House panel subpoenas author of Jan. 6 PowerPoint

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has subpoenaed the man who dispersed a PowerPoint laying out the Trump campaign’s plans for contesting the 2020 election and who briefed several lawmakers on the strategy.

The subpoena to Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel, comes after his 38-page PowerPoint titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN” was included in a trove of emails to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“Mr. Waldron reportedly played a role in promoting claims of election fraud and circulating potential strategies for challenging results of the 2020 election. He was also apparently in communication with officials in the Trump White House and in Congress discussing his theories in the weeks leading up to the January 6th attack. The document he reportedly provided to Administration officials and Members of Congress is an alarming blueprint for overturning a nationwide election,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement Thursday.

The subpoena follows reporting from The Washington Post in which Waldron said he spoke to Meadows “maybe eight to 10 times” but that he did not email the PowerPoint directly to Meadows.

Waldron dispersed the materials as part of his work with John Eastman, who crafted the memo laying out options for contesting the election, including having then-Vice President Mike Pence buck his ceremonial duties of certifying the election results.

Waldron was also present at the Willard Hotel “war room” where the Trump campaign met in the days leading up to Jan. 6. 

Waldron told The Post that he briefed several members of Congress on the plan during a Jan. 5 meeting in a congressional office but declined to name the other participants.

He also said he briefed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) ahead of a Dec. 16 election security hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The PowerPoint starts with false claims of “irregularities” in the election, calling for “injections” that could be used for “fixing the vote.”

It calls on U.S. Marshals to secure ballots, while the National Guard would be responsible for recounting them.

Among the recommendations in the presentation are to declare a national emergency as well as declare “electronic voting in all states invalid.”

That detail corresponds with another line of inquiry by the committee, which subpoenaed one-time Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and has asked to sit down with Trump’s top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security following a White House meeting to discuss plans to “seize” voting machines and equipment.