tokens that seemed to replace apostrophes.

Greene was elected in 2020 and sworn in on January 3, 2021. Her first message in Meadows’ log was dated December 31, 2020, seven days before the Capitol attack. In the text, Greene suggested she was working to get members of Congress to object to the election results on January 6. Greene also indicated she had met with Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who, at the time, was working with the Trump campaign to promote baseless conspiracy theories about Trump’s election loss and to file lawsuits against the results.

“Good morning Mark, I’m here in DC. We have to get organized for the 6th. I would like to meet with Rudy Giuliani again. We didn’t get to speak with him long. Also anyone who can help,” Greene wrote, adding, “We are getting a lot of members on board. And we need to lay out the best case for each state. I’ll be over at CPI this afternoon.”

In “The Breach” we revealed that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was working out of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a right wing group in Washington D.C. that later employed Meadows, as he led efforts to block the electoral certification in Congress. Greene’s initial text appears to be a reference to this organization.

In her debate with Flowers, Greene suggested she had unspecified evidence of “election fraud.” Greene’s next texts to Meadows in the log he provided the committee were a pair dated January 5, the day before the attack. In those texts, Greene also claimed to have evidence of “dead voters” in her home state. Greene indicated she had spoken with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about the election and felt he would be swayed by her alleged evidence.

“Last night Sen Graham told me that if I found 100 names of dead voters in GA that he would object. I have 100 dead voters names!!” Greene wrote to Meadows before firing off a second message, “Tell President Trump!”

Based on the log, Meadows’ reply was almost instantaneous.

“Send them to him,” Meadows wrote, adding, “Do you have senator Graham’s contact[?]”

Greene said she had his “cell.” Meadows seemed to encourage her to use it.

“Yes,” Meadows said.

Ultimately, Graham was not one of the eight Republican senators who objected to the electoral certification on January 6 amid debates at the Capitol that were interrupted by the violence. Spokespeople for Graham did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In April, CNN first published some of Greene’s text messages with Meadows including this exchange.

One of the messages that was first reported by CNN came from Greene on January 6 as the violence was underway. In it, she urged Meadows to have Trump “calm people.”

“Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything,” Greene wrote.

According to the log that text was sent at 2:28 pm. Trump did not make any public attempt to quell the violence until an hour and 49 minutes later.

An hour and twenty four minutes after making an appeal for calm. Greene texted Meadows a new conspiracy theory.

“Mark we don’t think these attackers are our people,” she wrote. “We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters.”

In “The Breach,” we noted how Greene was one of several Trump allies who promoted this idea in the aftermath of the violence. There has been no credible evidence of any largescale involvement in the attack by left wing activists.

Greene repeated that idea in a lengthy message to Meadows dated the morning of January 7, 2021:

“Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked. I don’t think that President Trump caused the attack on the Capitol. It’s not his fault. Antifa was mixed in the crowed and instigated it, and sadly people followed. But when people try everything and no one listens and nothing works, I guess they think they have no other choice. Absolutely no excuse and I fully denounce all of it, but after shut downs all year and a stolen election, people are saying that they have no other choice. I defended Trump last night on Newsmax. He has been the greatest President. I will continue to defend him. And you if anyone attacks you. I hope you are ok. I feel badly for everyone.”

Meadows evidently appreciated her thoughts.

“Thanks Marjorie,” he wrote.

Based on the log, Greene wrote Meadows again on the morning of January 10 as members of Congress considered impeaching Trump for inciting the violence. That message was first reported in “The Breach” where we described it as an “ominous text that landed somewhere between a warning and a threat.”

“Hey I need to talk with President Trump. People are freaking out. The messages I’m getting show extreme fear of what is about to happen,” Greene wrote. “I think some of their fears are warranted. However these extreme fears could lead to out of control actions. Some one call me.”

Greene texted Meadows again the following day. She was evidently angry about the looming impeachment:

“I’m upset about that GOP conference call tonight. They want us to be quiet, not say anything, they are not going to tell people to vote against impeachment, and they are talking about censuring the President!!! They just want to welcome Biden in peacefully. This is the Democrat party that aggressively attempted a coup the entire time Trump was in office! They are trying to impeach for a second time! For nothing. He did not cause the attack on the Capitol. Leadership is clueless about how the American people feel! They complained about the security at the Capitol and their lives being in danger. I told them when I talked we should care about the American people who have dealt with riots and Antifa/BLM riots all year and had their businesses shut down, lost jobs, and can’t function normally. It’s like they don’t even care about anyone but themselves! I will not be quiet. I will not go along to get along. And I’m coming out swinging against these evil Democrats! That was the most disappointing call I’ve ever heard.”

CNN’s initial report did not include either of those messages from Greene.

Greene’s final messages in Meadows’ log were dated the evening of January 17 2021. In the first message, which was not previously reported by CNN, she seemed to be expressing frustration after facing social media bans. Greene suggested those bans were due to her highlighting thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines as well as information about President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

“banned for 12 hours For calling out our state leaders for changing nothing in our elections and losing our senate seats. And calling out Dominion machines saying why are they suing everyone if they just do forensic audits then they will show nothing is wrong and there is no need for lawsuits. And talking about Biden and Burisma and Hunters laptop,” Greene wrote.

Five minutes later, Greene sent a message that was reported by CNN where — despite a spelling error — she appeared to be advocating for martial law.

“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him,” Greene wrote. “They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!”

Greene defeated her first Democratic Party opponent by nearly 50 points in 2020. She is widely expected to beat Flowers in the upcoming general election on November 8.