ariz fake electors

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promoted to primary 8 22

no merri

see pardon trump 11 25

1/24 PROXY FOR AZ STATE GOP? SeE NINJA FRAUDIT TOO

paxton AG tex texas vs Penn

see mayes

//gohmert v Pence

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Georgia election officials fight back against Trump’s 'fixation on 2020'

Adam Lynch

Case against Arizona's fake electors plows ahead— despite Trump's intervention

Jerod Macdonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror

President Donald Trump pardoned Arizona’s “fake electors” over the weekend along with a number of other high-profile supporters who spread election misinformation and attempted to help the President overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Last year, the fake electors were indicted by a grand jury for signing bogus documents claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, after Trump’s campaign allegedly urged them to do so.

Trump is identified in the indictment as “unindicted co-conspirator 1.”

In April 2024, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people for their involvement in efforts to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election after Democrat Joe Biden won the state by around 10,000 votes.

All of the fake electors involved in the scheme were indicted, including Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman, leader of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, former Arizona Sen. Anthony Kern, member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus and Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action USA COO.

In May, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers agreed with arguments from attorneys representing the fake electors that prosecutors had failed to disclose the full text of the Electoral Count Act to the members of the grand jury prior to the indictment. Myers ruled that Mayes would have to convene a new grand jury and share the text of the act in its entirety if she wanted to move forward with the case. An appeals court didn’t take up the matter.

Trump pardoned Hoffman, Kern and Bowyer, along with others involved along with others involved with similar schemes in other states. However, the pardon only applies to federal charges, so the Arizona indictment brought by Attorney General Kris Mayes would not be impacted.

Both Wisconsin and Nevada still have similar ongoing cases.

A spokesperson for Mayes said the pardon will “have no impact on the state’s case” and declined to comment further.

Those indicted for being fake electors in the scheme and named in the pardon are:

Kelli Ward, former AZGOP chairman
Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman, leader of the Arizona Freedom Caucus
Former Arizona Sen. Anthony Kern
Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action USA CEO
Michael Ward, husband of Kelli Ward
Nancy Cottle, a Republican who’s been active in local politics for a decade
James Lamon, a failed 2022 U.S. Senate candidate
Robert Montgomery, former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee
Samuel Moorhead, former chairman of Gila County Republican Party
Lorraine Pellegrino, former president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women
Gregory Safsten, former executive director of the AZGOP

The case brought by Mayes is facing an upcoming deadline on Nov. 21 where the Democratic AG can choose to either allow the case to be dismissed or revive it. Mayes indicated to local NBC affiliate 12News over the weekend that she may drop the case.

Each of the 11 Trump electors was charged with nine felonies related to trying to subvert the election, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty.

Attempts to reach those named in the pardon went unanswered or declined to comment due to the nature of the on-going case.

The indictments also included other people who worked for the Trump campaign or alongside it to facilitate the fake electors’ work:

Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump and one of the main points of contact for the Trump campaign as it sought to overturn the 2020 election and ensure Trump would serve a second term
Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff in 2020
Christina Bobb, the Republican National Committee’s senior counsel for election integrity and a former attorney for the Trump campaign who was accused in the indictment of making “false claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona and in six other states.”
John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who is facing possible disbarment in California for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump aide who is still one of the former president’s advisors.
Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for the Trump campaign and a conservative media personality who was censuredfor making false statements about the 2020 election, and who pleaded guilty in October to a felony charge in Georgia for her attempts to overturn the election results.
Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign aide who was also indicted in the Georgia case.

Giuliani, Meadows, Bobb, Eastman, Epshteyn and Ellis are also included in the same pardon. In total, Trump pardoned 77 people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Sean Morales-Doyle, Director of Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Arizona Mirror that the pardon sends a message to those who may try to subvert future elections that they’ll have the backing of the president, much like his pardon of those involved in the January 6 insurrection sent a similar message.

“I think (the pardon) is a shift in the environment in which people are acting and people who might be tempted to try to challenge legitimate outcomes and subvert the outcomes of elections have to think about the consequences of doing that and this changes the set of outcomes they may face,” Morales-Doyle said, noting that Trump’s pardon will not impact state or local charges. “Unequivocally, the president has no authority over state criminal prosecutions.”

Despite that, Trump and his allies have been attempting to push the boundaries of his federal powers. In March, Trump issued an executive order aimed at voting, seeking to add a requirement to show a passport or similar proof of citizenship to vote, but the courts placed a permanent injunction on it on Halloween, citing that the president has no authority over elections because the Constitution plainly gives that power to states and Congress.

While Trump may have the ability to pardon his allies, Morales-Doyle noted that states and local governments still have the ability to enforce their own laws that Trump cannot issue pardons for, creating additional checks and balances.

However, it is all part of a “broader trend” that has Morales-Doyle worried.

“It is a shame, but it is true that our federal law enforcement, our system of federal law enforcement, has become increasingly politicized under this administration,” Morales-Doyle said.

This politicization is part of a “broader strategy to undermine our elections” where federal law enforcement is used to pursue bogus election fraud claims along with other efforts to undermine the election, Morales-Doyle said.

Trump pardon of 2020 election deniers does not erase Fulton County charges

Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder

lifezette

Trump Grants Sweeping Pardons to Dozens Targeted After 2020 Election [WATCH]

By LifeZette News Staff

November 10, 2025

Image Credit: Brian Jason - Shutterstock.com

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President Donald Trump has issued a broad pardon proclamation extending clemency to dozens of allies who faced prosecution over efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The order, signed and released by the White House, declares the pardons part of an effort to correct what the president called a “grave national injustice” and move toward “national reconciliation.”

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 presidential election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the document reads.

MORE NEWS: British Artist Depicts Trump as Executed Prisoner in Swiss Display [WATCH]

The proclamation grants “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official in connection with the 2020 presidential election, as well as for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 presidential election.”

Among those named are several high-profile figures who became central to post-election investigations, including Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney and former mayor of New York; John Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers involved in election-related legal strategies; and Tyler Bowyer, a senior member of Turning Point USA.

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In total, the list includes more than 70 individuals. The names listed in the document include Mark Amick, Kathy Berden, Christina Bobb, Joseph Brannan, Carol Brunner, Mary Buestrin, Darryl Carlson, James “Ken” Carroll, Brad Carver, Robert Cheeley, Kenneth Chesebro, Hank Choate, Jeffrey Clark, Vikki Consiglio, Nancy Cottle, James DeGraffenreid, John Downey, Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn, Amy Facchinello, Bill Feehan, Carolyn Fisher, Harrison Floyd, Clifford Frost, Kay Godwin, Edward Scott Grabins, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton, David G. Hanna, Mark Hennessy, Mari-Ann Henry, Durward James Hindle III, Andrew Hitt, Jake Hoffman, Burt Jones, Anthony T. Kern, Kathy Kiernen, Timothy King, Trevian Kutti, James Lamon, Cathleen Latham, Jesse Law, Stephen Lee, Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, Michael McDonald, Mark Meadows, Shawn Meehan, Robert Montgomery, Daryl Moody, Samuel I. Moorhead, Loraine Pellegrino, Sidney Powell, James Renner, Eileen Rice, Mayra Rodriguez, Mike Roman, Rose Rook, Kelly Ruh, Greg Safsten, David Shafer, Marian Sheridan, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert F. Spindell Jr., Shawn Still, Ken Thompson, Pam Travis, James Troupis, Kent Vanderwood, Kelli Ward, Michael Ward, and C.B. Yadav.

The proclamation notes that the pardon applies only to those whose conduct was directly related to post-election challenges or alternate elector efforts, as well as activities tied to investigating or exposing alleged voting irregularities.

In a statement posted to X, Bowyer expressed gratitude toward President Trump and others who supported those charged in connection with the post-election cases.

“I am very grateful for the support of the President and his pardon attorney Ed Martin, and the many who have looked out for us since this expensive injustice has taken place in the swing states,” he wrote.

“We were targeted to sideline many of us politically. It has nearly bankrupted and caused severe trauma to many good people on this list—this is why it is important to get to the bottom of what was carried out against good faith and active citizens who took to the courts to ask questions about the 2020 election.”

MORE NEWS: Schumer Loses Grip as Eight Democrats Join GOP to Reopen Government [WATCH]

While the proclamation offers comprehensive relief for those prosecuted or investigated, it explicitly excludes President Trump himself.

00:22 / 00:46

“This pardon does not apply to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” the document states.

That clarification ensures that any ongoing or future legal proceedings involving the president personally are not affected by the order.

MORE NEWS: Billy Bob Thornton Tells Hollywood Elites to ‘Accept Your Little Award and Fk Off’ [WATCH]

The move, however, effectively brings to a close years of prosecutions, investigations, and civil actions targeting individuals tied to Trump’s post-election legal and political efforts.

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Monday declined to take up Attorney General Kris Mayes’ appeal of a lower court’s decision to send the Arizona fake electors case back to a grand jury.

In the order, signed by Chief Judge Kent Cattani, the court said the decision was made based on the judges’ discretion.

In April 2024, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people for their involvement in efforts to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election after Democrat Joe Biden won the state by around 10,000 votes.

But in May, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers agreed with arguments from attorneys representing the fake electors that prosecutors had failed to disclose the full text of the Electoral Count Act to the members of the grand jury prior to the indictment. Myers ruled that Mayes would have to convene a new grand jury and share the text of the act in its entirety if she wanted to move forward with the case.

IFrame Content

Instead, Mayes appealed the decision to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Now that the appellate court has declined the case, Mayes’ next steps are either to petition the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse the trial court’s decision or to take the case back to a grand jury.

In response to the Appeals Court’s decision, the Arizona Republican Party issued a statement reiterating a claim from many of the indicted that the case was politically motivated.

“Arizona families deserve an Attorney General who prosecutes criminals, not political opponents,” AZGOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda said in the statement. “Five years later, Kris Mayes is still fixated on 2020 while violent crime, fentanyl trafficking, and border chaos threaten our communities every single day. This obsession is not justice — it’s politics.”

Also among the indicted were Kelli Ward, who led the AZGOP at the time, Gregory Safsten, who was the AZGOP’s executive director, and former Trump staffers and campaign members including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Christina Bobb.

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Right-wing media defend those in indicted in Arizona fake-electors scheme through false comparisons and debunked election-fraud claims | Media Matters for America (https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/right-wing-media-defend-those-indicted-arizona-fake-electors-scheme-through-false)

We're gonna force it to go away”: Steve Bannon and Christina Bobb complain about her indictment for fake elector scheme in Arizona (https://www.mediamatters.org/christina-bobb/were-gonna-force-it-go-away-steve-bannon-and-christina-bobb-complain-about-her)

04/29/24

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Newsmax's Greg Kelly claims the Trump fake elector scheme that led to indictments in Arizona "happens every election cycle" | Media Matters for America

After Arizona indictment of Trump fake electors, Fox News host Mark Levin claims "there's nothing illegal" about the scheme | Media Matters for America

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indictment03

see bowyer tpusa

all ind on 9 counts, but redactions

All 11 Arizona Republican electors, KELLI WARD (001), TYLER BOWYER (002), NANCY COTTLE (003), JACOB HOFFMAN (004), ANTHONY KERN (005), JAMES LAMON (006), ROBERT MONTGOMERY (007), SAMUEL MOORHEAD (008), LORRAINE PELLEGRINO (009), GREGORY SAFSTEN (010), and MICHAEL WARD (011), joined then-Texas Congressional Representative Louie Gohmert in suing Pence on December 27, 2020. Their complaint alleged that "Gohmert will object to the counting of Arizona electors voting for Biden, as well as to the Biden electors from the remaining Contested States." The plaintiffs attempted to have the court declare that Pence could "exercise the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State." KELLI WARD (001) explained the purpose of the suit on twitter: ...

