Republican Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis) said there’s no need for him to testify about his involvement in a plan to submit alternative electors to then-Vice-President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, because he was only involved in the scheme for “a couple of seconds.”
“What would they ask me to testify about?” Johnson said when asked by WISN 12 if he would testify before the Jan. 6 committee. “I had nothing to do with the alternate slate. I had no idea anybody was going to ask me to deliver those. My involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds.”
“I think I fielded three texts and sent two, and talked to my chief of staff that, ‘somebody wants you to deliver something,'” Johnson said. “Yeah, I knew nothing about it. And in the end, those electors were not delivered because we found out from the vice president’s staff they didn’t want them delivered. End of story.”
During a hearing in June, the Jan. 6 committee shared text messages between Sean Riley, an aide for Johnson, and Chris Hodgson, an aide for Pence discussing fake electors to try and change the outcome of the 2020 election.
“Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise,” Riley texted.
“What is it?” Hodgson responded.
“Alternate slate of electors from MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Johnson aide Riley said.
“Do not give that to him,” Pence’s aide replied.
On Sunday Johnson accused the committee of blowing the incident “out of proportion.”
“My involvement lasted seconds,” he reiterated.
