Ted Cruz’s Efforts to Keep Trump in Office Went Far Deeper Than We Knew

A new report from the Post also documents some of the powerful friends he’s lost along the way.

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Ted Cruz knows a thing or two about the Constitution—or at least he should. After attending Harvard Law School, the Texas senator once clerked for US Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, advised George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, and served as Texas’ solicitor general.

But none of that extensive legal experience stopped him from apparently attempting to undermine the law of the land in an audacious bid to keep former President Donald Trump in office for another four years. In fact, it seems as though Cruz’s intimate knowledge of the Constitution spurred him to play a key role in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

Cruz’s efforts to drum up public fear of widespread voter fraud, despite its virtual nonexistence, are well recorded. Now, the Washington Post reports that in conjunction with Trump lawyer John Eastman, Cruz devised a plan to contest the election results in six swing states, and, crucially, to delay the acceptance of the Electoral College results until after a 10-day “audit.” The plan reportedly hinged on a constitutional clause that suggests that states have wide latitude in selecting electors: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.”

But Cruz would have had needed a lot more people on his side for his plan to succeed. Unsurprisingly, very few of the players in Cruz’s illustrious legal career supported this brazen ploy at subverting the Constitution. In fact, he eventually lost the support of Chad Sweet, who had chaired his 2016 presidential campaign, and of Carly Fiorina, his former running mate. Cruz’s communications director, Lauren Bianchi, also resigned after he rejected her advice and instead voted to contest Pennsylvania’s election results. And Luttig, the judge whom Cruz has looked up to as a father figure, has been speaking to the House committee investigating January 6.

“Once Ted Cruz promised to object, January 6 was all but foreordained, because Cruz was the most influential figure in the Congress willing to force a vote on Trump’s claim that the election was stolen,” Luttig told the Post. “He was also the most knowledgeable of the intricacies of both the Electoral Count Act and the Constitution, and the ways to exploit the two.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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