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Arizona grand jury indicts Trump allies including Giuliani over 2020 fake elector scheme | Republicans | The Guardian

an Arizona grand jury has charged 18 people involved in the scheme to create a slate of false electors for Donald Trump, including 11 people who served as those fake electors and seven Trump allies who aided the scheme.

Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday, and said the 11 fake electors had been charged with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy.

[link to docs?]

Beyond the fake electors themselves, high-profile Trump affiliates have been charged with aiding in the scheme: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Mike Roman.

Those charged over their roles as false electors include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged in the fake electors scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten.

The indictment says: “In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as president on November 3 2020. Unwilling to accept this fact, defendants and unindicted co-conspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep unindicted co-conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.”

IFrame Content Download original document

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, a close margin in the typically red state that immediately prompted allegations of voter fraud that persist to this day. The state has remained a hotbed of election denialism, despite losses for Republicans who embraced election-fraud lies at the state level.

Trump has not been charged in the Arizona case.

The indictment refers to Trump himself as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” throughout, noting how the former president schemed to keep himself in office, and how those around him, even those who believed he lost, aided this effort.

Some involved have claimed they signed on as an alternate slate of electors in case court decisions came down in Trump’s favor, so they would have a backup group that could be certified by Congress should Trump prevail.

But, the indictment says, the defendants intended for these false votes to pressure former vice-president Mike Pence into rejecting the slate of accurate electors for Joe Biden during the electoral college vote-counting on 6 January 2021. Pence did not declare Trump the winner, use these fake electoral votes, or otherwise delay the official count.

Arizona’s charges are the latest turn in the fake electors saga. Seven states saw similar schemes, but two states – New Mexico and Pennsylvania – hedged their language in their documents enough to prevent prosecution.

Democratic attorneys general in Michigan and Nevadahave indicted Republican fake electors in their respective states. In Georgia, three of 16 fake electors were indicted as part of a wide-ranging racketeering indictment against Trump and allies. The remaining were given immunity for helping in the district attorney’s investigation.

In Wisconsin, the fake electors acknowledged Biden’s win as a way to settle a civil lawsuit over the issue.

Mayes’s investigation fell behind other states because she narrowly won office in 2022, and her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, had not pursued the line of inquiry. She had confirmed the investigation in early 2023.

The investigation – along with a host of other disagreements – have put Mayes at odds with Arizona’s Republican-led legislature, which started a committee to investigate Mayes and her office over concerns she was working beyond her authority as attorney general.

[pix]

(https://youtu.be/8V3cv2tdq-c), Mayes said the investigation was “thorough and professional” and would provide justice for the plot to overturn the state’s electoral votes.

“I understand for some of you today didn’t come fast enough, and I know I’ll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all,” she said. “I will not allow American democracy to be undermined – it’s too important.”

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Arizona Charges Giuliani and Other Trump Allies in Election Interference Case

Those charged included Boris Epshteyn, a top legal strategist for Donald Trump, and fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf in Arizona after the 2020 election.

By Danny Hakim and Maggie Haberman

Published April 24, 2024

Updated April 25, 2024,

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and a number of others who advised Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election were indicted in Arizona on Wednesday, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.

Boris Epshteyn, one of Mr. Trump’s top legal strategists, was also among those indicted, a complication for Mr. Trump’s defense in the criminal trial that began this week in Manhattan over hush money payments made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.

The indictment includes conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges, related to alleged attempts by the defendants to change the 2020 election results. Arizona is the fourth swing state to bring an elections case involving the activities of the Trump campaign in 2020, but only the second after Georgia to go beyond the fake electors whom the campaign deployed in swing states lost by Mr. Trump.

The former president, who is seeking another term, was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona case.

“I understand for some of you today didn’t come fast enough, and I know I’ll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all,” Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, said in a recorded statement. “But as I have stated before and will say here again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. It’s too important.”

Thumbnail of page 1

Read the Arizona Election Indictment

Arizona on Wednesday indicted Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows and a number of others who advised Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election, as well as the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state. Here is the indictment.

READ DOCUMENT 58 PAGES

Mr. Giuliani is Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer; Mr. Meadows was the White House chief of staff at the time of the 2020 election. They were among a number of defendants whose names were redacted from the indictment, though it was clear from the context and the descriptions who they were. For example, the passage referencing Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said among other things that he was known as “the mayor.”

A Guide to the Various Trump Investigations

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Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

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Some parts of the indictment did not refer to Mr. Trump by name, instead referring to the “defendants’ attempts to declare Unindicted Coconspirator 1 and Pence the winners of the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Also indicted were Mike Roman, a Trump campaign operative in 2020, John Eastman, an architect of the fake electors plan, and two other lawyers who advised Mr. Trump and his 2020 campaign: Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb.

The indictment lays out a series of alleged efforts by the defendants to overturn Arizona’s election results. They are accused of pressuring “officials responsible for certifying election results to encourage them to change the election results,” including the governor, the legislature and the Maricopa Board of Supervisors.

In all, 35 people who acted as fake electors in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and now Arizona face criminal charges for signing certificates in 2020 falsely stating that Mr. Trump had won their state’s electoral votes.

Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Meadows, Mr. Roman and Mr. Eastman now face charges in two states, Georgia and Arizona. Ms. Ellis has already pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia.

Among those charged in Arizona are some who served as top Republican Party officials there during the 2020 election, including Kelli Ward, a former state party chairwoman, and Greg Safsten, who at the time was executive director of the state party. Two state senators, Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman, now also face charges.

Some of the people who held themselves out to be Trump electors in states that he lost in 2020 have adamantly insisted that they were acting legally. After Dr. Ward and other fake electors gathered in Phoenix that December, she wrote in a social media post that “we are the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona!” As recently as late last year, Mr. Kern said that “there’s no such thing as fake electors.”

Late Wednesday, Charles Burnham, a lawyer for Mr. Eastman, said: “The phenomenon of partisan lawfare grows more troubling by the day. Professor Eastman is innocent of criminal conduct in Arizona or any other place and will fight these charges as he has all the other unjust accusations leveled against him.”

Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, said: “The continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”

Mr. Hoffman said in a social media post that he was “innocent of any crime,” adding that “I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this disgusting political persecution.”

Mr. Epshteyn was a constant presence during Mr. Trump’s civil trial in January on charges that he had defamed the New York writer E. Jean Carroll. He joined Mr. Trump at the defense table when Mr. Trump’s lawyer in the case went to the bench for sidebars.

But Mr. Epshteyn has not been in New York for the current criminal case. He has described himself as an “in-house counsel” to Mr. Trump and has been something of a quarterback for the various legal teams working on the former president’s defenses in four criminal cases. He usually speaks with Mr. Trump several times a day.

Mr. Epshteyn has been arrested twice in Arizona over the last 10 years, once in 2014 for assault after a bar fight, in which he pleaded guilty and the conviction was set aside, and again in 2021, after he was accused of inappropriately touching two women. In that case, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, received probation and a fine, and the conviction again was set aside.

Mr. Epshteyn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Election deniers have not fared well at the polls in Arizona, but they maintain a grip on the state’s Republican Party. In January, the party installed a hard-right Trump supporter, Gina Swoboda, as its new leader; Ms. Swoboda runs a nonprofit group that has falsely claimed to have found huge discrepancies in voting records in a number of states. Kari Lake, a fervent backer of Mr. Trump and his false election claims, was the party’s candidate for governor in 2022 (she lost) and is the leading Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat this year.

The Arizona Republican Party, in a statement, called the indictment “a blatant and unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power, aimed solely at distracting the public” ahead of the 2024 election.

The United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Monday that challenged the state’s electronic voting machines. The case was brought by Ms. Lake and Mark Finchem, who lost a 2022 race for Arizona secretary of state.

Having slates of people claiming to be electors for Mr. Trump was an integral part of the effort to keep him in office after his loss at the polls in 2020. Mr. Trump and his allies sought to block or delay congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, hoping that Mr. Trump’s allies in the House and Senate might then consider a challenge to the validity of the results in a number of battleground states like Arizona and Michigan — and then accept the pro-Trump electors from those states as valid.

In addition to the state cases, Mr. Trump is facing election interference charges himself in the Georgia case and in a federal case brought by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice.

Mr. Trump has long made a strategy of falsely claiming election fraud. After he was defeated in the 2016 Iowa caucus, he said that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the winner of that contest, “illegally stole it.” And after Mr. Trump received fewer votes nationwide in 2016 than Hillary Clinton did, he said that he had actually won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Faced with criminal charges in the state elections inquiries, some of Mr. Trump’s allies and advisers have backtracked from his 2020 claims.

“Biden was elected, the process was followed,” Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake elector plan, told investigators in Michigan last year. Mr. Chesebro has emerged as a key witness in the state prosecutions.

James Renner, a former Michigan state trooper who was a last-minute substitution as a fake elector in that state, expressed regret last year to investigators, saying that he “had been walked into a situation that I shouldn’t have ever been involved in.” Charges against him were dropped as part of a cooperation agreement with the office of Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, a Democrat.

Richard Fausset, Alan Feuer, Jonathan Swan and Benjamin Protess contributed reporting.

Danny Hakim is a reporter on the Investigations team at The Times, focused primarily on politics. More about Danny Hakim

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman

A version of this article appears in print on April 25, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Arizona Indicts Allies of Trump Over 2020 Vote. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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an 4 24

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) have been subpoenaed by Arizona investigators to testify for a grand jury in connection to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Politico exclusively reports.

Politico notes as far-right Freedom Caucus chair at the time, Biggs, along "with Gosar were among the most vocal congressional supporters of Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Arizona," and both GOP lawmakers sought "to challenge the state’s presidential electors on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to certify the results of the Electoral College."

The news outlet adds, "Gosar was mounting that challenge at the same moment a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol and halted proceedings."

READ MORE:['We have to worry about physical violence': AZ elections chief preps for threats from MAGA

Although there's no proof Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes will bring criminal charges against the pair, "the subpoenas themselves — in conjunction with a series of other aggressive recent moves — show that Mayes, a Democrat, has cast a far wider net in her probe than previously understood," Politico notes.

"Getting a subpoena to testify in front of a grand jury is kind of rare," American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona Legal Director Jared Keenan said. "And that’s why I think no one has challenged the secrecy law."

Some of the Arizona lawmakers' attempt to overturn the election according to investigators, includes Gosar's ongoing "relationships with activists organizing 'Stop the Steal' protests targeting Congress’ Jan. 6 session."

Regarding Biggs' actions, Politico reports, "text messages obtained by the Jan. 6 committee" show that "Biggs quickly contacted Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, after Election Day 2020 to push for state legislatures to overrule the results in multiple states Biden won."

READ MORE:['Resigning as Lake requested': AZ GOP chair quits amid threat of more leaks from Kari Lake

Additionally, "Biggs also told Meadows that Trump should not concede the election and reportedly worked with other Arizona Republicans to advance the fake elector effort."

*Politico's full report is available here.

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an 4 24

although Democrats have been struggling in Florida, they have gained a lot of ground in Arizona, Georgia and Virginia — all of which were once deep red but have evolved into full-fledged swing states. Arizona was once synonymous with the conservatism of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, Sen. John McCain; now, it has a Democratic governor (Katie Hobbs), two non-GOP U.S. senators (Democrat Mark Kelly and ex-Democrat turned independent Kyrsten Sinema), and a Democratic state attorney general — who has been leading a thorough criminal investigation of MAGA efforts to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results.

