Georgia Electors cast their Electoral College votes at the Georgia State Capitol on December 14, 2020.

(Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

FAKE ELECTORS AND THE “THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE STRATEGY”

On the morning of January 6th, in his speech at the Ellipse, President Trump exhorted his thousands of assembled supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, explaining that “[w]e have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.” 1 This was no off-the-cuff remark; it was the culmination of a carefully planned scheme many weeks in the making. This plea by the President turned the truth on its head. There was only one legitimate slate of electors from the battleground States of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and Trump wanted them rejected. This scheme involved lawyers, such as Kenneth Chesebro and Rudy Giuliani, as well as Mark Meadows. It also was aided at key points by Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel, Members of Congress, and Republican leaders across seven States—some of whom did not know exactly what they were being asked to do. President Trump oversaw it himself.

President Trump and his allies prepared their own fake slates of electoral college electors in seven States that President Trump lost: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And on December 14, 2020—the date when true, certified electors were meeting to cast their electoral votes for the candidate who had won the popular vote in each of those States—these fake electors also met, ostensibly casting electoral votes for President Trump, the candidate who had lost.

There was no legitimate reason for Trump electors to meet, vote, and produce fake slates on December 14th in States that former Vice President Biden won. Instead, this effort was aimed directly at the President of the Senate (which, under the Constitution, is the Vice President) in his role at the joint session of Congress on January 6th. President Trump and his advisors wanted Vice President Pence to disregard real electoral college votes for former Vice President Biden, in favor of these fake competing electoral slates.

But there never were real, competing slates of electors. By the time the fake Trump electors met on December 14th, appropriate government officials in each of the seven States had already certified their State’s official election results for former Vice President Biden. No court had issued an order reversing or calling into question those results, and most election-related litigation was over. And as detailed in Chapter 2, despite the illicit efforts of President Trump and his allies, no State legislature had agreed to the President’s request to reverse the result of the election by appointing a different slate of electors.

Given all of this, these groups of Trump backers who called themselves Presidential electors were never actually electors, and the votes they purported to cast on December 14th were not valid. They were fake. They had no legal standing, and their fake votes could not have been used by Vice President Pence to disregard the real votes of electors chosen by the voters.

By January 6th, President Trump had been discouraged by his top lawyers from following through on this plan. The Trump Campaign’s senior staff attorneys had concerns,2 and several days before the joint session, the Acting Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General blocked the sending of a letter indicating that there were “competing slates” of electors, including “in Georgia and several other States.” 3 But this reasoning did nothing to change President Trump’s rhetoric or plan. He continued to assert that there were “competing” or “dual” slates of electors to create an opportunity to stay in office on January 6th.4

These lawyers were right: President Trump’s plan was illegal. In his June 7, 2022, opinion, Federal District Judge David Carter wrote that this initiative to “certify alternate slates of electors for President Trump” constituted a “critical objective of the January 6 plan.” 5 This followed Judge Carter’s earlier determination in March that “[t]he illegality of the plan was obvious,” and “[e]very American—and certainly the President of the United States—knows that in a democracy, leaders are elected, not installed. With a plan this ‘BOLD,’ President Trump knowingly tried to subvert this fundamental principle. Based on the evidence the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.” 6

The fake elector effort was an unlawful, unprecedented and destructive break from the electoral college process that our country has used to select its President for generations.7 It led directly to the violence that occurred on January 6th. To address the damage that it caused, it is important to understand how it transpired.

3.1 Laying the Groundwork for the Fake Elector Plan: The Chesebro Memos

The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memoranda written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump Campaign: Kenneth Chesebro. Although John Eastman would have a more prominent role in advising President Trump in the days immediately before January 6th, Chesebro—an attorney based in Boston and New York recruited to assist the Trump Campaign as a volunteer legal advisor—was central to the creation of the plan.8 Memos by Chesebro on November 18th, December 9th, and December 13th, as discussed below, laid the plan’s foundation.

Chesebro’s first memo on November 18th suggested that the Trump Campaign could gain a few extra weeks for litigation to challenge Wisconsin’s election results, so long as a Wisconsin slate of Republican nominees to the electoral college met on December 14th to cast placeholder electoral college votes on a contingent basis.9 This memo acknowledged that “[i]t may seem odd that the electors pledged to Trump and Pence might meet and cast their votes on December 14 even if, at that juncture, the Trump-Pence ticket is behind in the vote count, and no certificate of election has been issued in favor of Trump and Pence.” 10 However, Chesebro argued that if such a slate of alternate electors gathered to cast electoral votes on a contingent basis, this would preserve the Trump Campaign’s options so “a court decision (or, perhaps, a state legislative determination) rendered after December 14 in favor of the Trump-Pence slate of electors should be timely.” 11

On December 9th, Chesebro penned a second memo, which suggested another purpose for fake electoral college votes on January 6th. It stated that unauthorized Trump electors in these States could be retroactively recognized “by a court, the state legislature, or Congress.” 12 Under this theory, there would be no need for a court to decide that the election had been decided in error; instead, Congress itself could choose among dueling slates of purported electoral votes—and thereby decide the Presidential election—even though Article II of the Constitution grants that power to the electoral college via the States.13

Chesebro’s contemporaneous communications make clear that the goal was having Congress act on the fake electoral votes. He emailed an organizer of the fake electors in Nevada that “the purpose of having the electoral votes sent in to Congress is to provide the opportunity to debate the election irregularities in Congress, and to keep alive the possibility that the votes could be flipped to Trump . . .” 14 And a legal advisor to the Arizona GOP reportedly described being told by Chesebro around this time that their supposed electors “would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted.” 15

Many of the States contested by the Trump team had laws that specified requirements for electors to validly cast and transmit their votes—and the December 9, 2020, memo recognized that some of these criteria would be difficult, if not impossible, for the fake electors to fulfill. (As described later, most were not fulfilled.) For example, Nevada State law required that the secretary of state preside when Presidential electors meet,16 and Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, had already signed a certificate ascertaining the Biden/Harris electors as the authorized, winning slate.17 Several States also had rules requiring electors to cast their votes in the State capitol building, or rules governing the process for approving substitutes if any original proposed electors from the November ballot were unavailable. As a result, Chesebro’s December 9, 2020, memo advised the Trump Campaign to abide by such rules, when possible, but also recognized that these slates could be “slightly problematic in Michigan,” “somewhat dicey in Georgia and Pennsylvania,” and “very problematic in Nevada.” 18

On December 13th, the fake elector scheme became even clearer in an email sent by Chesebro to Giuliani. His message was entitled “Brief notes on ‘President of the Senate’ strategy.” It addressed how the fake electors meeting the next day, December 14th, could be exploited during the joint session of Congress on January 6th by the President of the Senate—a role that the Constitution grants to the Vice President of the United States.19 Chesebro argued that, on January 6th, the President of the Senate could:

. . . firmly take the position that he, and he alone, is charged with the constitutional responsibility not just to open the votes, but to count them—including making judgments about what to do if there are conflicting votes . . .20

Chesebro’s email suggested that the President of the Senate (which, under the Constitution, is the Vice President) could toss out former Vice President Biden’s actual electoral votes for any State where the Trump Campaign organized fake electors, simply “because there are two slates of votes.” 21 Of course, there were never two slates of electoral votes, so this premise itself was fundamentally wrong. But he was arguing that even if votes by fake electors were never retroactively ratified under State law, their mere submission to Congress would be enough to allow the presiding officer to disregard valid votes for former Vice President Biden.22 Chesebro suggested this might result in a second term for President Trump, or, at minimum, it would force a debate about purported election fraud—neither of which was a lawful, legitimate reason to organize and convene fake electors.23

As discussed below and in Chapter 5, John Eastman worked with Chesebro as January 6th approached and wrote two additional memos that built upon, and extended, the plan to use the fake electoral votes during the joint session.24

