Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) texted an aide to former President Donald Trump the evening of the 2021 Capitol attack to disparage Rudy Giuliani after the former New York City mayor sent Lee a voicemail message by mistake.
“You’ve got to listen to that message. Rudy is walking malpractice,” Lee texted national security adviser Robert O’Brien on the evening of Jan. 6, according to an 845-page final report from the House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday. The report details the many ways Trump and his associates planned to disrupt the electoral process.
Lee, who helped Trump push schemes to overturn the election, received a voicemail from Giuliani just before 11 p.m. on the day that left several people dead and 140 law enforcement officers injured. The voicemail was apparently meant for GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville as part of Giuliani’s attempt to sway Republican Senators into blocking the Electoral College votes.
“You can’t make this up,” Lee texted O’Brien. “I just got this voice message [from] Rudy Giuliani, who apparently thought he was calling Senator Tuberville.”
Lee then texted that Giuliani was “walking malpractice.”
The Dispatch reported Giuliani’s voicemail to Lee the following day.
“I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said in the voicemail meant for Tuberville.
Giuliani previously accidentally dialed an NBC reporter in 2019, leaving a voicemail that discussed his overseas deals and his need for cash.