A national news release by the Trump campaign announced legislative hearings in Michigan next week on the results of the 2020 election.
Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a news release issued Tuesday that the legislative meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday. They repeated misleading and inaccurate statements to argue the meetings are a necessary way to examine what they call proof of fraud and election irregularities.
Representatives for the Michigan House and Senate state leaders confirmed on Wednesday there will be no hearings.
“We were trying to get (Giuliani) to appear in person to testify. We couldn’t logistically make it work. I’ve asked him to submit his written testimony, and we’ll review it,” said Rep. Matt Hall, an Emmett Township Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
A spokeswoman for Senate Leader Mike Shirkey said that Oversight Committee hearings to review election procedures would continue after Thanksgiving, but there were no plans for the Trump campaign to participate in those hearings.
The committee has stated that any report Giuliani were to submit would be reviewed and released to the public.
Looking to downplay a recent meeting at the White House, Shirkey says Trump was told that state law does not give legislators a role in awarding electoral votes.
“Once Speaker Chatfield and I made it abundantly clear that our laws are very specific, very clear, no room for ambiguity, basically that was the end of the conversation once we went through that, as it relates to the election,” Shirkey said. ”There’s just not any room in our laws for the Legislature to have a part in that.”
“I can’t be more emphatic. There was never a request. There was never an ask,” said Shirkey, who contended that others “had reached nefarious conclusions about our trip (being) nefarious in nature and just assumed it was going to be a backroom conversation about doing something that’s just not possible, and we didn’t even contemplate it.”
Shirkey said that he and Chatfield asked for federal aid including additional unemployment benefits, bonus pay for health care workers, and money for protective equipment. Trump and chief of staff Mark Meadows were noncommittal and not confident of finding common ground with Congress.