3.2 President Trump and the Campaign Adopt the Fake Elector Scheme

In early December, the highest levels of the Trump Campaign took note of Chesebro’s fake elector plan and began to operationalize it. On December 6th, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows forwarded a copy of Chesebro’s November 18, 2020, memo to Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller writing, “Let’s have a discussion about this tomorrow.” 25 Miller replied that he just engaged with reporters on the subject, to which Meadows wrote: “If you are on it then never mind the meeting. We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for states.” 26 Miller clarified that he had only been “working the PR angle” and they should still meet, to which Meadows answered: “Got it.” 27 Later that week, Miller sent Meadows a spreadsheet that the Trump Campaign had compiled.28 It listed contact information for nearly all of the 79 GOP nominees to the electoral college on the November ballot for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.29 And on December 8th, Meadows received a text message from a former State legislator in Louisiana recommending that the proposed “Trump electors from AR [sic] MI GA PA WI NV all meet next Monday at their state capitols[,] [c]all themselves to order, elect officers, and cast their votes for the President. . . . Then they certify their votes and transmit that certificate to Washington.” 30 Meadows replied: “We are.” 31

Cassidy Hutchinson, a Special Assistant to the President and an assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, confirmed Meadows’s significant involvement in the plan. Hutchinson told the Select Committee that Meadows followed the progress of the fake elector effort closely and that she “remember[ed] him frequently having calls, meetings, and outreach with individuals and this just being a prominent topic of discussion in our office.” When asked how many of his calls or meetings it came up in, she estimated “[d]ozens.” 32

The evidence indicates that by December 7th or 8th, President Trump had decided to pursue the fake elector plan and was driving it. Trump Campaign Associate General Counsel Joshua Findlay was tasked by the campaign’s general counsel, Matthew Morgan, around December 7th or 8th with exploring the feasibility of assembling unrecognized slates of Trump electors in a handful of the States that President Trump had lost.33 Findlay told the Select Committee “it was my understanding that the President made this decision. . . .” 34 As recounted by Findlay, Morgan conveyed that the client—President Trump—directed the campaign lawyers to “look into electors in these potential litigation States[.]” 35

Ronna McDaniel at the Republican National Convention on August 24, 2020.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump personally called RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel days before December 14th to enlist the RNC’s assistance in the scheme.36 President Trump opened the call by introducing McDaniel to John Eastman, who described “the importance of the RNC helping the campaign to gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the results in any of the States.” 37 According to McDaniel, she called President Trump back soon after the call ended, letting him know that she agreed to his request and that some RNC staffers were already assisting.38

On December 13th and 14th, President Trump worked with Rudolph Giuliani on the plan’s implementation. On the 13th, Miller texted some of his colleagues to check in about the fake elector meetings scheduled for the following day. He let them know that Giuliani had told him “POTUS was aware” that they would be filing litigation in four States just “to keep the effort going”—which the Select Committee believes was to create a pretext to claim that it was still possible for the fake electors to be authorized retroactively.39 (In subsequent litigation, a Federal district court found that President Trump “filed certain lawsuits not to obtain legal relief, but to disrupt or delay the January 6th congressional proceedings through the courts.” 40) The next day, Miller sent an email asking whether they were going to issue a press release about electors, and he was told the “Mayor [is] going to discuss with POTUS.” 41

3.3 The Campaign Legal Team Bows Out, and Giuliani Steps In

Rudy Giuliani speaks inside the Republican National Committee Headquarters in November about various lawsuits related to the 2020 election.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Not everyone on the campaign was eager to pursue the fake elector plan. On December 11th, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a high-profile lawsuit filed by the State of Texas challenging the election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.42 After that decision, the Trump Campaign’s senior legal staffers said that they reduced their involvement in the fake elector effort, apparently because there was no longer a feasible scenario in which a court would determine that President Trump actually won any of the States he contested.43 Justin Clark, who oversaw the Trump Campaign’s general counsel’s office, said that he basically conveyed, “I’m out,” and encouraged his colleagues on the legal team to do the same.44 Findlay told the Select Committee that “we backed out of this thing,” and Morgan, his boss, said he had Findlay pass off responsibility for the electors as “my way of taking that responsibility to zero.” 45

Clark told the Select Committee that “it never sat right with me that there was no . . . contingency whereby these votes would count.” 46 “I had real problems with the process,” Clark said, because “it morphed into something I didn’t agree with.” 47 In his view, the fake electors were “not necessarily duly nominated electors” despite being presented as such.48 He said he believed he warned his colleagues that “unless we have litigation pending like in these States, like I don’t think this is appropriate or, you know, this isn’t the right thing to do.” 49

Morgan told the Select Committee that he saw no value in pushing slates of purported electors if they were not authorized by a State government’s certificate of ascertainment. As he put it, “[M]y view was, as long as you didn’t have a certificate of ascertainment, then the electors were, for lack of a better way of saying it, no good or not—not valid.” 50 Findlay confirmed that Morgan told him after the Supreme Court ruling on December 11th that “there’s not really anything left for us to do on this project” and that “it doesn’t seem like a good idea for us to be involved in it.” 51

Campaign lawyers were not the only ones who doubted the legality of the fake elector plan. The Office of White House Counsel appears to have expressed concerns about it, as well. In his testimony to the Select Committee, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone acknowledged his view that by mid-December, the electoral process was “done.” Cipollone told the Select Committee that the White House Counsel’s office “probably” had discussions about the electors plan and that his Deputy, Pat Philbin, would have been involved in evaluating the electors issue.52 In an informal Committee interview, Philbin described the fake elector scheme as one of the “bad theories” that were like “Whac-A-Mole” in the White House during this period.53 Mr. Cipollone agreed with this characterization.54

In her testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she heard at least one member of the White House Counsel’s Office say that the plan was not legal:

Committee Staff: . . . to be clear, did you hear the White House Counsel’s Office say that this plan to have alternate electors meet and cast votes for Donald Trump in States that he had lost was not legally sound?

Hutchinson: Yes, sir.55

She also recalled a meeting that took place in or before mid-December during which this view was relayed to Giuliani and members of his team by lawyers in the White House Counsel’s Office.56

By December 11th, Findlay emailed his main points of contact in six battleground States to say “[t]hank you for your work on the presidential elector project” and, in order to pass off his responsibilities, let them know that “Rudy’s team has designated Kenneth Chesebro as the point person for the legal documents” going forward.57

While the campaign’s core legal team stepped back from the fake elector effort on December 11th, it nonetheless went forward because “Rudy was in charge of [it]” and “[t]his is what he wanted to do,” according to Findlay.58 When Findlay was asked if this decision to let the effort proceed under Giuliani’s direction “was coming from your client, the President,” Findlay responded: “Yes, I believe so. I mean, he had made it clear that Rudy was in charge of this and that Rudy was executing what he wanted.” 59 Findlay also recalled being told that Chesebro’s elector memos had become “the justification for why Rudy and Ken were going to keep going forward with this stuff.” 60 He explained that Giuliani “really bought into Ken’s theory on this,” and that the two of them “were kind of the main ones driving this” from that point forward.61 Clark told the Select Committee that “. . . my understanding of who was driving the process . . . was Mayor Giuliani and his team.” 62 On December 10th, when Kenneth Chesebro emailed one of the State party officials involved in organizing the fake elector effort in Nevada, he reported that “I spoke this evening with Mayor Guiliani [sic], who is focused on doing everything possible to ensure that that [sic] all the Trump-Pence electors vote on Dec. 14.” 63

In the days that followed this handoff, Chesebro would draft and distribute documents intended for use in the Trump team’s fake elector ceremonies that were then shared with key contacts in Arizona,64 Georgia,65 Michigan,66 Nevada,67 New Mexico,68 Pennsylvania,69 and Wisconsin.70 He also gave some of the groups step-by-step logistical guidance, such as when and where they should convene, how many copies each person would need to sign, and to send their fake votes to Congress via registered mail.71 “Pretty Simple!” he commented in some of these emails.72

A campaign operative named Michael Roman was also tapped for a major operational role in the fake elector effort. When Findlay sent his email handing off certain responsibilities for the initiative, he also wrote that Giuliani’s team had designated Roman “as the lead for executing the voting on Monday” December 14th.73 Roman was the Trump Campaign’s Director of Election Day Operations (EDO), with team members who specialized in political outreach and mobilization in battleground States where the Trump team now urgently needed the fake electors to meet on December 14th.

