The central argument of the brief was that the authority of state legislatures to set federal election rules had been usurped because of emergency rule changes to voting during the pandemic. When Texas filed a lawsuit at the US supreme court asking the justices to set aside valid electoral votes from Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, he organized a friend-of-the-court brief in support and got 125 of his House Republican colleagues to sign on. He played a key role in assisting Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, the New York Times reported last year. He currently serves as vice-chair of the Republican conference, a position to which his party colleagues unanimously re-elected him last year, and as a deputy whip.
Johnson served on Donald Trump’s legal defense team during his first impeachment.
