Sullivan backs plan to pocket $500,000 as revenge for Jan. 6 phone records search
Sen. Dan Sullivan and seven other GOP senators would be in line to get $500,000 each from the federal government under an outrageous retroactive provision hidden by Republicans in the measure to reopen the government.
I wrote in detail here on October 22 about how Sullivan, who is running for reelection, has invented a story that he is a victim of prosecutor Jack Smith.
The collection of phone logs is routine and it was warranted because Sullivan was one of the senators Rudy Giuliani called twice on January 6th, looking for help in illegally overturning the election of Joe Biden as president.
But now Sullivan and his Republican allies have voted to define themselves as retroactive victims of federal overreach who would be eligible to sue the government and collect $500,000 each for the investigation of their phone records during the insurrection.
“The bill would also sharply limit the way the government could resist such a claim, taking away any government claims of qualified or sovereign immunity to fight a lawsuit over the issue,” the New York Times reported.
The senatorial phone lines were not tapped. The records dealt only with the numbers from which calls were made and received.
Trump and Giuliani were on the phone January 6 asking Republican members of Congress—even during the Capitol attack—to delay a vote to approve Biden’s election while they tried to get other members of Congress to back Trump’s lies, the Select January 6th Committee found in its final report.
Sullivan was one of those beckoned by America’s mayor to push for a delay on January 6 along with Sens. Bill Hagerty, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Tommy Tuberville and Ted Cruz, the investigation found.
Giuliani at first refused to tell the House committee why he was calling members of Congress.
“Can you tell us why you were calling?”Giuliani was asked in his deposition.
“I was probably calling to see any—if anything could be done,” Giuliani said.
“Done about what?” he was asked.
“About the vote—the vote,” Trump’s attorney said.
Giuliani said in his deposition that he called and talked to Sullivan twice, but “I don’t know know why I talked to Dan Sullivan twice.”
“We know definitively what Giuliani was up to because he left a voice message for Senator (Tommy) Tuberville—inadvertently on Senator (Mike) Lee’s phone—recording his request,” the Select January 6th Committee found in its final report.
“The only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow. So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote,” Guiliani said in the misdirected voice mail released by Lee.
Sullivan didn’t reveal to the public that he had personally gotten calls that day from Giuliani until after the committee published its report and mentioned him by name, which led to questions from reporters.
“The senator received two phone calls from a number he did not recognize on January 6th,” Coyne told the Daily News. “The senator did not recognize the phone number and did not pick up the calls.”
“Because of the chaos that ensued on January 6th, it took at least two additional days for Sen. Sullivan to even listen to the messages that were left on his phone by this unknown number,” Coyne said.
“When he was able to listen, he realized they were from Giuliani. Giuliani actually had the wrong number, as the message made clear the calls were intended for another senator, not Sen. Sullivan.”
Coyne said, “Giuliani’s incoherent voice message said something about delaying the certification.”
If the message was about illegally delaying the certification of the election, then it was not incoherent.
Three months later, in March 2023, Sullivan gave a slightly different story in an interview on CNN with Jake Tapper.
“Yeah look, that was in the report, the January 6th report. I was even unaware of that. This was a phone call from somebody, I didn’t even know who it was—they left a message. I listened to the message a few days later. Ironically Jake, it was actually for the wrong senator, Rudy Giuliani had the wrong phone number. I mean I’ve never met him. I don’t know him. I, you know he was. I barely even understood what he was saying. So to, it was something about you know relooking at this. It was like I said, for another senator. I had listened to it a day, a few days after. And to be honest it was quite bizarre. And again I, I don’t even know Rudy Giuliani,” Sullivan told Jake Tapper.
Tapper said it seemed bizarre.
“Trust me. It was bizarre and it was the wrong number, to be perfectly honest.”
“Relooking,” as used here by Sullivan, is a euphemism for overthrowing the government. It’s illegal. Not bizarre.
Despite the efforts by Giuliani and Trump to force a stall, Congress resumed its joint session at 11:35 p.m. on January 6 and finished voting to confirm Biden’s victory at 3:41 a.m. on January 7, 2021.
One of the five senators Giuliani called between 6:59 p.m. and 7:22 p.m. was Sullivan.
America’s mayor says he talked twice to Sullivan that day. Sullivan says he never talked to Giuliani. He said he didn’t answer the two phone calls.
The questions remain: Did Trump and/or Giuliani think that Sullivan would help them overturn the 2020 election? Why?
Given these circumstances—including the conflicting claims by Giuliani and Sullivan—it was entirely appropriate for the special counsel to investigate what Trump and Giuliani were doing to try and get Sullivan’s help that day to overturn the election results.
The idea that Sullivan has a right to sue and collect $500,000 is absurd.
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