With help from his EDO staff, as well as Giuliani’s team and RNC staffers working alongside the Campaign as part of the Trump Victory Committee, Roman ran an improvised “Electors Whip Operation.” 74 For example, Roman sent an email on December 12th directing an aide to create “a tracker for the electors” with tabs for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, listing contact information, whether they had been contacted, whether they agreed to attend on December 14th, and names of “[s]ubstitute electors” to replace any reticent or unavailable participants as needed.75 Roman referred to others on this email as the “WHIP TEAM” and directed them to fill out the spreadsheet, to update him on “what you have and what you need,” and to plan on a call that evening.76

In the days that followed, this group focused on tracking which Republicans previously named as President Trump’s nominees to the electoral college would be willing to show up for fake elector ceremonies, finding adequate substitutes for those who refused to attend, and actually coordinating the unrecognized elector signing ceremonies in seven States on December 14th.77 In all seven States, these efforts to mobilize fake electors benefitted from support from the RNC, as well as the State Republican parties.78 However, it was the Trump team who drove the process from start to finish, as one of the fake electors and later co-chair of the Michigan Republican party, Meshawn Maddock, told an audience in January 2022: “We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that.” 79

3.4 Some of the Proposed Fake Electors Express Concerns About the Plan

The Trump team’s fake elector plan raised concerns not just for several senior officials but also for some of the Republican activists being recruited to be the fake electors. Findlay told the Select Committee that “there were definitely electors in probably most of the States that had concerns about this process.” 80 After being tasked with reaching out to the potential fake electors, Findlay notified his colleagues on December 10th that “a lot of questions are arising” from them.” 81 He also noted that an RNC staffer seconded to the Trump Victory Committee “requested a call with the PA electors and/or leadership to address concerns,” which “may be necessary to get people to appear.” 82

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s general counsel relayed several specific concerns to the Trump Campaign via email on December 13th. Warning that “[w]e’re all getting call [sic] from concerned Electors,” he elaborated as follows:

I’m told that on the call with the Electors they were told that the Ballot form would be conditioned upon ultimate certification by the Governor, indemnification by the campaign if someone gets sued or worse, (charged with something by the AG or someone else), and the receipt by the Electors of a legal opinion by a national firm and certified to be accurate by a Pa. lawyer.

What was sent was a “memo” by Chesebro not addressed to the Electors, and no certification by a Pa. lawyer. To make it worse, Chesebro describes the Pa. plan as “dicey”. And there’s no indication by anyone with authority that there’s any indemnification authorized by the campaign.83

Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas informed the Select Committee that his State’s fake electors never were indemnified by the Trump Campaign.84

When Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt was notified in late November that “the campaign wants to [sic] list of electors,” he texted his executive director that “I am def concerned about their inquiry” and that “I hope they are not planning on asking us to do anything like try and say we are only the proper electors.” 85 On December 12th, after Hitt received a message about a phone call with Giuliani to discuss the fake elector issue, he texted a colleague: “These guys are up to no good and its [sic] gonna fail miserably.” 86 Despite such concerns, Hitt and many other fake electors participated anyway.87

Even so, 14 of the original Republicans who had been listed as electoral college nominees on the November ballot bowed out when the fake Trump electors gathered in December.88 Former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land declined to attend, which the State’s GOP chair, Laura Cox, told the Select Committee was because “I think she just said she was uncomfortable with the whole thing” and that she “has her own beliefs.” 89 A senior advisor for the Pennsylvania GOP said that Chairman Tabas “did not serve as an elector because Joe Biden won the election and it was Biden’s electors that were certified.” 90 Former U.S. Representative Tom Marino (R–PA) said he backed out because “I’m a constitutionalist,” and “as a former prosecutor, when the attorney general says that he’s not finding anything there, that’s good enough for me.” 91 The other eleven dropouts included a Georgia State lawmaker, a former State party chair from New Mexico, two former State party chairs from Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania’s RNC national committeewoman.92

Other participants asserted that they would have had much greater concerns if the Trump team had been more forthcoming about how the fake electoral votes would be used.93 The Trump Campaign’s director of election day operations in Georgia told the Select Committee that “I absolutely would not have” wanted to participate in organizing the Trump team’s fake electors in Georgia “had I known that the three main lawyers for the campaign that I’d spoken to in the past and were leading up were not on board.” 94 He said he felt “angry” because “no one really cared if—if people were potentially putting themselves in jeopardy” by doing this, and “we were just . . . useful idiots or rubes at that point.” 95

3.5 On December 14th, The Fake Electors Meet and Vote

On December 14th, using instructions provided by Chesebro, the fake Trump electors gathered and participated in signing ceremonies in all seven States. In five of these States—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin—the certificates they signed used the language that falsely declared themselves to be “the duly elected and qualified Electors” from their State.96 This declaration was false because none of the signatories had been granted that official status by their State government in the form of a certificate of ascertainment.

The paperwork signed by the fake Trump electors in two other States contained partial caveats. In New Mexico, the document they signed made clear that they were participating “on the understanding that it might later be determined that we are the duly elected and qualified Electors. . . .” 97 In Pennsylvania, the document they signed indicated that they were participating “on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, we are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors. . . .” 98

All seven of these invalid sets of electoral votes were then transmitted to Washington, DC. Roman’s team member in Georgia, for example, sent him an email on the afternoon of December 14th that affirmed the following: “All votes cast, paperwork complete, being mailed now. Ran pretty smoothly.” 99 Likewise, Findlay updated Campaign Manager Bill Stepien and his bosses on the legal team that the Trump team’s slate in Georgia was not able to satisfy all provisions of State law but still “voted as legally as possible under the circumstances” before transmitting their fake votes to Washington, DC, by mail.100

On the evening of December 14th, RNC Chairwoman McDaniel provided an update for President Trump on the status of the fake elector effort. She forwarded President Trump’s executive assistant an “Elector Recap” email, which conveyed that “President Trump’s electors voted” not just in “the states that he won” but also in six “contested states” (specifically, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).101 Minutes later, President Trump’s executive assistant replied: “It’s in front of him!” 102

The Trump team and the fake electors also engaged in acts of subterfuge to carry out their plans on December 14th. For instance, a campaign staffer notified the Georgia participants via email that he “must ask for your complete discretion.” 103 He explained that their efforts required “complete secrecy,” and told them to arrive at the State capitol building and “please state to the guards that you are attending a meeting with either Senator Brandon Beach or Senator Burt Jones.” 104 Indeed, Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that he tried to enter this group’s meeting room but “[a] guy at the door called it an ‘education meeting’ and scrambled when I tried to walk in.” 105

Former Michigan GOP Chair Laura Cox told the Select Committee that an attorney who “said he was working with the President’s Campaign” informed her that the Michigan slate for President Trump was “planning to meet in the capit[o]l and hide overnight so that they could fulfill the role of casting their vote in, per law, in the Michigan chambers.” 106 She said that she “told him in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate,” and that she warned Michigan’s senate majority leader as a precaution.107 Instead, the group of fake electors in Michigan signed their paperwork in the State GOP headquarters, where staff told them not to bring phones inside.108

3.6 The Fallout from the Fake Elector Plan

In spite of the Trump Campaign’s efforts to give the fake electors’ votes the sheen of authenticity, they failed. The U.S. Senate Parliamentarian noted in correspondence by January 3rd that materials from the Trump team’s supposed electors in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania had “no seal of the state” and “no evidence votes were delivered by the executive of the state for signature by electors,” 109 and, as a result, these materials failed to meet requirements of federal law. Similarly, the Senate Parliamentarian noted that the Trump team’s slates from Georgia, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania appeared to violate another statute which requires the approval of the Governor for the substitution of electors.110 Meanwhile, the documents from Michigan and Wisconsin did not even arrive to Congress on time, so they also had missed the required statutory deadline.111

Several of the Trump team’s fake electoral slates also failed to follow State rules specifying where they were required to meet. In Georgia and Wisconsin, State lawmakers or their staff appear to have helped participants gather inside their State capitols.112 But in Michigan, the fake Trump electors were blocked from entering the State capitol building.113 Despite this, they still signed documents attesting that they “convened and organized in the State Capitol, in the City of Lansing, Michigan, and at 2:00 p.m. . . . performed the duties enjoined upon us.” 114 That document had been signed earlier in the day off-site, and one of the signatories even told the Committee she didn’t join their march to the State capitol building because she “didn’t see a need to go.” 115

If the entire premise of the fake votes was not enough, these infirmities also meant that they had no legal relevance. In no way could they ever have been used by the Vice President to disregard the real votes of electors chosen by the voters.

