CNN:

In the weeks between the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, almost 100 text messages from two staunch GOP allies of then-President Donald Trump reveal an aggressive attempt to lobby, encourage and eventually warn the White House over its efforts to overturn the election, according to messages obtained by the House select committee and reviewed by CNN.

The texts, which have not been previously reported, were sent by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The text exchanges show that both members of Congress initially supported legal challenges to the election but ultimately came to sour on the effort and the tactics deployed by Trump and his team.

“We’re driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic,” Roy texted Meadows on January 1. That text was first released in December by the House select committee and described as being written by a House Freedom Caucus member. Roy’s authorship has not been previously reported.

When situated in the overall timeline of events between the election and January 6, the series of texts from Lee and Roy provide new details about how two Trump allies went from fierce advocates of the former President’s push to overturn Joe Biden’s win to disheartened bystanders. By January 3, Lee was texting Meadows that the effort “could all backfire badly.”

But shortly after the election, both men were encouraging Trump to keep fighting….

Over a few days in November, Lee lobbied Meadows to get attorney Sidney Powell access to Trump.“Sydney Powell is saying that she needs to get in to see the president, but she’s being kept away from him,” Lee wrote to Meadows on November 7. “Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you help get her in?”Lee then sent Meadows Powell’s cell number and her email.

On November 9, Lee again pressed Meadows about Powell, calling her a “straight shooter.”

That same day, Roy warned Meadows about Trump’s approach, texting him, “We must urge the President to tone down the rhetoric, and approach the legal challenge firmly, intelligently and effectively without resorting to throwing wild desperate haymakers or whipping his base into a conspiracy frenzy.”

Then came the now-infamous news conference on November 19, where members of Trump’s legal team — including Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis — laid out a series of false claims and conspiracy theories about alleged voter fraud.The messages started to take on a more critical tone.Mark Meadows”Hey brother – we need substance or people are going to break,” Roy texted on November 19, a few hours after the news conference wrapped.
Two hours later, Lee texted Meadows with serious concerns, saying he was “worried about the Powell press conference.”

Lee told Meadows, “The potential defamation liability for the president is significant here.”For the campaign and for the president personally.”

Unless Powell can back up everything she said, which I kind of doubt she can.”

Meadows responded, “I agree. Very concerned.”