By Zachary Cohen | CNN

A top Trump appointee at the US State Department met on January 6, 2021, with two activists who were pushing false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

The meeting took place on the same day that thousands of Donald Trump supporters descended on the US Capitol. It also occurred as allies of the former President were advocating for Trump to use his presidential powers and seize election equipment in the name of national security, citing theories that voting machines had been compromised by foreign adversaries as a pretext.

Robert A. Destro, a law professor at Catholic University of America who served as an assistant secretary of state during the Trump administration, confirmed to CNN that he met with the two activists on January 6, 2021 around the same time as the chaos was unfolding on Capitol Hill.

The two activists who met with Destro — Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann and Michigan lawyer Matthew DePerno — had been working behind the scenes to help promote Trump’s false election claims in the lead-up to January 6 and both have previously alluded to high-level meetings with officials at the State Department around that time.

DePerno is now the Republican nominee for attorney general in Michigan and has been endorsed by Trump. He declined to comment to CNN about the meeting with Destro. CNN has reached out to an attorney who has represented Oltmann and has not yet received a response.

Destro declined to comment further on the nature...

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