J6 committee witness boasted about his efforts to help Trump overturn election in self-published book: report

On Thursday, Forbes reported that Patrick Byrne, the controversial former CEO of Overstock.com, detailed his efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election in a self-published book titled "The Deep Rig."

This comes days after Byrne agreed to testify to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"In the summer of 2020, Byrne was recovering from spinal surgery when he says a friend paid him a visit at his home in Utah and piqued his interest in election fraud. He told him he should get involved with a group that was looking into suspicious activity in the 2018 Dallas election and believed there was potential for election fraud on a much wider scale, according to Byrne’s book," reported Lauren Debter. "Byrne threw himself into the subject. He says he spent the next several months speaking with cybersecurity experts and hackers, learning about the ways in which electronic voting machines could be vulnerable to foul play and foreign interference."

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"By the time election night came, Byrne was on the lookout for signs of fraud," the report continued. "He says he approached Sidney Powell in mid-November with information on election fraud. He then relayed that information to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at her direction, he says."

"Byrne says he continued to spend time in D.C. and remained in communication with Powell, who introduced him to Flynn," continued the report. "In December, Byrne says the trio decided to “crash” the White House to try and get their message to Trump. Aides said the meeting became “unhinged” with shouting and insults being hurled between the conspiracy theorists and the White House legal team ... Hours after their meeting, Trump called on protesters to join him in the nation’s capital, tweeting: 'Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!'"

According to the report, Byrne has a reputation of pushing conspiracy theories throughout his career.

"In 1999, he bought a discount retailer, renamed it Overstock and began scooping up inventory from bankrupt dot-coms and selling it at discounts online," said the report. "Three years later, the company’s revenue hit $92 million and he took it public. When the stock tanked, Byrne blamed it on an illegal practice called naked short-selling. He embarked on a years-long crusade, ranting in one call with investors that hedge funds, journalists and regulators were conspiring to push down the company’s stock price under the direction of some faceless menace he called the 'Sith Lord.'"

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