One of 2020's political bombshells came when now-President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Arizona. Although Trump falsely claimed that he won the state, meticulous recounts thoroughly debunked that claim.

According to Politico, Democratic Arizona AG Kris Mayes has subpoenaed two far-right MAGA congressmen who were major promoters of the Big Lie: Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

READ MORE:[CNN sues for recordings of President Biden’s interview in classified docs probe: report

Politico reporters Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney note that although "there is no indication that" Mayes "is considering bringing criminal charges against either lawmaker," the subpoenas "show that Mayes…. has cast a far wider net in her probe than previously understood."

"Mayes appears to be nearing a decision on whether to ask the grand jury to issue indictments in the case," Swan and Cheney report in an article published on April 4. "If she does, she will become the fourth state or local prosecutor to bring criminal charges over the efforts by Trump and his allies to submit fake electors in states that Joe Biden won."

The Politico journalists add, "In recent weeks, Mayes' office has sent out a wave of grand jury subpoenas. She also has required Arizona Republicans who falsely claimed to be the state's presidential electors to assert their Fifth Amendment rights in front of the grand jury — an unusual step that has generated criticism from some former prosecutors."

Swan and Cheney note that Arizona "was one of seven states won by Biden where Trump's allies organized slates of so-called alternate electors."

READ MORE:['Wrong!' AOC schools Ted Cruz on RICO laws

"Prosecutors in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada have brought criminal charges against false electors in those states, and special counsel Jack Smith has called the scheme a central element of Trump's bid to subvert the election," according to the Politico reporters. "Subpoenas to members of Congress in criminal investigations are rare, in part because lawmakers enjoy robust constitutional protections from criminal proceedings connected to their official business."

Swan and Cheney add, "But Biggs and Gosar are not the first lawmakers to face scrutiny from criminal investigators probing Trump's efforts to fight the 2020 election results. In 2022, the FBI seized the phone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) as part of the Justice Department's election-subversion probe."

Legal journalist Luke Johnson, in response to the subpoenas, notes the connection between them and far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander Akbar.

On X, formerly Twitter, Johnson posted, "More to the Story: Ali Alexander Akbar BRAGGED that Paul Gosar & Andy Biggs were his partners on the #StopTheSteal rallies that led to the #Jan6 violent riots. They all must be held accountable, they've laughed it off for years."

The Daily Beast notes that in 2022, the January 6 Select Committee "found that both Biggs and Gosar attended a White House meeting with Trump on December 21, 2020, to strategize on ways that then-Vice President Mike Pence could block the certification of the election results."

READ MORE:[Fani Willis fights back against House GOP efforts to derail Trump RICO case

*Read Politico's full report at this link

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arizona lawmakers may be on the brink of slapping multiple people linked to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign with criminal charges, according to a new report.

Grand jury subpoenas sent out in recent weeks suggest Attorney General Kris Mayes could soon decide whether to pursue a criminal case against Trump's fake electors in Arizona, Politico reported Wednesday.

The subpoenas constitute "a sharp acceleration of their criminal investigation into efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state," according to the report, based on six anonymous sources.

IFrame Content

The Attorney General's office declined to comment.

"It was not clear whether Mayes is considering charges against people close to Trump’s national campaign," wrote reporters Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney, "or whether her investigation remains focused on the Arizona GOP officials and activists who aided Trump’s bid to overturn the state’s presidential results."

Prominent Arizona Republicans tied to Trump’s post-election efforts include former state GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward as well as state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, both of whom served as fake electors, Politico notes.

News broke in August that Mayes' office would investigate the Trump campaign's post-election actions in Arizona, one of seven lost states Trump tried to reclaim with slates of electors told to submit his name.

Similar efforts in Georgia spurred Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to charge Trump and more than a dozen others with election racketeering.

Trump pleaded not guilty.

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Arizona Republican Party elected Gina Swoboda its new chair on Saturday. Swoboda, the director of election day operations for former President Donald Trump in 2020, replaces Jeff DeWit, who resigned last week after being targeted by MAGA Senate candidate Kari Lake.

Swoboda’s bid for state party chair was promoted by Lake and endorsed by Trump, Nick Fuentes ally state Sen. Wendy Rogers, and Arizona-based far-right activist Charlie Kirk, head of Turning Point USA. Lake, who has never accepted her loss in the 2022 governor’s race, called Swoboda’s selection a “massive victory” for her campaign and for Trump’s, the Associated Press reported.

Swoboda runs VoteRef.com, which is part of a network of MAGA movement projects to enable challenges to voters’ eligibility, which American Oversight reported in December “could be used not just to compromise individual privacy, but also to intimidate voters, cause mass cancellations of voting registrations, and inundate local elected officials with burdensome, time-consuming, and inaccurate challenges.” Swoboda’s efforts have been funded by far-right megadonor Richard Uihlein.

Swoboda has collaborated with Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump attorney who took part in the notorious call on which Trump tried to bully Georgia’s secretary of state into “finding” him enough votes to overturn the election; Mitchell now runs a coalition of right-wing groups that are working to enable voter suppression in the name of “election integrity.”

A Pro Publica investigation of Swoboda’s Voter Reference Foundation in 2022 reported:

ProPublica contacted election officials in a dozen of the states where VoteRef has examined voter rolls, and in every case the officials said that the methodology used to identify the discrepancies was flawed, the data incomplete or the math wrong. The officials, a mix of Democrats and Republicans, were in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin…Election experts say the type of work being done by VoteRef risks leading to further misinformation or being weaponized by people trying to undermine the legitimacy of the past election or give the sense that voter fraud is a more encompassing problem than it’s proven to be. Or it could be used to harass or intimidate valid voters under the guise of challenging their legitimacy.

---

OFFERED HER A JOB IF WD QUIT SENATE RACE?!

'Resigning as Lake requested': AZ GOP chair quits amid threat of more leaks from Kari Lake - Alternet.org

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kern is pal of finchem, ali alex

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how many state reps? all contacted by ginni emails?

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who was at rudy hotel mtg?

there was a smaller mtg the day after, see below

---

// Arizona Republicans convene a COVID hearing chock full of misinformation — again - Alternet.org

an 10 23 no lnx

Arizona Republicans convene a COVID hearing chock full of misinformation — again

Jerod Macdonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror

October 21, 2023

For the second time in five months, Republican state lawmakers listened intently and offered no pushback during a day-long special hearing at the Arizona Senate billed as examining the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that was instead rife with conspiracy theories, misinformation and fear-mongering around vaccines and public health.

In May, the Novel Coronavirus Southwestern Intergovernmental Committee featured testimony from a group of supposed health experts who spread myriad misinformation about vaccines and the pandemic during the committee’s time. On Friday, the committee convened again, bringing some of the same people to speak.

The committee had previously faced criticism for its awkward name, which has been promoted in abbreviated form by the QAnon-friendly political nonprofit The America Project. The abbreviated name, NCSWIC, is a commonly used abbreviation in the QAnon world, where it means “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming,” alluding to predictions of arrests and executions of members of the “deep state.”

Although the official name of the panel spells the word “southwestern” correctly, the committee was listed as “NCSWIC” on the Arizona Legislature’s website and the abbreviation was used by outside boosters.

The Republican elected officials on the panel were state Sens. T.J. Shope and Janae Shamp, the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee; state Rep. Steve Montenegro, who chairs the state House of Representatives’ Health and Human Services Committee; and U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Eli Crane and Paul Gosar.

While the state legislators were in attendance, Biggs, Crane and Gosar only appeared electronically and delivered pre-recorded video addresses. All three were in Washington, D.C., Friday as Republicans are locked in a fight over who should lead the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It’s disheartening to see Arizona’s elected officials once again provide a platform for spreading dangerous disinformation about vaccines for children,” Becky Christensen, founder and state campaigns director of SAFE Communities Coalition, the nation’s first pro-vaccine political advocacy organization, said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. “Public health should be guided by fact-based information, not misinformation. Their actions undermine efforts to safeguard our communities.”

Christensen added that lawmakers should seek “responsible and informed discourse” to help better guide public health decisions.

Misinformation returns

Dr. Peter McCoullough once again boldly proclaimed that the COVID-19 virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China. There is no consensus on the origin of the virus.

McCoullough is known for spreading unfounded claims, especially around the origins of the virus. He previously has stated that he believed the pandemic was “planned” and has promoted the QAnon conspiracy film “Plandemic.”

McCoullough has become a darling to those in both QAnon and the broader conspiracy world, appearing regularly on shows like the one hosted by conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, who said the COVID vaccine is a “bioweapon.” Peters also was behind multiple QAnon conspiracy documentaries that made dubious claims about the vaccine, including that it included snake venom.

McCoullough has also appeared on disgraced retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s “Reawaken America” tour, where he has denounced drag shows and gender identity issues.

During Friday’s hearing, McCoullough spread even more falsehoods around COVID-19 and vaccine efficacy.

“It is called ‘turbo cancer’ for a reason,” McCoullough said, adding that he believes it is “theoretically possible” that multiple vaccines “could be related to cancer.”

The term “turbo cancer” comes from people who have spread false information about the COVID vaccine, attempting to link it to an aggressive form of cancer. There is no established link between the vaccine and cancer, and studies have found either no association or found a decreased risk of lymphoma.

McCoullough also continued to spread a false claim that 17 million people have been killed by the vaccine. The notion comes from a highly flawed analysis of data claiming that mortality rates were spiking because of the vaccine. McCoullough also spread other similar claims, such as saying that more than 500,000 people in the United States were killed by the vaccine, an idea based on a misrepresentation of United Kingdom data.

And McCoullough appeared to make claims that alluded to a conspiracy theory widely adopted by QAnon adherents, which was featured in a discredited film, claiming that blood clots found in people’s bodies were caused by the COVID vaccine.

The film, “Died Suddenly,” suggests it is all part of a shadowy plot to depopulate the world. But experts who have examined the film’s claims have said that many of the clots appear to be post-mortem clots. Cases of clots caused by the vaccine are “very rare,” according to one study that found only approximately 1,000 cases out of 2 million. The movie also featured incidents that occurred before the pandemic in 2020, but presented them as consequences of vaccination.

A member of the panel also has a direct connection to the conspiracy film.

Dr. Peter Chambers, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, appears in the film speaking about the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database, or DMED, which he claimed showed a spike in medical conditions in the military which he attributed to COVID-19 vaccines.

Chambers’ claim has been debunked since 2021 by multiple fact-checkers.

The former military doctor is also a believer in the debunked conspiracy theory that 5G cellular technology is connected to the COVID-19 virus. Chambers also was part of a failed lawsuit seeking to prevent the military from implementing a COVID vaccine mandate.

Chambers’ presentation to the committee included a slide that referred to the “globalists.”

The globalist conspiracy theory is a far-right conspiracy theory with roots in antisemitism and is also often connected to the idea of a “New World Order” and a one-world government, most often with the Jewish people at the center of the conspiracy. Peters, the conspiracy theory talk show host and the man behind “Died Suddenly,” frequently works with antisemites and white supremacists. Chambers has also been supported by the America Project, which boosted the hearing and helped fund the Arizona Senate’s partisan “audit” of the 2020 election.

Also returning to the committee was Aaron Siri, an attorney who is most well known for his work with an organization called the Informed Consent Action Network, or ICAN.