In the weeks between December 14th and January 6th, President Trump’s team continued to embrace the idea that the fake electoral votes had a purpose. Although Giuliani and White House speechwriter Stephen Miller made public comments on December 14th suggesting that the uncertified Trump votes were merely contingent, that pretense was dropped in short order.116

For example, on December 17th, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News that in numerous States “there has been an alternate slate of electors voted upon that Congress will decide in January.” 117 On December 21st, President Trump and Vice President Pence each joined parts of a White House meeting in which Members of Congress from the Freedom Caucus encouraged the Vice President to reject Biden electors from one or more of the seven contested States.118 And days later, Eastman cited the existence of the fake votes in an email to Boris Epshteyn, a member of the Giuliani legal team, writing, “[t]he fact that we have multiple slates of electors demonstrate[s] the uncertainty of either. That should be enough.” 119

As discussed further in Chapter 5, that email contained Eastman’s 2-page memo proposing a strategy for January 6th based on the incorrect legal theory that Vice President Pence could assert some authority as President of the Senate to prevent or delay the election of former Vice President Biden during the joint session. Eastman’s memo relied on the fake votes, which the memo featured in the very first line: “7 states have transmitted dual slates of electors.” 120 When Eastman submitted his memo to Epshteyn, he also copied Chesebro, who had edited the memo and called it “[r]eally awesome.” 121

By that point, Chesebro and Eastman were coordinating their arguments about the fake-elector votes and how they should be used. On January 1, 2021, Chesebro sent an email to Eastman and Epshteyn that recommended that Vice President Pence derail the joint session of Congress. In it, he raised the idea of Vice President Pence declaring “that there are two competing slates of electoral votes” in several States, and taking the position that only he, or possibly Congress, could “resolve any disputes concerning them.” 122

Two days later, Eastman completed his second major memo advising President Trump and his team on strategies for January 6th, again arguing that there were “dual slates of electors from 7 states,” and calling for Vice President Pence to assert power to act “[a]s the ultimate arbiter” to take steps that could overturn the election, either by sending the election back to State legislatures to reassess or by rejecting Biden’s certified electoral votes from States in which there were also fake Trump electors.123

By early January, most of the fake elector votes had arrived in Washington, except those from Michigan and Wisconsin.124 Undeterred, the Trump team arranged to fly them to Washington and hand deliver them to Congress for the Vice President himself. “Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President . . .” Wisconsin Republican Party official Mark Jefferson wrote to Party Chairman Hitt on January 4th.125 Hitt responded, “Ok I see I have a missed call from [Mike] Roman and a text from someone else. Did you talk to them already? This is just nuts. . . .” 126

The next day, Trump Campaign Deputy Director for Election Day Operations G. Michael Brown sent a text message to other campaign staff suggesting that he was the person who delivered the fake votes to Congress.127 After sending the group a photo of his face with the Capitol in the background, Brown said, “This has got to be the cover a book I write one day” and “I should probably buy [Mike] [R]oman a tie or something for sending me on this one. Hasn’t been done since 1876 and it was only 3 states that did it.” 128 The reference to 1876 alludes to a controversy during that election about certain States’ electoral college votes.129

President Trump and his Campaign apparently had assistance from allies on Capitol Hill for this effort, including Senator Ron Johnson, his chief of staff, and the chief of staff to Representative Mike Kelly, although Senator Johnson has said that “[his] involvement in that attempt to deliver” fake elector paperwork “spanned the course of a couple seconds.” 130 On the morning of January 6th, Representative Kelly’s then-chief of staff texted an aide to the Vice President, Chris Hodgson, about hand-delivering the fake elector votes to the Vice President’s team before the joint session, a message that Hodgson ignored: “Just following up-any chance you or someone from your team can meet to take the Michigan and Wisconsin packets.” 131

Senator Ron Johnson, February 12, 2021.

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

According to the office of Senator Ron Johnson, Representative Kelly’s chief of staff then had a phone call with Senator Johnson’s chief of staff at 11:58 a.m. “about how Kelly’s office could get us the electors [sic] because they had it.” 132 Shortly after 11:30 a.m., the Trump Campaign’s lead attorney in Wisconsin had texted Senator Johnson expressing a “[n]eed to get a document on Wisconsin electors to you [for] the VP immediately. Is there a staff person I can talk to immediately.” 133 Senator Johnson then put his chief of staff in touch with the campaign to handle the issue.134

Shortly afterwards, Senator Johnson’s chief of staff texted Hodgson: “[Sen.] Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.” 135 When Hodgson asked what it was, the response he got was, “Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them.” 136 Hodgson did not mince words: “Do not give that to him [the Vice President]. He’s about to walk over to preside over the joint session, those were supposed to come in through the mail.” 137

Those fake electoral votes, which the Trump team tried for weeks to manufacture and deliver, never made it to the Vice President. But they would have been invalid even if they did arrive on time. The Trump team’s activities were based on the false pretense that these fake electoral votes had a decisive role to play at the joint session of Congress. And yet any such role that they could have played would have helped unlawfully obstruct an official proceeding that determines how our Nation carries out the peaceful transfer of power between Presidents.

Indeed, as the joint session approached, Senator Mike Lee had expressed grave concerns about the fake elector effort in a series of text messages to one of the Trump team’s senior legal advisors. Although Senator Lee had spent a month encouraging the idea of having State legislatures endorse competing electors for Trump, he grew alarmed as it became clear that the Trump team wanted the fake electors’ votes to be considered on January 6th even without authorization from any State government body.138

Senator Mike Lee, April 28, 2016.

(Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

On December 30th, Senator Lee texted Trump advisor Cleta Mitchell that January 6th was “a dangerous idea,” including “for the republic itself.” 139 He explained that, “I don’t think we have any valid basis for objecting to the electors” because “it cannot be true that we can object to any state’s presidential electors simply because we don’t think they handled their election well or suspect illegal activity.” 140 Senator Lee even questioned her about the plan’s dangerous long-term consequences: “[w]ill you please explain to me how this doesn’t create a slippery slope problem for all future presidential elections?” 141

ENDNOTES

1. “Transcript of Trump’s Speech at Rally before US Capitol Riot,” Associated Press, (Jan. 13, 2021), available at https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-siege-media-e79eb5164613d6718e9f4502eb471f27.

2. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Tim Murtaugh Production), XXM-0021349 (December 13, 2020, and December 14, 2020, text messages between Tim Murtaugh, Justin Clark, Jason Miller, and Eric Herschmann); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), p. 116; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Matthew Morgan, (Apr. 25, 2022), pp. 70–72; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 38–43.

3. See Chapter 4; Senate Committee on the Judiciary Majority Staff Report, Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election, (Oct. 7, 2021), pp. 20–39, 188, and Key Document H at pp. 185–191, available at https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Interim%20Staff%20Report%20FINAL.pdf.

4. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053475, Chapman053476 (December 23, 2020, email titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Dec 23 memo on Jan 6 scenario.docx” from John Eastman to Boris Epshteyn and Kenneth Chesebro, with attached memo titled “January 6 scenario”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Public Source), CTRL0000923050 (Jan. 3, 2021, John Eastman 6-page memo); John C. Eastman, “Privileged and Confidential–Jan 6 Scenario,” (Jan. 3, 2021), available at https://www.scribd.com/document/528776994/Privileged-and-Confidential-Jan-3-Memo-on-Jan-6-Scenario; John C. Eastman, “Trying to Prevent Illegal Conduct from Deciding an Election is Not Endorsing a ‘Coup’,” American Greatness, (Sep. 30, 2021), available at https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/30/trying-to-prevent-illegal-conduct-from-deciding-an-election-is-not-endorsing-a-coup/ (embedded). See also Chapter 5.

5. Order Re Privilege of 599 Documents Dated November 3, 2020–January 20, 2021 at 23, Eastman v. Thompson, No. 8:22-cv-99 (C.D. Cal. June 7, 2022), ECF No. 356, available at https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.356.0_1.pdf.

6. Order re Privilege of Documents Dated January 4-7, 2021 at 36, Eastman v. Thompson, 594 F. Supp. 3d 1156, (C.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2022) (No. 8:22-cv-99-DOC-DFM), available at https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.260.0_10.pdf.

7. The Trump team tried to justify its fake-elector scheme based in part on the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election. At that time, following a close vote in Hawaii, Republican and Democratic electors each met and cast purported electoral college votes on the same day because there was ongoing litigation and a pending recount. Circumstances in 2020 were different, however, in part because there were no pending recounts. Kenneth Chesebro reportedly recognized this difference in an email copied to Rudolph Giuliani that acknowledged certain concerns about their efforts could be “valid,” because, as he put it, “in the Hawaii 1960 incident, when the Kennedy electors voted[,] there was a pending recount.” Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater, “Arizona Officials Warned Fake Electors Plan Could ‘Appear Treasonous’,” New York Times, (Aug. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/us/politics/arizona-trump-fake-electors.html.

8. David Thomas, “Lawyer Group Says Trump Attorney Broke Ethics Rules in Fake Elector Plan,” Reuters, (Oct. 12, 2022), available at https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/lawyer-group-says-trump-attorney-broke-ethics-rules-fake-elector-plan-2022-10-12/; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Hearing on the January 6th Investigation, 117th Cong., 2d sess., (June 16, 2022), available at https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-january6th.

9. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025125 (November 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025124 (December 7, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro with attachment “2020-11-20 Chesebro memo on real deadline2.pdf”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF037 (November 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”). See also Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, and Luke Broadwater, “Memos Show Roots of Trump’s Focus on Jan. 6 and Alternate Electors,” New York Times, (Feb. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-memos.html.

10. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025125 (November 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025124 (December 7, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro with attachment “2020-11-20 Chesebro memo on real deadline2.pdf”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF037 (Nov. 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”). See also Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, and Luke Broadwater, “Memos Show Roots of Trump’s Focus on Jan. 6 and Alternate Electors,” New York Times, (Feb. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-memos.html.

11. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025125, (November 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”) (underlining in original); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman025124, (December 7, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro with attachment “2020-11-20 Chesebro memo on real deadline2.pdf”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), CTRL0000082463_00009, (November 18, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes”); Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, and Luke Broadwater, “Memos Show Roots of Trump’s Focus on Jan. 6 and Alternate Electors,” New York Times, (Feb. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-memos.html.

12. Emphasis added. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF044, (December 9, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “Statutory Requirements for December 14 Electoral Votes”); Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, and Luke Broadwater, “Memos Show Roots of Trump’s Focus on Jan. 6 and Alternate Electors,” New York Times, (Feb. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-memos.html.

13. U.S. Const., art. II, §. 1, cl. 2: (“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.”).

14. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (James DeGraffenreid Production), DEGRAFFENREID 000778, (December 11, 2020, email from Jim DeGraffenreid to Kenneth Chesebro with subject “URGENT—Trump-Pence campaign asked me to contact you to coordinate Dec. 14 voting by Nevada electors”).

15. Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater, “‘Kind of Wild/Creative’: Emails Shed Light on Trump Fake Electors Plan,” New York Times, (July 26, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/us/politics/trump-fake-electors-emails.html (emphasis in original). Although this alleged email described by the New York Times was not produced to the Select Committee, it matches certain information in a privilege log provided to the Select Committee by its reported sender. This includes the same reported sender (Jack Wilenchik), direct recipient (Boris Epshteyn), seven cc’ed recipients in the same order (Christina Bobb, Lee Miller, Dennis Wilenchik, Aaron Green, Josh Offenhartz, Christine Ferreira, and Victoria Stevens), title (“RE: [EXTERNAL]FW: petition for Cert and Motion for Expedited Consideration”), and date (12/8/2020), with only a negligible one-minute discrepancy in the time sent (4:27 p.m. versus 4:26 p.m.). See Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Jack Wilenchik Production), CTRL0000922311, line 9 (Sept. 7, 2022, Jack Wilenchik Production 09_07_2022 - PrivLog UPDATED).

16. “Nevada Revised Statutes,” Title 24—Elections, Chapter 298—Presidential Electors and Elections, Nevada State Legislature, available at https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-298.html#NRS298Sec065.

17. “Nevada Certificate of Ascertainment 2020,” National Archives and Records Administration, (Dec. 2, 2020, also later updated Dec. 10, 2020), available at https://www.archives.gov/files/electoral-college/2020/ascertainment-nevada.pdf.

18. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF044 (December 9, 2020, memo from Kenneth Chesebro titled “Statutory Requirements for December 14 Electoral Votes”). Where it wouldn’t be possible to comply with State law, as in Nevada, Chesebro advised the so-called electors to proceed anyway, writing: "[T]hese technical aspects of state law are unlikely to matter much in the end." Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (James DeGraffenreid Production), DEGRAFFENREID 000778, (December 11, 2020, email from Jim DeGraffenreid to Kenneth Chesebro with subject “URGENT—Trump-Pence campaign asked me to contact you to coordinate Dec. 14 voting by Nevada electors”).

19. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman004708 (January 4, 2021, email from Kenneth Chesebro to John Eastman titled “Fwd: Draft 2, with edits”, which includes in the chain a Dec. 13, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro to Rudy Giuliani titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Brief Notes on “President of the Senate” strategy”).

20. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman004708 (January 4, 2021, email from Kenneth Chesebro to John Eastman titled “Fwd: Draft 2, with edits”, which includes in the chain a Dec. 13, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro to Rudy Giuliani titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Brief Notes on “President of the Senate” strategy”).

21. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman004708 (January 4, 2021, email from Kenneth Chesebro to John Eastman titled “Fwd: Draft 2, with edits”, which includes in the chain a Dec. 13, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro to Rudy Giuliani titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Brief Notes on “President of the Senate” strategy”).

22. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman004708 (January 4, 2021, email from Kenneth Chesebro to John Eastman titled “Fwd: Draft 2, with edits”, which includes in the chain a Dec. 13, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro to Rudy Giuliani titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Brief Notes on “President of the Senate” strategy”). In his email, Mr. Chesebro argues that the President of the Senate should open “two envelopes” from the contested States including Arizona, “announce[] that he cannot and will not . . . count any electoral votes from [the contested State] because there are two slates of votes,” and refuse to count them unless the election is “rerun,” the courts engage in “adequate judicial review,” or the State’s legislature “appoint[s] electors.” From this language, it is clear that Mr. Chesebro contemplated the fake votes being used in Congress without a court or State government adopting, ratifying, or otherwise selecting them as the proper electoral college votes from a contested State. To be fair, Chesebro concludes this email by telling Giuliani that “[m]any more points would need to be analyzed in making a complete argument that the President of the Senate possesses the sole power to count electoral votes, and anything to the contrary in the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional.” Despite that caution, the very next sentence advocates for a vigorous assertion of that power: “But at minimum this seems a defensible interpretation of the Twelfth Amendment, and one that ought to be asserted, vigorously, by whoever has the role of President of the Senate.”

23. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman004708 (January 4, 2021, email from Kenneth Chesebro to John Eastman titled “Fwd: Draft 2, with edits”, which includes in the chain a Dec. 13, 2020, email from Kenneth Chesebro to Rudy Giuliani titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Brief Notes on “President of the Senate” strategy”).

24. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053475, Chapman053476, (Dec. 23, 2020 email titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Dec 23 memo on Jan 6 scenario.docx” from John Eastman to Boris Epshteyn and Kenneth Chesebro, with attached memo titled “January 6 scenario”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Public Source), CTRL0000923050 (Jan. 3, 2021, John Eastman 6-page memo); John C. Eastman, “Privileged and Confidential–Jan 6 Scenario,” (Jan. 3, 2021), available at https://www.scribd.com/document/528776994/Privileged-and-Confidential-Jan-3-Memo-on-Jan-6-Scenario and embedded at John C. Eastman, “Trying to Prevent Illegal Conduct from Deciding an Election is Not Endorsing a ‘Coup’,” American Greatness (Sep. 30, 2021), available at https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/30/trying-to-prevent-illegal-conduct-from-deciding-an-election-is-not-endorsing-a-coup/.

25. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM003771.

26. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM003771 (emphasis added).

27. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM003769.

28. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM010783, MM010784.

29. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM010783, MM010784.

30. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM013515.

31. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM013516.

32. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (Mar. 7, 2022), pp. 54–55.

33. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 27–28.

34. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), p. 29.

35. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 86–87.

36. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Ronna Romney McDaniel, (June 1, 2022), pp. 7–8. Ms. McDaniel didn’t recall the exact date of the call, but thought it was at least “a few days before December 14th” and may have been sometime before the Supreme Court rejected the case Texas v. Pennsylvania on December 11th.

37. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Ronna Romney McDaniel, (June 1, 2022), pp. 8–9.

38. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Ronna Romney McDaniel, (June 1, 2022), pp. 9–13. McDaniel asserted to the Select Committee that even after December 14th she was under the impression that the seven slates of fake electors were strictly contingent in nature pending authorization by a court of law, and that she relayed this to several concerned Republican officials in the contested States. See id., at 18. However, there is also no indication that she took action to condemn or block the misuse of these contingent elector slates by January 6th.

39. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Tim Murtaugh Production), XXM-0021349, (December 13, 2020, text message from Jason Miller to Justin Clark and Eric Herschmann). For instance, on December 11th, Chesebro wrote to a lawyer working on litigation efforts in Arizona, asking him to file a petition that would keep the litigation alive through the 14th: “[C]an you get the cert. petition on file by Monday? Reason is that Kelli Ward & Kelly Townsend just spoke to the Mayor about the campaign’s request that all electors vote Monday in all contested states. Ward and Townsend are concerned it could appear treasonous for the AZ electors to vote on Monday if there is no pending court proceeding that might, eventually, lead to the electors being ratified as the legitimate ones. Which is a valid point . . . .” Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater, “Arizona Officials Warned Fake Electors Plan Could ‘Appear Treasonous,’” The New York Times, (Aug. 2, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/us/politics/arizona-trump-fake-electors.html (emphasis in original).

40. Order re Privilege of Remaining Documents at 15, Eastman v. Thompson et al., No. 8:22-cv-99-DOC-DFM (C.D. Cal. Oct. 19, 2022), ECF No. 372.

41. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Tim Murtaugh Production), XXM-0019417 (December 14, 2020, emails between Jason Miller and Boris Epshteyn).

42. Order Dismissing Bill of Complaint and Denying Certiorari, Texas v. Pennsylvania, 592 U.S. ___, (Dec. 11, 2020) (No. 155, Orig.), available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/121120zr_p860.pdf.

43. See, e.g., Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 87–88.

44. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), p. 116.

45. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), p. 69; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Matthew Morgan, (Apr. 25, 2022), p. 74.

46. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), p. 118.

47. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), p. 114.

48. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), pp. 114, 116.

49. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), pp. 116, 118. However, Justin Clark’s message in an email dated December 24th seems to potentially contradict his suggestions that the campaign legal team fully backed out: “In terms of political judgements on January 6 I know . . . that plans are being discussed and executed: alternate slates have been submitted, votes are being whipped, all of the arguments are in place and a not insignificant ad b[u]y was made highlighting the issues in the election.” Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (William Stepien Production), WS 00036.

50. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Matthew Morgan, (Apr. 25, 2022), p. 70.

51. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 39–40.

52. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), pp. 69–70, 73.

53. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Informal Interview of Patrick Philbin, (Apr. 13, 2022).

54. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), pp. 75–76.

55. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (Mar. 7, 2022), p. 64–65. (Hutchinson later clarified that she recalled hearing that from Pat Cipollone and, potentially, also Pat Philbin.)

56. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (Mar. 7, 2022), pp. 64–65.

57. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF052.

58. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 87–88.

59. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 87–88.

60. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), p. 44.

61. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), p. 30.

62. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Justin Clark, (May 17, 2022), p. 125.

63. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (James DeGraffenreid Production), CTRL0000044010_00031 (Dec. 10, 2020 email from Kenneth Chesebro to James DeGraffenreid and others).

64. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF051, JF054.

65. Documents on file with the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (David Shafer Production), 108751.0001_000004, 108751.0001_000019, 108751.0001_000020, 108751.0001_000021, 108751.0001_000024.

66. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF049.

67. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (James DeGraffenreid Production), DEGRAFFENREID 000786; Documents on file with the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Michael McDonald Production), MCDONALD 000789.

68. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF061.

69. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Lawrence Tabas Production), CTRL0000061077.

70. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000011.

71. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000011.

72. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000011; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (David Shafer Production), 108751.0001 000004; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Lawrence Tabas Production), CTRL0000061077; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (James DeGraffenreid Production), DEGRAFFENREID 000786; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Kenneth Chesebro Production), KC_Elector_Correspondence_000211, KC_Elector_Correspondence_000215.

73. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Joshua Findlay Production), JF052.

74. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Robert Sinners Production), CTRL0000083897, CTRL0000083898.

75. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Robert Sinners Production), CTRL0000083897.

76. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Robert Sinners Production), CTRL0000083897. Members of this team appear to have included Trump Victory Committee or Trump Campaign EDO State or regional directors for relevant States, including Arizona and New Mexico (Thomas Lane), Georgia (Robert Sinners), Michigan (Shawn Flynn), Nevada (Jesse Law and Valerie McConahay), Pennsylvania (James Fitzpatrick), and Wisconsin (Ryan Terrill, who had originally worked on North Carolina issues but later shifted to Wisconsin), as well as Mr. Roman’s deputy (G. Michael Brown). See Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Laura Cox Production), Laura Cox 000339; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Rudy Giuliani Production), RGGLOBAL_DOM_00001373; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Tim Murtaugh Production) XXM-0010338, XXM-0008776, XXM-0011867; Richard Ruelas, “Trump Campaign Official Subpoenaed by FBI Appears to Be at Meeting of Fake Arizona Electors,” Arizona Republic, (June 23, 2022), available at https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/06/23/fbi-subpoenas-thomas-lane-trump-campaign-arizona/7708133001/; Jonathan Oosting, “Trump Fake Elector Probe into 2020 Race Expands with Michigan Subpoenas,” Bridge Michigan, (June 23, 2022), available at https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/trump-fake-elector-probe-2020-race-expands-michigan-subpoenas; Zach Montellaro and Holly Otterbein, “Trump Calls for Poll Watchers. Election Officials Call for Calm,” Politico, (Sept. 30, 2020), available at https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/30/trump-poll-watchers-election-423996; Luke Broadwater, “Jan. 6 Inquiry Subpoenas 6 Tied to False Pro-Trump Elector Effort,” New York Times, (Feb. 15, 2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/us/politics/jan-6-subpoenas-trump.html.

77. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Robert Sinners Production), CTRL0000083898.

