'Particularly notable': How two Pennsylvania GOP officials’ political moves majorly influenced Jan. 6

03 January 2023

The Jan. 6 committee cited in its report that two Pennsylvania far-right GOP officials, Rep. Scott Perry and Sen. Doug Mastriano, who both played "particularly notable" roles in the events leading up to the attack, reports Pittsburghs’s WESA FM.

The panel found that the two advocated to overturn the 2020 election results.

The GOP nominee for Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial election, Mastriano was ripped apart by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board last year when they laid out the ways he attempted to interfere with the election “in the name of former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories."

AlterNet reported that the board wrote, “Mastriano’s relentless efforts to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election, spread Donald Trump’s election lies, and suppress votes in future elections amounts to a 10-alarm fire for anyone who believes in a functioning democracy."

In December 2021, Perry, chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, declined to testify and called the committee “illegitimate.” He’s also refused several subpoena requests from the committee, as well as interviews.

MSNBC columnist Steve Benen previously reported, "For those familiar with Perry’s record, this may not come as a surprise: The congressman has spent years promoting weird conspiracy theories with little connection to reality.”

According to WESA, Perry introduced Trump to environmental attorney Jeffrey Clark, who the former president considered appointing as attorney general due to his support of Trump’s election fraud conspiracies.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of the Jan. 6 committee said within days following their encounter, Perry texted former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows saying, "Mark, you should call Jeff. I just got off the phone with him and he explained to me why the principal deputy won’t work, especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done."

DOJ officials, however, subsequently threatened resignation if Trump followed through with the plan.

Unlike Perry, Mastriano complied with the committee’s subpoena requests, but the committee did find that the senator supported the Capitol attack by blowing campaign funds on transporting residents to the “Save America Rally" while he, himself, was "on Capitol grounds."

Mastriano also assisted with coordinating Rudy Giuliani’s alleged election fraud hearing where he falsely claimed Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor at the time, Tim Wolf, tampered with the 2020 election results.

The senator said, “A state of 13 million people and [Wolf] wants to discount it because his guy won, so that nothing bad happened, and that’s just unacceptable. If there’s any hint of fraud out there, we need to investigate.”

Mastriano conceded to Democrat Josh Shapiro in the gubernatorial election two months ago, and no widespread fraud was confirmed in Pennsylvania regarding the 2020 election.

As for Perry, the committee suggested that the House Ethics Committee penalize Perry "for failing to respond to a subpoena requesting his testimony."

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