WHERE'S BOSTON CORBETT WHEN YOU NEED HIM:

It has been clear for more than a year that ultraconservative members of Congress were deeply involved in attempts to keep Trump in power: They joined baseless lawsuits, spread the lie of widespread election fraud, and were among the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, against certifying President Biden's victory in at least one state.

But in a court filing and text messages obtained by CNN, new pieces of evidence have emerged in recent days fleshing out the degree of their involvement with the Trump White House in strategy sessions, at least one of which included discussions about encouraging Trump's supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, despite warnings of potential violence. Some continued to push to try to keep Trump in office even after a mob of his supporters attacked the complex.

"In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law," Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote to Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, misspelling the word "martial."

The revelations underscore how integrated Trump's most fervent allies in Congress were into the effort to overturn the election on several fronts, including a scheme to appoint pro-Trump electors from states won by Biden -- even after they were told such a plan was unlawful -- and how they strategized to pressure their fellow lawmakers go along.

The fake electors scheme, the question of how demonstrators at Trump's rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6 were directed toward the Capitol, and the plotting in the White House and on Capitol Hill about the potential for Vice President Mike Pence to block or delay certification of the results are at the heart not just of the inquiry by the House select committee on Jan. 6 but also of an expanding criminal inquiry by the Justice Department.

"If there was a level of coordination that was designed not just to exercise First Amendment rights, but to interfere with Congress, as it certified the electoral count, then we're in a whole different universe," said Joyce Vance, a law professor at the University of Alabama and a former US attorney. "There's a difference between assembling and protesting, and trying to interfere with the smooth transfer of power."

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows, told the House committee that she recalled at least 11 members of Congress who were involved in discussions with White House officials about overturning the election, including plans to pressure Pence to throw out electoral votes from states won by Biden.

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