Update: Pennsylvania Congressman Shuts Down Internal Investigation With Few Answers After Ron Johnson Claims About False Voters
WASHINGTON — After denying U.S. Senator Ron Johnson’s claims that his office had a hand in trying to obtain false papers from Vice President Mike Pence, Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly has launched an internal investigation into the possible involvement of Vice President Mike Pence. his staff.
“Our current chief of staff has begun conducting an internal investigation, which Rep. Kelly is aware of and is taking seriously,” Matt Knoedler, Kelly’s press secretary, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wednesday afternoon.
Kelly’s possible role in the attempt to hand Pence false voter papers from Wisconsin and Michigan in the minutes before Congress was to confirm Joe Biden’s January 6, 2021 victory has become a point of contention in recent weeks.
Johnson has maintained that the fake election documents, texts of which show his staff tried to deliver Pence before being told not to, came from Kelly’s office. Kelly denies the allegation.
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But Johnson’s office on Wednesday provided the Journal Sentinel with a screenshot of a phone record showing that Sean Riley, Johnson’s chief of staff, had a 2-minute call at 11:58 a.m. to a number associated with former Kelly’s chief of staff Matt Stroia. . 6.
There’s no audio of the conversation, but Johnson spokeswoman Alexa Henning told the Journal Sentinel that the conversation between Riley and Stroia was “about how Kelly’s office was able to get us the voters because they had it.” Kelly’s office, Henning said, would later deliver those voter packages to Johnson’s office.
The Journal Sentinel did not confirm the nature of the call, and Knoedler did not answer follow-up questions about the phone call. A call, text and email to the phone number and an email associated with Stroia went unanswered.
Stroia left his position as Kelly’s chief of staff in June 2021 and took a job in the private sector, according to a press release from the time.
“Rep. Kelly’s office continues to deny that he and Senator Johnson spoke, but we never claimed that,” Henning said in a statement. “Confirmed from phone records, his former chief of staff spoke to ours. Our office statements were 100% accurate and true.”
More: Ron Johnson’s attempt to pass false voters to Pence is not a priority of the Jan. 6 committee, the chairman says:
Knoedler said in a statement ahead of the release of the alleged phone records that Kelly “is not aware of any conversations taking place between Mr. Stroia, or anyone else on his team, and Senator Johnson’s staff.” He referenced a June interview with an Ohio TV station in which Kelly says he hasn’t spoken to Johnson since 2011, and denies having any knowledge of the exchange.
“And honestly, if you ask people what he says we did, I say, ‘Really? Why would anyone think a Pennsylvania congressman would have anything to do with the Wisconsin electoral process?’” Kelly said. in the interview.
Johnson admitted last month that he had communicated by text message with Wisconsin attorney Jim Troupis and his chief of staff. at 11:42 am on Jan. 6 about Pence getting a document that Troupis described as about “Wisconsin voters”.
Reilly spoke to Stroia, Johnson’s office claims, at 11:58 a.m. And evidence presented at a committee hearing on Jan. 6 last month shows that at 12:37 p.m., Riley texted Pence assistant Chris Hodgson telling Johnson to “hand over” the false voters from Wisconsin and Michigan to the vice president.
Still, the Jan. 6 committee chair, U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, told the Journal Sentinel Tuesday that Kelly’s name “didn’t come up” in the committee’s investigation into the attempt to provide Pence with the fake election papers.
Thompson said the committee has no plans at this time to investigate Johnson’s involvement further. Instead, the Justice Department is going to investigate the false voter strategy.
Please contact Lawrence Andrea at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea†
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mike Kelly Investigates Links to False Election Plans, Ron Johnson