ICAN has been on the frontlines of anti-vaccine misinformation and is led by Del Bigtree, a television and film producer who has become an anti-vaccine activist. ICAN was listed as one of the “key organizations” tied to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s “The Disinformation Dozen,” the anti-vaxxers who play leading roles in spreading digital misinformation about COVID vaccines. Chambers mentioned that he worked with Bigtree on anti-vaccine issues.

Siri claimed that “you can’t say vaccines have reduced chronic health issues” among children.

“I’m not saying vaccines cause those,” he said, sharing a misleading claim on chronic illness in children. “Something is definitely going on.”

The committee also heard from Arizona resident Calli Varner, who claimed that she had a stroke due to the COVID vaccine.

Varner had an ischemic stroke when a blood-clot made its way to her brain. Strokes have been on the rise in younger populations, with doctors theorizing that one cause could be patent foramen ovale, which is present in between 24 to 40% of the population and generally goes unnoticed.

Varner told the committee that she has had various health problems develop, including an autoimmune issue, since she got vaccinated. McCoullough said he had been consulting with the Scottsdale resident about her experience and used the opportunity to say that strokes, infertility and immune disorders are being caused by the vaccine.

Studies have shown that those who contracted COVID-19 have an increased risk of stroke, while those who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and did not contract COVID -19 have “no difference in stroke risk.” There is also no evidence that the vaccine causes infertility and no conclusive evidence to suggest a link between the vaccine and autoimmune disorders.

McCoullough also once again spoke about the scientifically unsound plan to help people remove spike proteins from people’s bodies.

Shamp, a former nurse who has claimed she was fired because she refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, came up with the idea for the hearing and those in attendance applauded her for putting it together.

Shamp, who was present during the events of Jan. 6, has spread a multitude of QAnon conspiracy theories online for years, including a post with “NCSWIC” in it. Shamp said at the end of the hearing Friday that another one will be happening “sometime in December.”

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

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An independent reporter, who briefly barged in on the meeting, was called to testify to a grand jury debating whether to charge Trump, his attorney Rudi Giuliani and others this month.

The investigation is effectively complete, Willis said, and a grand jury is expected to decide on whether to charge Trump and others by the end of August.

Uniquely, the probe has also investigated Trump and his allies’ actions in other states.

The Georgia probe is the most significant of any state’s investigation into 2020 election meddling and is the only known case where Trump himself is a target of an investigation.

Michigan

FILE – Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference in Detroit, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Published reports say Nessel’s office is asking that a special prosecutor investigate whether the Republican candidate for state attorney general, Matt DePerno, and others should be charged in connection with an effort to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election. DePerno has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP, File)

A group of 16 Michigan Republicans was charged with crimes related to a fake electors scheme last month, concluding an investigation by state Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) which began again in January.

Nessel initially referred the charges to federal prosecutors in early 2022 but pursued a state case again after federal officials failed to pursue charges after a year.

The group met in the basement of the state Republican Party headquarters and signed documents claiming to be electoral college voters, prosecutors allege. Some of them later showed up at the state capitol and attempted to cast electoral college ballots.

Three of the state’s rightful electors filed a civil suit against the group of 16 in January, requesting $25,000 in damages claiming they suffered humiliation and harassment due to the group’s fake elector scheme.

The scheme is separate from another investigation into attempts to break into voting machines in Michigan. A former GOP attorney general candidate, a state legislator and a prominent Trump campaign lawyer were charged this week in that case.

Nevada

FILE – Nevada State GOP Chairman Michael McDonald announces President Donald Trump before he speaks the Nevada Republican Party Convention at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino Saturday, June 23, 2018, in Las Vegas. New transcripts released on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, by the House Jan. 6 committee reveals Donald Trump and his allies played a direct role in the Nevada Republican Party’s phony elector scheme in 2020. The transcripts show McDonald invoked his Fifth Amendment protection 275 times when he was interviewed in February. (AP Photo/L.E. Baskow, File)

In the Silver State, a half dozen Republicans met in Carson City, Nevada, to organize their own fake elector scheme after the 2020 election.Among them was state GOP chair Michael McDonald, the focus of federal investigators in Nevada.

McDonald’s phone was seized and searched by the FBI in 2022 and he and another elector testified to both the House Jan. 6 committee and for special counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation.

Both McDonald and the second fake elector, Nevada Republican Party official Jim DeGraffenreid, were given “limited immunity” due to their testimony.

The Nevada scheme was allegedly headed by former state attorney general and GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D)declined to pursue a criminal investigation of McDonald, Laxalt and others.

New Mexico

FILE – New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas talks during a news conference on Feb. 26, 2019, in Albuquerque, N.M. Balderas is asking that changes be made to rules proposed by the U.S. government as it processes damage claims from a historic wildfire sparked by forest managers. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

New Mexico was a last-minute addition to fake elector plans, Smith’s 45-page indictment alleges.Despite being a state that Biden won comfortably — by about 100,000 votes or nearly 10 percent — the state GOP sent its own electors to vote for Trump, citing pending litigation in other states.

The Republican’s five electors were turned away when they attempted to vote in the state capitol of Santa Fe, but they also signed paperwork asserting a false right to make electoral college votes.

Two of those five voters testified for the House Jan. 6 committee last year, and the New Mexico Secretary of State met with Smith’s investigation team last month.

An eventual suit from the Trump campaign contesting New Mexico’s results was purely a pretext for the elector’s scheme, Smith’s indictment alleges.

State Attorney General Hector Balderas (D) started an investigation into the group in January 2022, but like in Michigan, referred the case to federal prosecutors. There has been no public action in either a state or federal investigation since.

Pennsylvania

MANHEIM, PA – OCTOBER 29: Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Governor Doug Mastriano, (L) his wife Rebecca, and (R) Republican candidate for Lt. Governor Carrie DelRosso addresses the media after a rally at Spooky Nook Sports Complex on October 29, 2022 in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Mastriano faces Democratic challenger Josh Shapiro in the November election. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Fake electors in Pennsylvania include 20 Republicans who planned to contest the state’s results in the 2020 election. Among them were former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Penn.) and the vice chair of the state GOP.

The point person for the group was state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), who went on to be the Republican nominee for Governor in 2022, losing to Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).

But the Pennsylvania electors inserted a line into their signed vote document that makes them unique from other states. Their document reads that the votes would only be valid if they are recognized as “duly elected and qualified electors,” which they were not.

In 2022, Shapiro — then the state attorney general — citing that language, said the group’s actions were likely not criminal and that the state would not investigate them.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks during the annual State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

Attempts to overturn election results in Wisconsin embroiled Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), whose staff allegedly assisted his state’s slate of fake electors. Johnson has declined any knowledge of the incident.

Ten Wisconsin Republicans signed documents claiming to be electors casting votes for Trump after the 2020 election.

The group drew the ire of Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Friday, who said he wants them prosecuted.

At a press conference Thursday, Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) said his office is tracking the federal investigation into Trump but has not said if the state is investigating the fake elector scheme itself.

Kaul said that the group should be held accountable for their actions and that “further developments” will come.

The fake electors also face a $2.4 million civil lawsuit set to go to trial in September 2024 over their actions.

TAGS 2020 ELECTION FRAUD ARIZONA DANA NESSEL DONALD TRUMP FAKE ELECTORS FAKE ELECTORS FANI WILLIS GEORGIA GEORGIA PROBE HECTOR BALDERAS JACK SMITH JOE BIDEN JOSH KAUL JOSH SHAPIRO LOU BARLETTA MICHAEL MCDONALD MICHIGAN MIKE PENCE NEVADA NEW MEXICO PENNSYLVANIA RON JOHNSON TONY EVERS TRUMP INDICTMENT WISCONSIN

an 7 23

as former President Donald Trump continues to face multiple investigations, U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed Arizona's secretary of state's office, Axios reports.

This comes afterThe Washington Post exclusively reported Saturday, July 1, that Trump tried "to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state's presidential election results" over a phone call in 2020.

Furthermore, the Post noted Ducey's spokesperson, Daniel Scarpinato, "confirmed the fact Ducey actively resisted Trump's attempt, saying, 'This is neither new nor is it news to anyone following this issue the last two years. Governor Ducey defended the results of Arizona's 2020 election, he certified the election, and he made it clear that the certification provided a trigger for credible complaints backed by evidence to be brought forward. None were ever brought forward. The Governor stands by his action to certify the election [hail to chief ringtone] and considers the issue to be in the rear view mirror.'"

Per Axios' report, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes' spokesperson, Paul Smith-Leonard, "said the office had received two subpoenas from Smith in recent months — one during the current administration and one in the previous, when Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) held the office.

According to Smith-Leonard, the office has complied with the special counsel.

===

an 2 23 maya

Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, left office earlier this year without sharing findings from an investigation into Maricopa County's 2020 election seeking evidence of fraud, which he spearheaded, The Washington Post reports.

Now, per Arizona's KPNX News, the state's newly-elected Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has released the findings from last year Brnovich failed to provide, provinghis allegations of fraud to be untrue.

A memo from September 2022 states, "These allegations were not supported by any factual evidence when researched by our office. Some of the information was mischaracterized... while some were wholly false."

According to The Post, the former attorney general refused to "respond to questions about his conduct of the probe, his decision not to release additional documents or differences between his public statements and his office's private findings."

"The people of Arizona had a right to know this information before the 2022 election," said Mayes. “Maricopa County election officials had a right to know that they were cleared of wrongdoing. And every American had a right to know that the 2020 election in Arizona, which in part decided the presidency, was conducted accurately and fairly."

Two years prior, The Post reports:

Brnovich quickly affirmed then-President Trump’s loss in Arizona in November 2020, angering fellow Republicans. And he went on to resist Trump’s efforts to overturn the vote. Yet he flirted with claims of fraud as he courted GOP support over the subsequent two years, trumpeting his interim report on a far-right radio show and saying, 'It’s frustrating for all of us, because I think we all know what happened in 2020.'

:{Days leading up to the 2022 midterm election, according to The Post, Brnovich suffered defeat in the Senate primary a few months before, and suddenly started to criticize officials "who denied Trump's defeat, calling them 'clowns' engaged in a 'giant grift.'":(style="background-color:#ff9900;"):}:

:{Mayes said her predecessor's investigation was carried out by nearly 60 investigators, who "spent more than 10,000 hours examining claims of irregularities, malfeasance and fraud," according to the findings.:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

:{Although the staff members received criticism regarding their "handling and verification of ballots," they collectively sent a letter to the former president of the**Senate Karen Fann,** writing "We can report that there are problematic systemwide issues that relate to early ballot handling and verification." However, they also noted, "we did not uncover any criminality or fraud having been committed in this area during the 2020 general election.":(style="background-color:#ff6600;"):}:

:{According to The Post, Brnovich :(style="background-color:#ff9900;"):}:never disclosed the full findings, leaving those suspicious of his accusations with questions and concerns.

A spokesperson for the attorney's general office, Richie Taylor, told The Post "records released this week represent a fraction of the thousands of pages produced by investigators and attorneys during the investigation, including additional material from drafts of reports and interviews and correspondence with witnesses and election officials."

Taylor says "Mayes's staff is reviewing those documents and is redacting sensitive information before making them public in the coming months."

The Washington Post's full report is available at this link (subscription required). KPNX News' report is here.

===

j depo mike roman

... ...5th ...A Q It's been reported publicly that Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastrianowanted assurances about the plan for the alternate electors to meet and cast votes and wanted to speak directly with Mr. Giuliani to ensure that the plan was legal. 6 Are you aware of any of Senator Mastriano's concerns about the 7 alternate electors? 8 9 A Q The Fifth.

