Report: U.S. Rep. Scott Perry shared plan to seize voting machines nationwide

Compelled to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, GOP U.S. Rep. Scott Perry shared detailed plans to seize voting machines nationwide with a White House official.

According to a report this week by Talking Points Memo, which obtained text logs between Perry and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Perry grew increasingly desperate for action as the Jan. 6, 2021, election certification by Congress approached.

At one point, Perry asked why the U.S. government could not work with the Italian government to flush out a conspiracy theory that claimed an Italian defense contractor used military-grade satellites to “zap” voting machines and sway votes in favor of President Joe Biden.

Perry, the chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, won re-election last month, beating Democratic Harrisburg City Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels 54% to 46% in the 10th Congressional District race.

A spokesman for Perry did not respond to a request for comment.

CNN reported earlier this year about some texts between Perry and Meadows.

The House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has focused attention on Perry’s role. In August, the FBI confiscated Perry’s phone as part of an investigation into the effort to have fake electors overturn the election results in favor of former President Donald Trump.

TPM reported that texts show Perry messaged Meadows a week after the election with instructions from a “cyber forensics team” for state officials to seize voting machines and place them “under lock and key.”

Perry, TPM said, was one of 34 members of Congress who exchanged more than 400 texts with Meadows in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results.

Meadows and Perry exchanged “at least” 62 messages between Nov. 3, 2020, Election Day, and Jan. 20, 2021, the day of Biden’s inauguration, reported TPM.

TPM wrote that the text messages “reveal Perry to be someone who appeared to sincerely buy into outlandish conspiracy theories that the election was stolen by an array of shadowy international cyber-warriors — and who was willing to use his position and influence in government to sow doubt and subvert the vote based on those deeply paranoid convictions.”

Perry urged Meadows to speak with two Trump loyalists, attorneys Sidney Powell and Cleta Mitchell, in separate plans to overturn election results.

Besides the conspiracy theory involving the Italian defense contractor, Perry also shared one concerning Pennsylvania’s vote counting that was based on an anonymous researcher who spoke to the Chinese-language Epoch Times, a far-right publication that TPM said is affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement.

Perry was also clamoring for Meadows to speak with Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist and assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s natural resources section, in a plan to have Clark elevated to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

TPM noted a Senate report that explained that the plan involved Clark telling several swing states that their election results were undetermined, and that Perry introduced Clark to Trump.