2 years ago
Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who helped allies of Donald Trump promote false claims of election fraud, is suing to block the Jan. 6 select committee from obtaining his phone records from AT&T.
Waldron initiated the lawsuit in Collin County, Texas, courts in late February, records show, but AT&T transferred the matter to federal court on Friday. In his filings, Waldron describes himself as a “consultant” hired by Texas-based attorneys “to assist in the investigation of matters related to the Election for clients of [the] Attorneys.”
In the filings, Waldron also indicates that he has signed a non disclosure agreement “to keep confidential all information regarding the investigation being conducted by the Attorneys for their clients concerning the Election.”
Waldron’s lawsuit suggests the select committee is facing an additional hurdle as it seeks to piece together the shadowy network of advisers that Trump relied on to promote his election fraud theories. Waldron was among a group of advisers who testified at state legislative hearings claiming he’d seen evidence of large-scale technical irregularities in voting machines.
Waldon repeats a handful of legal arguments against the select committee that are common to dozens of other lawsuits filed by Trump allies against the panel. They argue that the committee’s subpoenas serve no valid legislative purpose and that the panel is improperly constituted because it lacks any appointees of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who withdrew several Republican picks in protest last year.
Waldron also authored a PowerPoint that was delivered to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. The PowerPoint described strategies for overturning the election. Waldron was also aligned with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, who has been one of the top purveyors of false claims about election fraud.
The select committee subpoenaed Waldron himself for testimony and documents in December but has revealed little about its interactions with him since. Bernard Kerik, an ally of Trump and Rudy Giuliani who also testified to the Jan. 6 select committee, told lawmakers that it was Waldron’s idea for Trump to sign an executive order to seize voting machines. Trump discussed the idea with advisers in mid-December but never approved the order.
Waldron is represented in the lawsuit by William Bundren, who also served as the attorney for a handful of pro-Trump activists who tried to sue former Vice President Mike Pence and claimed to be the legitimate presidential electors from states Biden won.
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