It's also been reported that Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward and Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend also had concerns about the alternate electors plan and that, according to an email written by Mr. Chesebro, quote, Ward and Townsend are concerned 13 it could appear treasonous, end quote. 14

Did you ever learn about any concerns that Ms. Ward or Senator Townsend had about the convening of alternate electors 16 in Arizona? 17 18 A The Fifth. Q We go to exhibit No. 18. This is a one-page email -- or 19 one-page exhibit rather, excuse me -- with an email from 20 Mr. Chesebro to you, Mike Roman, as well as Josh Findlay on 21 Saturday, December 12th, at 7:12 p.m. Can you see the exhibit 22 we've put up as exhibit 18?

...

j6reptfake ch 3

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

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.]

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

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

...

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

j6reptfake ch 3

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

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

3.2 President Trump and the Campaign Adopt the Fake Elector Scheme

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.]

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:

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

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

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

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

3.6 The Fallout from the Fake Elector Plan

...

ENDNOTES

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CAP open ltr ~ kevin

...

he Honorable Steve King Member, U.S. Congress (Ret.)	The Honorable Jake Hoffman President & CEO 1TEN	A Creative Agency
The Honorable Laurin Hendrix Representative Elect AZ Legislature	The Honorable Anthony Kern Member Arizona State Senate	The Honorable Anthony Kern Member Arizona State Senate
Brigitte Gabriel CEO, ACT For America ACT For America	The Honorable Jacqueline Parker Member AZ State House of Representatives	The Honorable Jacqueline Parker Member AZ State House of Representatives
Jessie Jane Duff Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (ret) 2020 Campaign Co-Chair Veterans for Trump	Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. Founders and CEO Corstet LLC	Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. Founders and CEO Corstet LLC

he Honorable Steve King

Member, U.S. Congress (Ret.)

The Honorable Jake Hoffman

President & CEO

1TEN

A Creative Agency

The Honorable Laurin Hendrix

Representative Elect

AZ Legislature

The Honorable Anthony Kern

Member

Arizona State Senate

The Honorable Anthony Kern

Member

Arizona State Senate

Brigitte Gabriel

CEO, ACT For America

ACT For America

The Honorable Jacqueline Parker

Member

AZ State House of Representatives

The Honorable Jacqueline Parker

Member

AZ State House of Representatives

Jessie Jane Duff

Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (ret)

2020 Campaign Co-Chair Veterans for Trump

Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.

Founders and CEO

Corstet LLC

Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.

Founders and CEO

Corstet LLC

All organizations listed for IDENTIFICATION purposes only.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/clarence-thomas/

an comm dr 11 22

no lnx twt

A long-standing call for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to face impeachment proceedings was renewed Monday after the right-wing judge indicated in an unsigned dissent that he would have blocked enforcement of the House January 6 panel's subpoena for the communications records of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.

The House committee investigating the deadly January 6 insurrection "is seeking Ward's records related to her role in former President Donald Trump's effort to steal the 2020 election as a fake elector casting ballots in the Electoral College for Trump," HuffPost reported.

In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the panel to obtain Ward's phone records, rejecting the Arizona GOP chair's appeal. Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito joined Thomas in dissenting.

This marked the second time Thomas has tried to hinder the committee's probe of the Trump-led effort to remain in office despite his 2020 election loss—a plot in which Thomas' wife, right-wing activist Ginni Thomas, played a major role.

Thomas in January was the only justice to vote against the release of White House records to the panel.Two months later, text messages between former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ginni Thomas showed that she had been in communication with Trump's team about efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's electoral victory.

Weeks later, it was revealed that Ginni Thomas had lobbied Republican lawmakers in Arizona and other states to reject Biden's electors and appoint fake ones who would support Trump. Since late March, congressional Democrats have called on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself, resign, or be impeached for apparently trying to shield his wife's anti-democratic political activities from scrutiny.

"His wife, Ginni Thomas, pressured Arizona officials to illegally overturn Trump's loss," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a D.C.-based watchdog, noted Monday. "It's absurd that Thomas did not recuse."

"Justice Thomas must face an impeachment inquiry," the pro-democracy advocacy group Free Speech for People tweeted.

A petition calling for the impeachment of Clarence Thomas has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures since details about Ginni Thomas' direct participation in Trump's failed coup were first made publi

an 10 22

Among political journalists, Arizona has been one of the most closely watched swing states in the 2022 midterms — and it is also a place where some disturbing events have occurred in late October. The Phoenix campaign office of Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor against far-right MAGA Republican and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake, was the target of a break-in, and armed men in tactical gear have been hanging around ballot drop box locations in Maricopa County.

Laura Thornton, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, has been observing authoritarian trends and movements all over the world. Thornton is worried about anti-democracy trends in the United States in general, but in an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on October 28, she lays out a list of reasons why she is especially worried about Arizona.

“For more than two decades,” Thornton explains, “I lived overseas working to advance democracy and credible elections, including leading multiple election observation teams, conducting election audits and reform efforts, and training election management bodies. In my new role at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund, I work both abroad and at home and can view U.S. democracy through the lens of my experience and global best practice.”

Thornton now considers Arizona “Ground Zero” in the far-right movement to undermine democracy in the U.S.

“According to the Arizonans I met,” Thornton writes, “the state is in a dangerous place, and Maricopa is in the eye of the storm — representing one of the largest voting districts in the country…. Arizona election officials are still battling false claims over the 2020 results, while under intense scrutiny for the upcoming midterms. Rogue ‘poll watchers’ stake out drop boxes, photographing citizens, taking down license plate numbers, and harassing voters as they deliver their ballots. Vile, descriptive death threats inundate the inboxes of hard-working election officials. Enormous resources, machinery, and staff have been poured into the county to keep up with constantly evolving election regulations, such as a recent decision to mandate a recount for any election with a 1 percentage point or lower difference in results, to mitigate against problems that do not exist.”

Thornton cites Lake and Mark Finchem, the far-right GOP nominee for Arizona secretary of state, as “instigators” of Arizona’s “volatile state” who have been “propagating false allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections.”

“Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has called for a 2020 ‘redo’ and has not committed to accepting the results of an election she does not win,” Thornton observes. “This has caused, according to Maricopa officials, a fresh onslaught of violent threats against their offices. Mark Finchem, secretary of state candidate, is one of the most prolific spreaders of Big Lie conspiracy theories, was part of the riots outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and has a laundry list of election ‘reforms’ he pledges to enact…. Election administrators told me they’ve seen an exodus of staff due to the threats and harassment, just when they need more personnel than ever to accommodate demands from policymakers to ‘enhance integrity.’”

Arizona is among the swing states that journalist Alex Shephard discusses in a report for The New Republic published on October 25. Shepard views Arizona and Pennsylvania as two of the swing states where Trump is using the 2022 midterm as a “test run” for a coup attempt in 2024. If Democrat John Fetterman defeats his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, Shephard warns, Trump will claim that Fetterman’s victory was due to voter fraud.

According to Shephard, “Trump is using Pennsylvania’s election as a kind of test case for 2024, to see whether he and his allies can successfully challenge a legitimate result. Fetterman has consistently polled ahead of Oz since the general election campaign, but the election is expected to be close: Republicans have regained momentum in recent weeks, and many suspect that the polls are once again overstating a Democratic advantage. If Fetterman wins outright or the election is close enough to prompt a recount, Trump will swoop in and declare it illegitimate, claiming widespread corruption in Philadelphia involving voting machines and mail-in ballots.”

Trump, Shephard writes, is using the 2022 midterms to “lay the groundwork for challenging his own potential loss in 2024.”

According to Thornton, the election officials she has spoken to in Maricopa County, Arizona “are indeed worried about violence.”

“It might simply be too late to put this deranged genie back in the bottle,” Thornton laments, “but the leaders who created that genie must be held to account. Voters have the power to do so by refusing to elect them to office. Rewarding them for their lies will send Arizona down a dark, undemocratic path, and the few brave leaders whom I met will not be able to stop this trajectory.”

an 9 22

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was among the many MAGA Republicans who aggressively promoted the Big Lie — claiming that the election had been stolen from Trump and aggressively looking for possible ways to keep Trump in the White House. One of the fellow Trump supporters Meadows worked with during that period, according to CNN reporter Zachary Cohen, was Republican operative Phil Waldron.

“As allies of then-President Donald Trump made a final push to overturn the election in late-December 2020, one of the key operatives behind the effort briefed then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about his attempts to gain access to voting systems in key battleground states, starting with Arizona and Georgia, according to text messages obtained by CNN,” Cohen reports in an article published by CNN’s website on September 26. “Phil Waldron, an early proponent of various election-related conspiracy theories, texted Meadows on December 23 that an Arizona judge had dismissed a lawsuit filed by friendly GOP lawmakers there. The suit demanded state election officials hand over voting machines and other election equipment, as part of the hunt for evidence to support Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud.”

Cohen continues, “In relaying the news to Meadows, Waldron said the decision would allow opponents to engage in ‘delay tactics’ preventing Waldron and his associates from immediately accessing machines. Waldron also characterized Arizona as ‘our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade,’ referring to similar efforts in other states like Georgia. ‘Pathetic,’ Meadows responded.”

According to Cohen, those previously unreported text messages “shed new light on how Waldron’s reach extended into the highest levels of the White House and the extent to which Meadows was kept abreast of plans for accessing voting machines — a topic sources tell CNN, and court documents suggest, is of particular interest to state and federal prosecutors probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”

Cohen describes Waldron as a “retired” U.S. Army colonel with ties to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

According to Cohen, Waldron has “emerged as a key figure in the broader scheme to overturn the election and was the architect of several extreme proposals for doing so” — including “a PowerPoint presentation.”

“Waldron also helped draft language for an executive order directing the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines on behalf of the White House,” Cohen reports. “Trump never signed the order, siding with White House lawyers who insisted the idea was legally perilous. But there is evidence that his closest allies, including Meadows, continued to entertain similar pitches from Waldron in the lead-up to January 6, (2021) as they sought to validate conspiracy theories about foreign election interference.”

nOTE gohmert COS CLArence clerk, Bunch of az FAKE ELECTORS:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20A115/165483/20210106111314445_Gohmert%20v%20Pence%20Stay%20Appl%20signed.pdf

LOUIE GOHMERT,TYLER BOWYER, NANCY COTTLE, JAKE HOFFMAN, ANTHONY KERN,JAMES R. LAMON, SAM MOORHEAD, ROBERT MONTGOMERY, LORAINE PELLEGRINO, GREG SAFSTEN, KELLI WARDAND MICHAEL WARD,

Applicants, v. THE HONORABLE MICHAEL R. PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY. Respondent.

