Ron Johnson blames coup attempt connection on House office intern

Facing accusations by the Jan. 6 committee on attempting to join the day’s coup attempt, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) blamed the connection to an unidentified “House staff intern.”

On Tuesday, the committee provided evidence that Johnson was involved in President Donald Trump campaign’s attempt to provide slates of fake electors from swing states. Prior to counting the lawfully submitted electoral votes, Vice President Mike Pence and his team received text messages from one of Johnson’s staffers saying that “Johnson needed to give something to the Vice President.”

NEW: The Jan. 6 committee accuses Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) of offering to hand deliver false electoral votes to Vice President Mike Pence. pic.twitter.com/7jYXlNTfbx

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) June 21, 2022

Johnson claims that the package of fake electors was delivered to his office and his staff was instructed by the unidentified “House intern” to give it to the vice president. He also claims that he had no knowledge of the alternate slate of electors, denying that he personally tried to hand-deliver unvetted information to Pence right before he counted the electoral votes on Jan. 6.

When pressed by CNN reporter Manu Raju on the identity of this “House intern”, Johnson said he doesn’t know who it was and has no plan to find out.

Caught up with Ron Johnson again and asked him why he offered something to Pence’s office without vetting the information. “We got handed an envelope that was supposed to go to the Vice President, I didn’t know.” Says it came from a House office. Doesn’t know which one. pic.twitter.com/CAoKAPwcIN

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 22, 2022

After the text messages were made public by the January 6 committee on Tuesday, Johnson spokeswoman Alexa Henning made a statement on Twitter downplaying the senator’s involvement.

“The senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office,” Henning wrote. “This was a staff exchange. His new Chief of Staff contacted the Vice President’s office.”

Johnson’s chief of staff said the package had “alternate electors for Wisconsin and Michigan because archivist didn’t receive them.” The archivist did eventually receive the lawfully submitted electors, which showed the President Joe Biden won the states of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Johnson recently dealt with staff turmoil for his reelection campaign after his campaign communications director resigned last month after just three months.