| Notes |
Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne was one of Trump’s wealthiest election deniers. He has some big plans for the 2022 midterms.
Byrne is fast becoming one of the most important donors in conservative politics.
Hours before then-President Donald Trump sent his infamous late-night tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, encouraging supporters to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, where it would “be wild,” he met privately in the Oval Office with three key supporters: Attorney Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and — somewhat improbably — Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com.
This was Byrne’s first meeting with the president, but theories he professed about the 2020 election being stolen had caught the attention of Trump allies like Powell. In an hourslong meeting marked by shouting and insults, according to testimony later provided to Congress, Byrne and his allies urged the president to seize voting machines, which he has argued publicly were “hacked” by the company Dominion using fraudulent software developed for former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. (This claim has been widely debunked by fact checkers.)
Maggie Severns
Domestic Policy Reporter
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