EMERGENCY APPLICATION TO THE HONORABLE SAMUEL A. ALITO AS CIRCUIT JUSTICE FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE STAY AND INTERIM RELIEF PENDING RESOLUTION OF A TIMELY FILED PETITION FOR A

WRIT OF CERTIORARI

William L. Sessions Texas Bar No. 18041500 SESSIONS & ASSOCIATES, PLLC 14591 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 400 Dallas, TX 75254 Tel: (214) 217-8855 Fax: (214) 723-5346 Email: lsessions@sessionslaw.net Lawrence J. Joseph DC Bar #464777

LAW OFFICE OF LAWRENCE J. JOSEPH 1250 Connecticut Av NW, Ste 700 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 355-9452 Fax: (202) 318-2254 Email: ljoseph@larryjoseph.com Counsel for Applicants Sidney Powell* Texas Bar No. 16209700

SIDNEY POWELL, P.C. 2911 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 1100 Dallas, TX 72519 Tel: (214) 628-9514 Fax: (214) 628-9505 Email: sidney@federalappeals.com Howard Kleinhendler NY Bar No. 2657120

HOWARD KLEINHENDLER ESQUIRE 369 Lexington Ave., 12th Floor New York, New York 10017 Tel: (917) 793-1188 Fax: (732) 901-0832 Email: howard@kleinhendler.com * Counsel of Record

twt pix

learn their names:

The fight for our republic has only just begun! #ArizonaHearing

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/07/entire-arizona-legislature-shuts-down-after-rudy-giuliani-potentially-exposed-lawmakers-to-covid-19/

no lnx

entire Arizona legislature shuts down after Rudy Giuliani potentially exposed lawmakers to COVID-19

The closure comes amid Trump's attempts to pressure state lawmakers to appoint electors to overturn the election

By IGOR DERYSH

Deputy Politics Editor

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 7, 2020

The Arizona state legislature will shut down for the next week after Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani potentially exposed lawmakers to the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Giuliani had tested positive for the virus on Sunday. The former New York mayor traveled to multiple states to pressure Republican lawmakers to help his bid to overturn the results of the election based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud. The 76-year-old was hospitalized at Georgetown University Medical Center after receiving his diagnosis, ABC News reported.

It is unclear when Giuliani first tested positive or when he was exposed. His son Andrew, a White House adviser, said he tested positive on Nov. 20. Christianné Allen, the communications director for the former mayor, also said she began quarantine on the same day. (Giuliani's ill-fated press conference in which a dark goo dripped down his face took place one day earlier.)

A maskless Giuliani held a show hearing with 15 Arizona lawmakers at a Hyatt Regency hotel in Phoenix last Monday before privately meeting with several Republican legislators and leaders the following day, according to The Arizona Republic. Giuliani also traveled to Michigan and Georgia, potentially exposing other lawmakers.

A Michigan official said the legislature did not have plans to shut down but would conduct "normal contact tracing procedures in accordance with CDC guidelines to keep people safe." Senate staffers in Georgia were instructed to work remotely until they were tested for the virus, according to WXIA.

The [monday] Arizona meeting was attended by U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., as well as about a half-dozen state senators and representatives. The following day,, Giuliani met with the Republican leaders of the state Senate and House. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted a photo of Giuliani and other attendees maskless and not social distancing at the meeting.

Trump's campaign said in a statement that Giuliani had tested negative before traveling to the state and "did not experience any symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 until more than 48 hours after his return." It is not uncommon for people infected with the virus to test negative early in the incubation period.

Trump's team said no lawmakers nor members of the media were "on the contact tracing list."

But Republican leaders said the entire state legislature would be closed this week "out of an abundance of caution," according to the Republic.

State Sen. Martín Quezada, a Democrat, said the episode was "the epitome of COVID-19 irresponsibility."

"You owe it to the very people who work in the Capitol buildings to be better than this," he told his Republican colleagues.

"This is not negligence," state Sen. Victoria Steele, a fellow Democrat, said on Twitter. "It is willful, deliberate, endangerment of others."

Trump's campaign has continued to push back on criticism. Legal adviser Jenna Ellis called closing the legislature "absolutely unnecessary" as she attempted to claim that Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers was using "COVID as an EXCUSE" to not call a special legislative session to override his state's voters.

After failing to show any evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities and being rejected by courts in every contested state, Trump's legal team has turned to pressuring state Republican lawmakers to appoint pro-Trump electors who would subvert their state's voters.

Several Republican state lawmakers said they still planned to hold a rally on Monday to "protect the vote." [finchem?]

"It's a rally to support the legislature calling for decertification of the election results," state Rep. Bret Roberts tweeted.

But Republican leaders have said such a move would not only be improper but illegal.

"As a conservative Republican, I don't like the results of the presidential election," Bowers said in a statement. "I voted for President Trump and worked hard to re-elect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election."

Bowers said it would violate "the basic principles of republican government and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people's vote based on unsupported theories of fraud.

Trump's attempt to pressure Republicans to hold a special session to override their states' votes was likewise rejected by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a longtime Trump ally. Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said in a statement that holding a special session "in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law."

"Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change that process for the Nov. 3 election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts," they said.

Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell even led a lawsuit seeking to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's victory but the case was promptly rejected.

"With nothing but speculation and conjecture that votes for President Trump were destroyed, discarded or switched to votes for Vice President Biden, plaintiffs' equal protection claim fails," U.S. District Judge Linda Parker said in a ruling on Monday, adding that even if their allegations had merit, the "alleged injury does not entitle them to seek their requested remedy because the harm of having one's vote invalidated or diluted is not remedied by denying millions of others their right to vote."

Igor Derysh is Salon's Deputy News and Politics Editor. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/**2022/07/**26/report-shows-arizona-electors-knew-fake-election-legal-doubts/10156901002/

advocates for Arizona's 'fake electors' plan had legal doubts, new report finds

Ronald J. Hansen

Arizona Republic

Fake electors cast votes for Trump

Some of those involved in submitting presidential electors for President Donald Trump in Arizona after he had lost the state in 2020 knew their plan was legally dubious and want to keep its low public profile as long as possible, according to a report published Tuesday.

Citing previously undisclosed emails, the New York Times painted the picture of an effort in key swing states, including Arizona, the closest contest in the country, that was both desperate and probably wouldn't pass legal scrutiny.

Their plan was to submit papers to Congress suggesting Trump won the states, even though certified results showed then-President-elect Joe Biden had won them. Trump's allies hoped the dual slates of electors would serve as a justification for slowing or reversing the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Biden's victory.

After Vice President Mike Pence refused to consider the "fake electors," a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, halting the process for hours.

Video: Gov. Doug Ducey with Karrin Taylor Robson and former Vice President Mike Pence

Long before then, those pushing the long shot plan knew they stood on shaky ground, the Times reported. People familiar with the plan at the time have told The Arizona Republic that while the strategy was legally questionable, they didn't view their activity as criminally wrong.

“We 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,” wroteJack Wilenchik, a Phoenix lawyer who helped convene the Trump electors for Arizona.

The Dec. 8, 2020, email went to Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's campaign who served as a bridge between the Trump campaign and John Eastman, a California law professor who helped devise the legal strategy.

In a follow-up email, Wilenchik wrote that “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” the Times reported Tuesday.

Wilenchik also seemed to acknowledge in an email that they should submit the fake electors "even though the votes aren't legal under federal law — because they're not signed by the governor."

Pence and his legal team rejected the alternate electors legal strategy even before Jan. 6, 2021.

Wilenchik and Epshteyn declined to commentabout the matter to the Times and The Republic.

Wilenchik has ties to key figures involved in the Arizona Republican Party efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

He represents Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired to lead the Senate’s partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, in a months-long battle to prevent thousands of documents from public disclosure.

Wilenchik also has represented state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, an election denier who led "Stop the Steal" rallies and who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.

Christina Bobb, a lawyer and former reporter for the conservative One America News Network, wrote an email four days after Wilenchik's, saying that Doug Mastriano, the man heading the alternate electors' effort in Pennsylvania, had been told their plan may be illegal, the Times reported.

Mastriano now is the GOP's gubernatorial nominee in that state.

The Times also reported that correspondence about the fake electors wasn't shared with the White House Counsel's Office, which had already rejected the idea as legally unsound.

Wilenchik wrote in a Dec. 8, 2020, email that Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward wanted “to keep it under wraps until Congress counts the vote Jan. 6th (so we can try to ‘surprise’ the Dems and media with it) — I tend to agree with her.”

Ward did not immediately respond to The Republic's request for comment. Last month, she and her husband, Michael, were subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department in connection with the alternate electors plan, according to Politico.

Paul Bender, an Arizona State University law professor who worked as deputy solicitor general in the Clinton administration, said Wilenchik's emails were troubling.

"If they are submitting documents they know are false in order to delay Congress from doing something, ... it's clearly unethical for a lawyer to do that," Bender said.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ginni-thomas-pressured-arizona-lawmakers-overturn-election-1366141/

yet another damning report about Ginni Thomas’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election results has emerged.

It turns out that Thomas, who just so happens to be married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, didn’t just contact two Arizona Republican legislators about rejecting electors for Joe Biden in the state he won, as TheWashington Post reported last month. The actual number, the Postreported on Friday,was 29.

On Nov. 9, two days after the race was called, Thomas used an online platform called FreeRoots to search for and send identical emails to 20 state House members and seven state senators, according to the report.

In the emails, Thomas urged them to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure,” saying they had “power to fight back against fraud.” Thomas also requested meeting them in person or virtually “so I can learn more about what you are doing to ensure our state’s vote count is audited and our certification is clean.”

On Dec. 13, 24 hours before the electors would go on to cast their votes for Biden, Thomas emailed 22 members of the House, as well as one senator. “Before you choose your state’s Electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,” Thomas wrote.

the next day, a group of Trump supporters falsely claimed they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified Electors.” One of them was then-Rep. Anthony Kern, whom Thomas had contacted. Kern also filed an unsuccessful lawsuit along with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and others against then-Vice President Mike Pence over his role as overseer of the Electoral College certification in Congress. Around this time, those in Trump’s orbit like John Eastman and Jenna Ellis were pushing the notion that Pence could reject Biden electors.

In addition to reaching out to Arizona lawmakers, Thomas pressured the Trump White House and GOP congressmen to work to have the election results thrown out. Through all this, Republicans in Congress have largely been silent when it comes to conflict of interest concerns regarding Thomas and her husband.

https://blogforarizona.net/january-6-committee-focus-on-the-arizona-roots-of-the-january-6-insurrection/

...

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona— 27 more than previously known — to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and “choose” presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.

On Nov. 9, she sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators. That represents more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature at the time.

The message, just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, urged lawmakers to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and claimed that the responsibility to choose electors was “yours and yours alone.” They had “power to fight back against fraud” and “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen,” the email said.

Among the lawmakers who received the email was then-Rep. Anthony Kern, a Stop the Steal supporter who lost his reelection bid in November 2020[.]

Kern did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.He is seeking his party’s nomination for a seat in the Arizona state Senate and has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

...

On Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college were slated to cast their votes and seal Biden’s victory, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. “Before you choose your state’s Electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,” the email said. It linked to a video of a man urging swing-state lawmakers to “put things right” and “not give in to cowardice.”

Speaker of the House Russell “Rusty” Bowers and Rep. Shawnna Bolick, the two recipients previously identified, told The Post in May that the outreach from Thomas had no bearing on their decisions about how to handle claims of election fraud. [Bolick signed the letter sent by Arizona legislators to not certify the election.]

The Post obtained the emails under Arizona’s public records law, which — unlike the laws in some other key 2020 swing states — allows the public to access emails, text messages and other written communications to and from state lawmakers. You too can do this!

[On] Dec. 14, 2020, Biden electors in Arizona cast their votes, after the election results were certified by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) and Gov. Doug Ducey (R).

“Fake” Trump electors met in Arizona that day and signed a document [falsely] declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified Electors.” One of them was Kern, the outgoing state representative.

Kern was among more than a dozen lawmakers who signed on to a letter to Congress that same day calling for the state’s electoral votes to go to Trump or “be nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.” See post above.

The lawmakers’ letter was an exhibit in Kern and Gohmert’s lawsuit asking a federal court to rule that Pence had the “exclusive authority and sole discretion” in deciding which electoral votes to count for a given state. The plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to intervene after the case was dismissed in lower courts. The day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, the court declined in an unsigned order.

