Meadows' texts show 'roadmap to an attempted coup,' ex-Jan. 6 investigator Riggleman says

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' text messages showed the "roadmap to an attempted coup" that would overturn the 2020 presidential election, former congressman Denver Riggleman said in a  "60 Minutes" interview Sunday.

Riggleman and a team working for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack discovered text messages from Ginni Thomas to Meadows, some of which included links to QAnon conspiracy theories.

"The Meadows text messages show you an administration that was completely eaten up with a digital virus called QAnon conspiracy theories," Riggleman said.

White House switchboard: Former House staffer tells '60 Minutes' White House switchboard called Capitol rioter on Jan. 6

Who is Meadows: Who is Mark Meadows? Meet Trump's chief of staff who defied Jan. 6 committee subpoena

Thomas and Meadows started texting about the election results from after the election through mid-January. In the texts, she urged Meadows to fight the election results, according to reporting by the Washington Post and CBS News.

Meadows turned over thousands of messages to the Jan. 6 committee.

"It was an open secret around the beltway that her views had gotten pretty extreme," Riggleman said.

Thomas has agreed to be questioned by the committee.

Riggleman also said that the White House switchboard called one of the rioters on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not name the rioter.

Other messages sent to Meadows included Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who asked for martial law to be established after the election.

In the interview, Riggleman also described how he and his team were able to track down different groups that were communicating around the time of the attack to overturn the election.

He said they tracked down Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and even some family members of former President Donald Trump, as well as some members of Congress.

"It showed actually the evolution of the beginning arguments from alternate electors all the way through rally planning, all the way to day of. It showed conspiracy theories. It showed the saturation of QAnon," Riggleman said, referencing the communications of the groups.

Riggleman, who has a background in data analysis, was working with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack until he left in April.

His new book "The Breach," which comes out Tuesday, talks about his investigation for the Jan. 6 committee.

The committee will have its next hearing Wednesday.

Hearings: Rep. Liz Cheney: Jan. 6 committee got around 800,000 pages from Secret Servic

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Riggleman: Meadows' texts showed 'roadmap to an attempted coup'