78. David Shafer (@DavidShafer), Twitter, Dec. 14, 2020 12:51 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/DavidShafer/status/1338542161932021762; David Shafer (@DavidShafer), Twitter, Dec. 14, 2020 1:07 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/DavidShafer/status/1338546066346676224; “Republican Electors Cast Procedural Vote, Seek to Preserve Trump Campaign Legal Challenge,” Pennsylvania Republican Party website, (Dec. 14, 2020), available at https://pagop.org/2020/12/14/republican-electors-cast-procedural-vote/; “Statement on Republican Electors Meeting,” Republican Party of Wisconsin, (Dec. 14, 2020), available at https://wisgop.org/republican-electors-2020/; Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP), Twitter, Dec. 14, 2020 5:13 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1338608056985239554.

79. Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen, and Dan Merica, “Trump Campaign Officials, Led by Rudy Giuliani, Oversaw Fake Electors Plot in 7 States,” CNN, (Jan. 20, 2022), available at https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/trump-campaign-officials-rudy-giuliani-fake-electors/index.html.

80. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), p. 58.

81. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Tim Murtaugh Production), XXM-0016071 (December 10, 2020, email from Joshua Findlay to Nick Trainer and Matt Morgan re: Presidential Elector Issues).

82. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Tim Murtaugh Production), XXM-0016071 (December 10, 2020, email from Joshua Findlay to Nick Trainer and Matt Morgan re: Presidential Elector Issues); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Joshua Findlay, (May 25, 2022), pp. 55–59; Michael C. Bender, “Republicans Hire Nine Regional Directors for Trump 2020 Election,” Wall Street Journal, (May 8, 2019), available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-campaign-hires-nine-regional-directors-for-2020-election-11557355628.

83. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Lawrence Tabas Production), CTRL0000061085 (December 13, 2020, email chain between Thomas King III and James Fitzpatrick re: Pa. Electors).

84. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Informal Interview of Lawrence Tabas, (Apr. 11, 2022).

85. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000076 (December 4, 2020, Text messages between Andrew Hitt and Mark Jefferson); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Andrew Hitt, (Feb. 28, 2022), p. 8.

86. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000083 (December 12, 2020, Text messages between Andrew Hitt and Mark Jefferson).

87. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037949 (December 14, 2020, memorandum from purported electors in Wisconsin).

88. Kira Lerner, “UPDATED Trump’s Fake Electors: Here’s the Full List,” News from the States, (June 29, 2022), available at https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/updated-trumps-fake-electors-heres-full-list; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037568, CTRL0000037944, CTRL0000037945, CTRL0000037946, CTRL0000037947, CTRL0000037948, CTRL0000037949 (December 14, 2020, memoranda from slates of purported electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).

89. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Laura Cox, (May 3, 2022), pp. 77–78.

90. Beth Reinhard, Amy Gardner, Josh Dawsey, Emma Brown, and Rosalind S. Helderman, “As Giuliani Coordinated Plan for Trump Electoral Votes in States Biden Won, Some Electors Balked,” Washington Post, (Jan. 20, 2022), available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/electors-giuliani-trump-electoral-college/2022/01/20/687e3698-7587-11ec-8b0a-bcfab800c430_story.html.

91. Beth Reinhard, Amy Gardner, Josh Dawsey, Emma Brown, and Rosalind S. Helderman, “As Giuliani Coordinated Plan for Trump Electoral Votes in States Biden Won, Some Electors Balked,” Washington Post, (Jan. 20, 2022), available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/electors-giuliani-trump-electoral-college/2022/01/20/687e3698-7587-11ec-8b0a-bcfab800c430_story.html.

92. Kira Lerner, “UPDATED Trump’s fake electors: Here’s the full list,” News from the States, (June 29, 2022), available at https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/updated-trumps-fake-electors-heres-full-list.

93. See, e.g., Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Andrew Hitt, (Feb. 28, 2022), pp. 50–51.

94. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Robert Sinners, (June 15, 2022), pp. 18-19.

95. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Robert Sinners, (June 15, 2022), pp. 37-38.

96. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037568, CTRL0000037944, CTRL0000037945 CTRL0000037946, CTRL0000037947, CTRL0000037948, CTRL0000037949 (December 14, 2020, memoranda from slates of purported electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin).

97. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037946 (December 14, 2020, memorandum from purported electors in New Mexico).

98. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037948 (December 14, 2020, memorandum from purported electors in Pennsylvania).

99. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Robert Sinners Production), CTRL0000083893 (December 14, 2020, email chain from Robert Sinners to Mike Roman and others re: Whip Update).

100. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (William Stepien Production), WS 00095, WS 00096 (December 14, 2020, email from Joshua Findlay to Matt Morgan, Justin Clark, and cc’ing Bill Stepien re: Georgia Update).

101. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), 076P-R000009527_0001, (December 14, 2020, forwarded email from Ronna McDaniel to Molly Michael with the subject line: “FWD: Electors Recap—Final”).

102. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), 076P-R000009527_0001, (December 14, 2020, forwarded email from Ronna McDaniel to Molly Michael with the subject line: “FWD: Electors Recap—Final”).

103. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Shawn Still Production), CTRL0000042623_00018 (December 13, 2020, email from Shawn Still to Dana Pagan subject: “Fwd: Information on Duties of Presidential Electors – Monday, December 14th”).

104. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Shawn Still Production), CTRL0000042623_00018 (December 13, 2020, email from Shawn Still to Dana Pagan subject: “Fwd: Information on Duties of Presidential Electors – Monday, December 14th”).

105. Greg Bluestein (@bluestein), Twitter, Dec. 14, 2020 11:32 a.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1338522299360800771; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Shawn Still, (Feb. 25, 2022), pp. 41–48; Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, “Exclusive: Fulton County DA Sends ‘Target’ Letters to Trump Allies in Georgia Investigation,” Yahoo! News, (July 15, 2022), available at https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-fulton-county-da-sends-target-letters-to-trump-allies-in-georgia-investigation-152517469.html.

106. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Laura Cox, (May 3, 2022), pp. 53–54.

107. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Laura Cox, (May 3, 2022), pp. 53–54.

108. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Mayra Rodriguez, (Feb. 22, 2022), pp. 14–18.

109. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), VP-R0000417_0001, VP-R0000418_0001 (January 3, 2021, email from Elizabeth MacDonough, subject “RE: COV tracker” with attachment); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), 00094 (Attachment to email from Elizabeth MacDonough, subject “RE: COV tracker”).

110. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), VP-R0000417_0001, VP-R0000418_0001 (January 3, 2021, email from Elizabeth MacDonough, subject “RE: COV tracker” with attachment); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), 00094 (Attachment to email from Elizabeth MacDonough, subject “RE: COV tracker”).

111. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Chris Hodgson, (Mar. 30, 2022), pp. 144–45, 206–07.

112. In Wisconsin they were able to enter with apparent help from the chief of staff for then majority leader of the Wisconsin State Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, who now represents Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives. In Georgia, a freelance reporter who has testified to the Fulton County grand jury claims to have found that the room in which the fake electors met was reserved by the office of Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, which is consistent with what Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer told the Select Committee. See “Open Records Regarding Wisconsin’s Fake Electors Suggest Congressman Scott Fitzgerald Played Significant Role in Trying to Overturn a Free and Fair Election,” Office of Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson, (Jan. 25, 2022), available at https://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/07/Larson/media/2056/1-25-22-fitzgerald-electors-pr.pdf; Letter from Cyrus Anderson, Deputy Sergeant at Arms, Wisconsin State Senate to State Sen. Chris Larson, attaching documents, Jan. 24, 2022, available at https://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/07/Larson/media/2052/12-14-20-open-records-request-results-short.pdf; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of David Shafer, (Feb. 25, 2022), pp. 93–94, 106; Michael Isikoff and Daniel Kladman, “Exclusive: Fulton County DA Sends ‘Target’ Letters to Trump Allies in Georgia Investigation,” Yahoo! News, (July 15, 2022), available at https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-fulton-county-da-sends-target-letters-to-trump-allies-in-georgia-investigation-152517469.html; George Chidi, “Bearing Witness,” The Atlanta Objective with George Chidi, (June 29, 2022), available at https://theatlantaobjective.substack.com/p/bearing-witness; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Shawn Still Production), 108755.0001_000009 (December 13, 2020, email from Shawn Still to Dana Pagan re: “Fwd: Information of Duties of Presidential Electors – Monday Dec. 14th”).