...

Ali Alexander is a cooperating witness and that affects Biggs, Gosar

Ali Alexander, the architect of the “Stop the Steal” movement, cooperated with the committee early on, and that could shed light on what more the panel has learned about Arizona Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

It’s unclear when Alexander’s contributions may come up, but when they do, it could offer some of the most important information the committee gathered involving two of the more controversial members of Congress.

In a since-deleted social media post before the attack on the Capitol, Alexander singled out Biggs and Gosar, along with Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., for helping give his group’s effort success.

See the Washington Post, A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally, and The Intercept, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says.

Alexander called Gosar the movement’s “spirit animal” and said he spoke “in person” to Biggs. A spokesman for Biggs insisted in the days after the riot that Biggs had no direct contact with Alexander, so their interaction remains a point of wide factual dispute.

Alexander also had ties to state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, who spoke at “Stop the Steal” rallies and were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Finchem and Kern were mingling with crowds amassed on the Capitol steps, photos, texts and social media accounts show.[pix]

Emails show Ginni Thomas pressed 29 Arizona lawmakers to turn the election in favor of Trump

Aysha Qamar

Daily Kos Staff

Friday June 10, 2022 ·

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - FEBRUARY 23: Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a pannel discussion titled "When did World War III Begin? Part A: Threats at Home" during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center February 23, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. Hosted by the American Conservative Union, CPAC is an annual gathering of right wing politicians, commentators and their supporters. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings commence, other information unrelated to the terrorist attacks from that day are surfacing. The Washington Post reported Friday that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Arizona lawmakers to overturn their elections in favor of Trump. The outlet had previously reported that Thomas emailed two lawmakers, but newly obtained emails indicate at least 29. The Post was able to obtain the emails under Arizona’s public records law.

The emails sent on Nov. 9, 2020, argued that the legislators needed to intervene in order to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory and choose “a clean slate of Electors.” While she did not mention the candidates' names, the intent was clear due to her reference to fraud committed during the election and Joe Biden’s popular-vote win in the state.

Of the 29 lawmakers, about 20 were noted to be members of the Arizona House and at least seven Arizona state Senators.At the time the emails were sent, the emailed individuals represent more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature.

According to The Post, Thomas sent the messages using FreeRoots, an online platform that allows for pre-written emails to be sent to multiple elected officials at once. It came days after Biden was announced to have won.

In it, Thomas urged lawmakers to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and claimed it their responsibility to choose electors; “yours and yours alone,” the email said.

In another email dated Dec. 13, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. According to The Post, this email was sent a day before members of the electoral college were to cast their votes and seal Biden’s victory.

“Before you choose your state’s Electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,” the email read. It linked to a video of a man urging swing-state lawmakers to “put things right” and “not give in to cowardice.”

While some lawmakers spoke to The Post and said Thomas’ emails had no impact on their decisions, the fact she even sent them is shocking.

“That conflict of interest just screams at you,” Adam Schiffsaid on MSNBC about the emails. Schiff serves on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

He also noted Clarence Thomas’s decision not to excuse himself from the case when Trump went to the Supreme Court in an attempt to block the House committee from getting access to his White House records. While the high court declined to block the release of those documents, Clarence Thomas was the only judge to side with him.

“Here you have the wife of a Supreme Court justice,” Schiff said, trying to “get Arizona to improperly cast aside the votes of millions. And also, to add to it, her husband on the Supreme Court, writing a dissent in a case arguing against providing records to Congress that might have revealed some of these same emails.”

Ginni Thomas’s involvement in the “Stop the Steal” movement does not end in a history of sending emails. In March, several outlets also obtained text messages she sent to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in 2020. In those messages, Thomas not only spread false information but also urged Meadows to fight to keep Trump in office.

But of course, despite her attempts, Biden was certified as the winner in Arizona. We have yet to see how the Jan. 6 committee hearings will present these and any additional findings about Ginni Thomas’ role in Jan. 6.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/ginni-thomas-election-arizona-lawmakers/

Ginni Thomas pressed 29 Ariz. lawmakers to help overturn Trump’s defeat, emails show

By Emma Brown

June 10, 2022

Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, speaks at a conference in 2017. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona — 27 more than previously known — to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and “choose” presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.

The Post reported last month that Thomas sent emails to two Arizona House members, in November and December 2020, urging them to help overturn Biden’s win by selecting presidential electors — a responsibility that belongs to Arizona voters under state law. Thomas sent the messages using FreeRoots, an online platform intended to make it easy to send pre-written emails to multiple elected officials.

REGULATION

Ginni Thomas emailed 29 Arizona lawmakers to help reverse Biden’s win

BY JARED GANS - 06/10/22

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, reached out to almost 30 Arizona lawmakers following former President Trump’s defeat in the state’s 2020 election to urge them to reject President Biden’s victory, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Post reported last month that Ginni Thomas sent emails to two lawmakers six days after the election to tell them to work on behalf of Trump and “fight back against fraud.” The most recent report, based on emails the Post obtained, raises the number Thomas contacted to 29.

She used the platform FreeRoots, which allows users to send pre-written emails to multiple officials at once, to contact 20 members of the Arizona House and seven state senators in addition to the two state House members the Post previously reported she contacted. Thomas sent all the emails on the same day, Nov. 9, 2020.

The emails encouraged the recipients to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure,” arguing they have the power to choose Arizona’s electors who vote in the Electoral College for president. But voters have the power to choose a state’s electors by casting their ballots, not state legislatures, as Trump and his allies argued following the election.

Thomas tried once more to urge 22 state House members and one state senator to overturn the state’s results on Dec. 13, 2020, one day before the Electoral College members were set to cast their votes, the Post reported.

DOJ files civil rights charges against four Louisville officers over Breonna Taylor killing

Judge refuses to delay Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy trial

“Never before in our nation’s history have our elections been so threatened by fraud and unconstitutional procedures,” Thomas wrote.

Thomas’s involvement in working to overturn the results in the presidential election has raised ethical questions over Clarence Thomas, who has taken part in rulings on cases related to the election. Clarence Thomas has rejected suggestions of a conflict of interest, arguing his and his wife’s careers are entirely separate.

The Hill has reached out to Ginni Thomas and the Supreme Court for comment.

an 7 22

'Manna from heaven': Legal wonks react to fake elector scheme emails

Sarah K. Burris and Raw Story July 26, 2022

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that previously unknown communications between staff on Donald Trump's campaign revealed the work outside advisers were doing to try and overturn the election.

What's being called a "gift to prosecutors" proves both federal and state crimes, according to former impeachment lawyer Norm Eisen on Twitter.

In one email, internal advisers admitted that the "alternate slate of electors" were actually "fake electors." Many of the fake electors were subpoenaed by the Justice Department. The details that it was known that the electors were "fake" is "manna from heaven," said former New York Counsel Maya Wiley.

It was a sentiment shared by NYU Law School Professor Ryan Goodman. He highlighted the piece of the report that said they'd simply send the "'fake' electoral votes to Pence so that 'someone' in Congress can make an objection when they start counting vote, and start arguing that the 'fake' votes should be counted."

That almost happened with Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-WI) staffer reaching out to Mike Pence's aides to see if he could hand the fake electors to the vice president. Johnson has been asked about the details....

in a follow-up email, Mr. Wilenchik wrote that “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” adding a smiley face emoji."

Maggie Haberman

@maggieNYT

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2022/07/26/arizona-fake-electors-electoral-college-jack-wilenchik-kelli-ward/10156607002/

media reports on Tuesday again highlighted (Or should we say lowlighted?) the sinister scheme of Arizona’s fake Electoral College electors and their part in trying to gut the democratic process and stage a coup to keep Donald Trump in office.

This time around, according to The New York Times, the “often slapdash efforts of advisers” to Trump included the names of reactionary Republican notables like Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and attorney Jack Wilenchik.

The report quotes an email from Wilenchik to Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn that reads, “We (Arizona Republicans) 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.”

Imagine that.

Blatantly admitting that the electors were “fake.”

Wilenchik said 'fake'? He meant to say ...

Kind of damning, don’t you think?

Perhaps that is why the report noted that Wilenchik sent a follow-up email saying, “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” followed by a smiley face emoji.

wilenchik also pointed out Ward’s part in the scheme, saying she wanted to keep the fake electors plot “under wraps until Congress counts the vote Jan. 6th (so we can try to ‘surprise’ the Dems and media with it) – I tend to agree with her.”

We already know from previous reporting that Ward and her husband, Michael, received grand jury subpoenas from the Department of Justiceregarding their involvement in the fake electors operation.

Fake electors should pay a price for this

And we’ve known about the coup attempt almost from the beginning.

All of which might cause some to wonder why these latest revelations even need to be reported?

am oversight docs

https://www.americanoversight.org/document/nara-records-regarding-invalid-elector-slates

am oversight docs

https://www.americanoversight.org/document/nara-records-regarding-invalid-elector-slates

https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/the-alternate-electors-plot-to-overturn-the-2020-election

In March 2021, American Oversight obtained :{copies of phony electoral vote certificates:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: signed and submitted to the National Archives and Congress by supporters of former President Trump in seven swing states that had gone for Joe Biden: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The false certificates were part of a scheme to prevent the congressional certification of Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump allies, pointing to lies about widespread voter fraud, sought to present the signatories as “alternate” slates of electors.

The documents :{drew renewed attention:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: in January 2022 after they were covered by :{MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: and *Politico*. The :{Justice Department:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: said it was investigating the fake certificates, and the :{House select committee:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which had also been looking into the matter, :{issued subpoenas:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to the individuals listed as “chairperson” and “secretary” of each group of alternate electors. The next month, the committee :{issued six additional subpoenas:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to connected individuals.

A now-infamous :{memo:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: prepared by Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman and titled “January 6 scenario” indicated that the fake certificates were part of a :{six-step scheme:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:that relied on Pence throwing out the valid electors from “7 states [that] have transmitted dual slates of electors.” In February 2022, the *New York Times* reported that two weeks after the election, Jim Troupis, a lawyer for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, had received a memo setting out the strategy to overturn Trump’s loss by installing “alternate” electors in states Trump lost. According to the Times, that memo was used by Eastman and other Trump-allied lawyers as they devised the scheme.

In March, a federal judge ruled that it was :{“more likely than not”:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:that Trump and Eastman had “corruptly attempted” to obstruct the Jan. 6 congressional certification, and ordered Eastman to produce more than 100 emails he had fought to keep from House investigators. More than a year and a half after the election, Eastman is :{still attempting to shield:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: his communication records from the House select committee.

The fake certificates were also referenced in a :{draft letter:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:prepared by Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in December 2020 that falsely stated the department was investigating “various irregularities” in the election and would have instructed Georgia lawmakers to convene a special session to consider “issues pertaining to the appointment of presidential electors.” That same month, Trump had :{plotted to oust:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and replace him with Clark, a loyalist who was willing to use the department to elevate Trump’s voter-fraud myth.

In a :{lawsuit:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: we filed against the ArizonaSenate seeking records related to the partisan “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election, we :{obtained documents:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;background-color:#ff9900;"):}: that show Kelly Townsend, then state senator-elect, asked former Vice President Mike Pence not to accept Arizona’s valid electoral slate during the congressional certification on Jan. 6. We also obtained and published :{memos concerning the appointment of electors:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that were sent to legislative leaders in Wisconsin and Arizona in the weeks following Trump’s loss.

