Lincoln Project rips Trump’s ‘shocking abuse of power’ after bombshell report on 2020 election

The Lincoln Project blasted Trump White House chief of staff after the group was mentioned in a story about Meadows' communications with then-Attorney General Bill Barr.

"Former President Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows questioned the results of the 2020 election just one day after it took place, texting Atty. Gen. William P. Barr on Nov. 4 about looking into a fraud allegation, according to records released by the Justice Department. The communications show how quickly Meadows moved to find evidence of fraud after it was evident Trump would lose the election, an effort that the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection said in recent hearings was central to the former president’s plan to stay in power," the L.A. Timesreported Thursday.

The newspaper reported it was unclear whether the select committee has obtained the text messages.

"The texts to Barr are not among those leaked to and published by various media outlets. CNN and the Washington Post have reviewed hundreds of Meadows’ messages, including texts from conservative figures pushing him to have Trump fight the election results in court, and texts he received from lawmakers and conservative media personalities during the Jan. 6 insurrection," the newspaper reported.

The Lincoln Project, the group of former top Republican political consultants known for hard-hitting attacks on Trump, responded on Thursday after the report was published.

“The Lincoln Project was the only SuperPAC Trump truly feared in the 2020 election. Now we know how far he’d go to punish us for leading the fight against him.

“Today, we learned the Trump White House tried to use the power of the Federal Government to come down on us. After we highlighted their corrupt courtroom antics to overturn the election, the Trump Campaign created a 12-page research brief attacking The Lincoln Project that Mark Meadows passed to Attorney General Bill Barr. Its purpose? To pressure Barr into attacking us for engaging in protected political speech," the group alleged.

“We said well before the election that Donald Trump was a power-hungry authoritarian who would stop at nothing to cling to the Oval Office," the statement continued. "Trump’s low-rent strip-mall lawyers threatened to sue after The Lincoln Project put his daughter and son-in-law on a Times Square Billboard, but trying to use the Department Of Justice to attack The Lincoln Project is a shocking abuse of power.”