113. Daniel Villareal, “Michigan Republicans Tried to Submit Fake Electoral Votes to Capitol,” Newsweek, (Dec. 15, 2020), available at https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-republicans-tried-submit-fake-electoral-votes-capitol-1555028.

114. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), CTRL0000037945, p. 2 (December 14, 2020, memorandum of purported Michigan electors for Donald J. Trump).

115. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Mayra Rodriguez, (Feb. 22, 2022), pp. 18, 21; Laina G. Stebbins, “Feds Serve Subpoenas to Pro-Trump Fake Electors in Michigan,” Michigan Advance (June 23, 2022), available at https://michiganadvance.com/blog/feds-serve-subpoenas-to-pro-trump-fake-electors-in-michigan/.

116. Brett Samuels, “Stephen Miller: ‘Alternate’ Electors Will Keep Trump Election Challenge Alive,” The Hill, (Dec. 14, 2020), available at https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/530092-stephen-miller-alternate-electors-will-keep-trump-challenge-alive-post/; Steve Bannon’s War Room Radio, “STEVE BANNON’S WAR ROOM RADIO SPECIAL EPISODE582,” BitChute, (aired on Dec. 14, 2020, reposted on BitChute Aug. 22, 2021), at 10:30–13:00, available at https://www.bitchute.com/video/v889V3Thxgcj/.

117. Mike Wereschagin, “Pa. Republicans’ Hedged Language May Have Saved Them from Prosecution over Electoral Vote Scheme,” Lancaster Online, (Jan. 17, 2022), available at https://lancasteronline.com/news/politics/pa-republicans-hedged-language-may-have-saved-them-from-prosecution-over-electoral-vote-scheme/article_849d4f7e-7589-11ec-8881-6383a823557d.html.

118. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (Mar. 7, 2022), pp. 143-48.

119. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053475 (December 23, 2020, John Eastman email to Boris Epshteyn and Ken Chesebro).

120. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053476 (Word Document, “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL January 6 Scenario,” attached in Dec. 23, 2020, John Eastman email to Boris Epshteyn and Ken Chesebro).

121. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053475 (December 23, 2020, John Eastman email to Boris Epshteyn and Ken Chesebro).

122. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman061863 (January 1, 2021, Kenneth Chesebro email to John Eastman and Boris Epshteyn at 10:26 p.m.).

123. Both of Dr. Eastman’s memos described here are discussed at length in the chapter addressing President Trump’s pressure on the Vice President. See Chapter 5. See also Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053475, Chapman053476, (Dec. 23, 2020 email titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—Dec 23 memo on Jan 6 scenario.docx” from John Eastman to Boris Epshteyn and Kenneth Chesebro, with attached memo titled “January 6 scenario”); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Public Source), CTRL0000923050 (Jan. 3, 2021, John Eastman 6-page memo); John C. Eastman, “Privileged and Confidential–Jan 6 Scenario,” (Jan. 3, 2021), available at https://www.scribd.com/document/528776994/Privileged-and-Confidential-Jan-3-Memo-on-Jan-6-Scenario and embedded at John C. Eastman, “Trying to Prevent Illegal Conduct from Deciding an Election is Not Endorsing a ‘Coup’,” American Greatness (Sep. 30, 2021), available at https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/30/trying-to-prevent-illegal-conduct-from-deciding-an-election-is-not-endorsing-a-coup/.

124. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), VP-R0000417_0001, VP-R0000418_0001 (January 3, 2021 email and attachment from Senate Parliamentarian to Office of the Vice President); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production) 00094 (additional copy of same attachment sent from Senate Parliamentarian to Office of the Vice President).

125. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000089 (January 4, 2021, Andrew Hitt text message to Mark Jefferson at 9:02 p.m.).

126. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Andrew Hitt Production), Hitt000089 (January 4, 2021, Andrew Hitt text message to Mark Jefferson at 9:02 p.m.).

127. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Angela McCallum Production), McCallum_01_001576, McCallum_01_001577 (Michael Brown text message to Angela McCallum at undetermined time); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Angela McCallum (Dec. 8, 2021), p. 122.

128. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Angela McCallum Production), McCallum_01_001576, McCallum_01_001577 (Michael Brown text message to Angela McCallum at undetermined time); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Angela McCallum (Dec. 8, 2021), p. 122.

129. The Select Committee does not know where Brown delivered the fake votes. The Select Committee attempted to contact Brown multiple ways, including by subpoena, but servers could not locate him and he never responded to outreach. The Select Committee served Mike Roman with a subpoena, but he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and did not answer any substantive questions about the fake-elector scheme. What the Select Committee has determined, however, is that Brown likely delivered the fake electoral college votes to at least one of President Trump’s allies in Congress. See Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Michael Roman, (Aug. 10, 2022), p. 40.

130. Jason Lemon, “Johnson Says Involvement With 1/6 Fake Electors Plan Only ‘Lasted Seconds’,” Newsweek, (Aug. 21, 2022), available at https://www.newsweek.com/johnson-says-involvement-1-6-fake-electors-plan-only-lasted-seconds-1735486; Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_00007 (January 6, 2021, text message at 8:41 a.m. ET from Matt Stroia to Chris Hodgson); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_000035 (Jan. 6, 2021, text message around 12:37 p.m. ET from Sean Riley to Chris Hodgson) (“Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise . . . “Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them . . .”).

131. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_00007 (January 6, 2021, Matt Stroia text message to Chris Hodgson at 8:41 a.m.).

132. Lawrence Andrea, “Pennsylvania Congressman Concludes Internal Investigation with Few Answers After Ron Johnson’s Claims About False Electors,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, (July 14, 2022), available at https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/14/few-answers-mike-kellys-probe-into-false-electors-ron-johnson-pennsylvania-wisconsin/10059776002/.

133. “The Vicki McKenna Show—Keep and Bear Arms,” iHeart Radio, June 23, 2022, at 9:30–15:00, available at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/139-vicki-mckenna-27246267/episode/the-vicki-mckenna-show-keep-98666092/?position=570&embed=true; John Solomon, “Jan. 6 Panel’s Ron Johnson Narrative Exposes Ills of One-Sided Hearing,” Just The News, (June 23, 2022), available at https://justthenews.com/government/jan-6-panels-ron-johnson-narrative-exposes-ills-one-sided-hearing (linking to image of text message available at https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2022-06/TroupisJohnson1.pdf).

134. “The Vicki McKenna Show—Keep and Bear Arms,” iHeart Radio, June 23, 2022, at 9:30–15:00, available at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/139-vicki-mckenna-27246267/episode/the-vicki-mckenna-show-keep-98666092/?position=570&embed=true; John Solomon, “Jan. 6 Panel’s Ron Johnson Narrative Exposes Ills of One-Sided Hearing,” Just The News, (June 23, 2022), available at https://justthenews.com/government/jan-6-panels-ron-johnson-narrative-exposes-ills-one-sided-hearing (linking to image of text message available at https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2022-06/JohnsonTroupis2Redacted.pdf).

135. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_00035 (January 6,2021, Sean Riley text message to Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. ET).

136. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_00035 (January 6, 2021, Sean Riley text message to Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. ET).

137. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chris Hodgson Production), CTRL0000056548_00035 (January 6, 2021, Sean Riley text message to Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. ET).

138. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Mark Meadows Production), MM013494, MM014589, MM014592, MM014595, MM014598, MM014722 (Mark Meadows text messages with Sen. Mike Lee on December 8, 2020, January 3, 2021, and January 4, 2021); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Cleta Mitchell Production), CM00015452, CM00015477 (Cleta Mitchell text messages with Sen. Mike Lee on December 9, 2020 and December 30, 2020).

139. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Cleta Mitchell Production), CM00015477.

140. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Cleta Mitchell Production), CM00015477.

141. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Cleta Mitchell Production), CM00015477.