Mark Meadows knew the plot with an alternate slate of electors was illegal — but did it anyway: Court filing

The Guardian's justice reporter, Hugo Lowell, tweeted Friday evening that a new court filing could prove the White House's intent in the campaign to create an alternative slate of electors.

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol obtained the testimony that former President Donald Trump's chief of staff was told by the White House counsel that the plot would be unlawful.

The details came as part of an interview with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified in the lawsuit that Meadows filed against the House and the Jan. 6 committee for what he called an overly broad subpoena requesting information about the events leading up to the attack on the Capitol.

"At any of these meetings with individuals from outside the White House or the executive branch, did the White House Counsel's Office express an opinion as to whether the plan to have electors for President Trump meet and cast electoral college votes in States that President Trump had lost was legal?" asked the House Committee's counsel, Mr. George.

"Yes," replied Hutchinson.

She went on to say that the meeting took place in early to mid-Dec. 2021. She noted that it could have been the end of Nov. 2021, but that she felt more comfortable saying with certainty that it was in December. Those present, she said, were Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, some of Giuliani's associates, and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. She said that at a later meeting Pat Philbin, "but no members of Congress."

Read the full deposition here.