In the chaotic days following the 2020 US election, Donald Trump's chief of staff received a flurry of text messages from one of the [his] most ardent and well-connected supporters.
"Help this 'resident stand firm!" Ginni Thomas texted Mark Meadows. "You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America's constitutional governance at the precipice."
Like Mr Trump, Mrs Thomas was pushing the White House to make an aggressive and unprecedented effort to overturn Joe Biden's electoral victory.
"The majority knows Biden and the left [are] attempting the greatest heist of our history," she texted Mr Meadows.