LANSING, Mich. — Laura Cox, former chairwoman of the Michigan GOP, told a committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that she contracted COVID-19 from Rudy Giuliani and had concerns about the idea of Republicans signing certificates falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
"I just want to be clear, she found out about those other documents after the event," Cox's lawyer, David Warrington, told committee investigators in May. "She didn't prepare the documents that are reported as electors certificates.
"She didn't prepare that. She didn't have any prior knowledge of that."
In a newly released 90-page interview transcript, Cox, a former lawmaker who was the leader of the state GOP during the 2020 presidential election, made a number of revelations about what was transpiring behind the scenes among Michigan Republicans, including her belief she got COVID-19 from Giuliani.
Giuliani, who was Donald Trump's personal lawyer, came to Michigan on Dec. 2, 2020, to testify before the state House Oversight Committee and to encourage lawmakers to intervene in the Republican incumbent's loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
While in the state, he appeared with Cox for an event. Giuliani tested positive for COVID-19 four days later.
"Just so you know, I got COVID from Mr. Giuliani," Cox told officials with the U.S. House's Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The committee's investigators interviewed her on May 3. The session lasted about three hours, according to the trancsript.
Much of the dialogue focused on an effort by Trump supporters on Dec. 14, 2020, to submit a false certificate claiming he won Michigan's 16 presidential electoral votes as part of an effort to challenge the national results.
The alternate electors met in the basement of Michigan Republican Party headquarters as the state's true electors convened inside the state Capitol.
Cox told the committee she was in quarantine when the electors met because of getting COVID-19.
However, Cox divulged that she expected the Trump electors to have a merely ceremonial meeting on Dec. 14, 2020, and to consider a document that said "they are available to meet and perform their duties as a presidential elector."
"I did not know they were going to sign a document," Cox said of the 16 Trump electors.
Only Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden was going to sign the document Cox had advanced. And Cox said she wanted only a ceremonial meeting.
"Because that's what I felt comfortable with," she said.
Instead, 16 Trump electors signed a formal document falsely claiming he won Michigan's election and falsely stating they had "convened and organized" in the Capitol. The false certificates were submitted to Congress and the National Archives.
Democrat Joe Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes. The actions of the false electors are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the transcript, Cox didn't identify the reason for the Trump electors' change in strategy.
But Cox revealed why former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land didn't participate in the false electors meeting on Dec. 14, 2020. Land was selected to be a Trump elector but she didn't attend the gathering or sign the false certificate.
"I think she just said she was uncomfortable with the whole thing," Cox said of Land.
Land, who remains involved in GOP politics, has said little publicly about her decisions from December 2020.
Previously, the U.S. House committee released comments from Cox in which she said the Trump supporters had contemplated having the electors hide in the state Capitol overnight to strengthen their bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Cox said a lawyer who was working with the Trump campaign informed her of the plans to get inside the Michigan Capitol ahead of the Dec. 14, 2020 meeting of the Electoral College. The attorney was Robert Norton, a Hillsdale College official.
The Michigan Capitol was closed to the public on Dec. 14, 2020 because of security concerns.
"He told me that the Michigan Republican electors were planning to meet in the Capitol and hide overnight so that they could fulfill the role of casting their vote per law in the Michigan chambers," Cox said. "And I told him in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate."
In the new transcript, Cox said the Trump supporters were planning to stay overnight in an unnamed senator's office on the evening of Dec. 13, 2020. Cox said she called then-Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, about the plot.
"And he agreed with me that that was a very, very bad idea, and he was going to talk to his members to make sure that nobody was planning to facilitate that idea,' Cox told the committee.
The Trump electors did not go through with plans to stay in the Capitol overnight. Instead, after meeting in the Michigan GOP building, some of them walked to the Capitol to try to gain access.
They were turned away by Michigan State Police troopers.
