ELECTION PLOTTING: Is the new book from Ted Cruz a secret confession?
Senator Ted Cruz is getting his side of the story out as investigations continue into culpability for 2020 election schemes, but why does it sound more like a confession than a boast?
Cruz’s new book, Justice Corrupted: How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System, hits shelves on Tuesday, but advance excerpts and his own marketing make it sound like testimony that the Department of Justice might like to read as part of their investigation of January 6th. The Senator from Texas describes the book as his way of helping the reader “walk through” the events surrounding the 2020 election — and hints that he’s the star of the story.
The central premise of the book is supposed to be an accusation against President Joe Biden and Democrats in the government of using the DOJ to attack their political enemies. He defends Justice Clarence Thomas against allegations he claims are “character assassination” and gripes about Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement timing (notably, a complaint he did not have when Justice Anthony Kennedy retired, giving Donald Trump a seat to fill).
The most interesting content, however, may be what Cruz shares about his own roles, including agreeing to argue election fraud cases — the same ones that a judge has described as containing claims Trump knew were false — in front of the Supreme Court if the opportunity arose. He also takes credit for organizing a “coalition” of election deniers in Congress to object on January 6th — an action that investigators have argued was intended to force delays and buy Trump time to change the outcome.
The Guardian reports:
“’While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next,’ Cruz continued, according to Newsweek.”
“Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification, but he ‘vehemently disagreed.'”
Pushing for the disinformation-backed objections to continue isn’t all Cruz did, though. In the interview below, he tells about his willingness to argue the false election fraud claims in court — an action which has earned other attorneys (Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, among others) sanctions and even the loss of license to practice law.
Cruz: This book is the first inside account of what happened on January 6. I take the reader through the events of 2020 election, up to January 6. I take them through the evidence of election fraud in November 2020… pic.twitter.com/Z33LgsS6cD
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 24, 2022
He doesn’t mention, in this interview, whether or not the book includes information on how widely debunked those claims were and how many audits, recounts, and investigations were carried out that failed to find even a scrap of evidence for widespread voter fraud. He says he walks the reader through the litigation — but doesn’t seem to admit that all of that litigation failed, because judge after judge found that litigants failed to supply any evidence of the claims.
What he does, say, though, is that Trump personally asked him to litigate cases before a stacked Supreme Court — and that he agreed. A judge has since stated in related cases that there is evidence Trump knew the claims were false and pushed misleading litigation in order to lend false legitimacy to the claims as he tried to stay in office.
Notably, the book seems to pull a “both sides” on political violence — while Cruz downplays the connection between Trump and other leaders and the violence of January 6th, in an excerpt in Newsweek, he blames the Democratic Party as a whole for incidents such as the arrest of a man who sought to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for instance.
Ultimately, if Cruz has packed the book with as many details about his involvement in election scheming as he suggests, the Justice Department and the January 6th Committee will surely be happy to buy a few copies for their own perusal.
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