The fake electoral certificates are a critical piece of the coordinated, multi-state effort to subvert the will of American voters. Since obtaining copies of the bogus certificates, American Oversight has sent follow-up requests for the communications of the false electors with Trump allies and false electors in other states. In :{several:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: :{states:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, we are still seeking communications between signers of the phony elector slates and proponents of Trump’s Big Lie.

UPDATES

:{News Roundup: The ‘Wild/Creative’ Fake Electors Scheme:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

July 29, 2022

“Kind of wild/creative” — that’s how a Trump-allied lawyer, in an early December 2020 email, characterized the scheme to submit fake electoral certificates in an attempt to overturn the election results.

:{In the Documents: New Details About the Origins of the Arizona Senate’s Discredited Election ‘Audit’:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder;background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

March 7, 2022

Further review of records obtained by American Oversight in our investigation of the “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election reveal a letter from a state senator to then-Vice President Pence asking that he not certify Biden’s victory.

:{Legislative Leaders in Arizona, Wisconsin Were Sent Memos Regarding the Ability of State Lawmakers to Alter Selection of Electors Following 2020 Election:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

February 1, 2022

The memos, obtained by American Oversight, suggest that in November 2020, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos sought legal advice about whether legislators had the power to alter the selection or actions of electors after the election had taken place.

:{December 2020 Emails to Arizona Lawmakers Reveal Election Deniers’ Plans for Scanning and Throwing Out ‘Invalid’ Ballots:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder;background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

January 24, 2022

The emails obtained by American Oversight, which outlined a plan to overturn Trump’s election loss in Arizona, also included members of Trump’s legal team.

:{Fake Electoral Certificates Obtained by American Oversight Draw Renewed Scrutiny:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

January 12, 2022

The phony documents were submitted to Congress by Republicans in several states who sought to overturn Biden’s 2020 election victory by casting the state’s electoral votes for Trump instead.

:{The Latest Attempt by Wisconsin Legislative Leaders to Undermine Election Has Been in the Works for Months:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

June 17, 2021

Emails uncovered by American Oversight reveal an early April meeting between legislative leaders and one of the former police officers hired to investigate the 2020 election in Wisconsin.

:{American Oversight Obtains Seven Phony Certificates of Pro-Trump Electors:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

March 2, 2021

The phony electoral vote certificates from seven states were submitted to Congress as part of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

:{Investigations Update: Florida Vaccine Distribution, Anti-Protest Measures, and Trump’s Efforts to Overturn Georgia’s Election Results:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

February 9, 2021

See the latest in our investigations into the coronavirus pandemic response and into officials’ attempts to interfere with democracy.

:{Investigations Update: The Efforts by Trump — and Top Officials — to Overturn the Election:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear;font-weight:bolder"):}:

February 2, 2021

See the latest in our investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election and multiple state lawmakers’ ties to the Capitol attack.

ARIZONA (11)

Nancy Cottle*: Cottle is the first vice president of programs for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. She has been active in Arizona politics for the past decade and holds various other positions on the Maricopa County Republican Committee and the AZGOP executive committee. She was :{issued a subpoena:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the Department of Justice in June, according to the Washington Post.

Loraine B. Pellegrino*: Pellegrino has served as president of Ahwatukee Republican Women. She was :{issued a subpoena:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the Department of Justice in June, according to the Washington Post.

Tyler Bowyer: Bowyer is the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values in schools. He has previously worked for the Republican National Committee and the Maricopa County Republican Party.

Jake Hoffman: Hoffman is an Arizona state representative for the 12th District. Hoffman also runs a conservative digital marketing company, Rally Forge, that was :{banned from Facebook:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and suspended from Twitter for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on behalf of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA. The company was enlisting and paying teens to share comments with right-wing opinions, including that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and that coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated. Experts :{told the Washington Post:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: in 2020 that the effort was “among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle.”

Anthony Kern: From January 2015 until January 2021, Kern was an Arizona state representative for the 20th District. He is currently running for election to the Arizona state Senate to represent the 27th District. Kern, whose campaign has been endorsed by Trump, participated in the Jan. 6 riots in D.C. and :{has lied:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: about breaching the U.S. Capitol building

Jim Lamon: Lamon is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Arizona. He is a veteran and was previously CEO of DEPCOM Power, a solar energy contractor, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Robert Montgomery: In 2020, Montgomery served as the chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee.

Samuel I. Moorhead: Moorhead serves as the second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party.

Greg Safsten: Safsten was until recently the executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona.He previously worked for U.S. Rep. Andy Biggsand former Rep. Matt Salmon, both of Arizona, in their U.S. House offices, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dr. Kelli Ward: Ward is an osteopathic physician who has served as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party since 2019. Following the 2020 election, Ward aided Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results and filed a number of lawsuits to nullify Arizona’s results. In 2016, she challenged the late U.S. Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary but lost with 39 percent of the vote. She previously served in the Arizona state Senate. She was :{issued a subpoena:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the Department of Justice along with her husband in June, according to Politico.

Dr. Michael Ward: Ward met his wife, Kelli Ward, while he was serving in the Arizona Air National Guard. In 2019, he was :{accused of spitting:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: in the eye of a former volunteer of his wife’s when she was a candidate for Senate because the volunteer went on to support her former political foe, Martha McSally. Michael Ward denied touching, pushing, threatening or spitting on the volunteer in an email to police, according to the Arizona Republic. He was :{issued a subpoena:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the Department of Justice along with his wife in June, according to Politico.

no lnx july 2022

Militia groups expected to be focus at Jan. 6 hearing: What to know about Arizona's connection

Richard Ruelas

Arizona Republic

As a group of Oath Keepers joined the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, one that eventually would use a standard military formation to break through the crowd and breach the building, a 63-year-old man from Phoenix was in a Virginia hotel packed with weapons awaiting his orders.

“Vallejo back at hotel and outfitted," the man, Edward Vallejo, messaged to other Oath Keepers at 2:24 p.m. that day, according to court records.

"Have 2 trucks available. Let me know how I can assist."

Prosecutors contended that Vallejo and the other Oath Keepers were amassing an arsenal and supplies that could last 30 days. If President Donald Trump would declare martial law, the prosecutors’ theory went, they would be ready.

The scheduled 10 a.m. Tuesday hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was expected to look at the role of militia-style groups such as the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Three Percenters in the riot.

[When is the next Jan. 6 hearing? What to know and how to watch

In an interview on CNN, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, suggested evidence exists of people in Trump’s inner circle speaking with members of the militia groups.

“We have a number of witnesses who have come forward that people have not talked to before, that will document a lot of what was going on in the Trump orbit while all of this was occurring,” Thompson said.

Ariz. man charged with seditious conspiracy

Ed Vallejo

Vallejo was charged with seditious conspiracy in January, in an indictment that included 10 other Oath Keepers members, including the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes.

Vallejo split with the group in 2014 but somehow decided to join Oath Keepers in D.C., traveling in a vehicle loaded with food and kitchen equipment.

Vallejo said he thought he would be cooking for forces who might camp out and picket up until the inauguration day a few weeks later.

Prosecutors contend that Vallejo was part of a so-called “quick reactionary force” and was poised to deliver weapons to Oath Keepers if need be.

Rhodes sent a group message on the morning of Jan. 6 that described several “QRFs outside DC.” Who would be “watching and waiting on the outside in case of worst case scenarios.”

Vallejo used the term QRF himself in a text message sent on Jan. 6. “QRF standing by at hotel,” he wrote. “Just say the word.”

More: How an Arizona man was charged with seditious conspiracy

A documentary filmmaker captured footage of the leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys meeting in a parking garage on Jan. 5, 2021, the night before the riot. The head of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was ordered out of the city after an arrest. Video of the apparent first meeting between the two men was played during the initial prime time Jan. 6 committee hearing.

A group of Proud Boys from Arizona, clad in orange caps and armbands, were among the first wave of rioters to breach the barricades outside the U.S. Capitol. A Capitol police officer testified during the first public hearing on June 9 that the situation grew more dire when the Arizona contingent of Proud Boys joined the crowd at the barricades, with verbal attacks starting to be aimed at officers.

One man, Micajah Joel Jackson, was sentenced to 36 months probation after he was seen marching with the orange-clad Proud Boys. Jackson said he was not a memberbut simply marched with fellow Arizonans who were kind enough to gift him an orange armband.

The other orange-clad Proud Boys from Arizona have not yet been identified, nor arrested.

Democracy in doubt: The origins of the Arizona election review

Arizona lawmakers who support Oath Keepers

At least three Arizona lawmakers have shown support for Oath Keepers, including at least one who has also drawn attention from the Jan. 6 committee.

Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem has called himself an Oath Keeper on social media, has spoken to Oath Keeper chapters and called himself a member when he first ran for the House in 2014.

“I’m an Oath Keeper committed to the exercise of limited, constitutional governance,” he wrote in response to a candidate questionnaire sent out by the community news website inmaricopa.com.

Finchem planned an unofficial legislative meeting at a downtown Phoenix hotel that featured Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and presented hours of purported evidence of election fraud.

[Cyber Ninjas CEO faces criminal probe in Michigan voting plot

Maricopa County seeks sanctions against Lake, Finchem

Donald Trump's scandals are unique in history. Here's how.

Alex Jones' texts could shed light on 'Stop the Steal' protests]

Finchem was in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, for a rally he planned alongside Ali Alexander, an activist who spearheaded the Stop the Steal movement.

State Sen. Wendy Rogers also has claimed membership to the Oath Keepers.

State Sen. Kelly Townsend posted on Twitter that she was an Oath Keeper but later seemed to hedge that it didn’t mean she belonged to a group, but that she just kept her oath of office.

Rogers and Townsend are running against each other for a state Senate seat.

The Proud Boys do not have any advertised meetings where politicians are invited. But members were often seen at the Arizona State Capitol during various protests. They also have attended rallies and speeches where speakers claimed election fraud.

nOTE gohmert COS CLArence clerk, Bunch of az FAKE ELECTORS:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20A115/165483/20210106111314445_Gohmert%20v%20Pence%20Stay%20Appl%20signed.pdf

LOUIE GOHMERT,TYLER BOWYER, NANCY COTTLE, JAKE HOFFMAN, ANTHONY KERN,JAMES R. LAMON, SAM MOORHEAD, ROBERT MONTGOMERY, LORAINE PELLEGRINO, GREG SAFSTEN, KELLI WARDAND MICHAEL WARD,

Applicants, v. THE HONORABLE MICHAEL R. PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY. Respondent.

EMERGENCY APPLICATION TO THE HONORABLE SAMUEL A. ALITO AS CIRCUIT JUSTICE FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE STAY AND INTERIM RELIEF PENDING RESOLUTION OF A TIMELY FILED PETITION FOR A

WRIT OF CERTIORARI

SIDNEY POWELL, P.C. 2911 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 1100 Dallas, TX 72519 Tel: (214) 628-9514 Fax: (214) 628-9505 Email: sidney@federalappeals.com Howard Kleinhendler NY Bar No. 2657120

HOWARD KLEINHENDLER ESQUIRE 369 Lexington Ave., 12th Floor New York, New York 10017 Tel: (917) 793-1188 Fax: (732) 901-0832 Email: howard@kleinhendler.com * Counsel of Record

wiki stub 8 22

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_J._Joseph

Lawrence J. (Larry) Joseph is an American lawyer, known for his role in President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 United States Presidential Election.^[1] Since 2003, he has practiced in an independent law office, allowing him to take on cases he describes as "politically incorrect".^[2]

Joseph has filed a number of amicus curiae briefs in support of President Trump, including in cases involving Congressional subpoena of his tax returns.^[3][4] He has also filed briefs with the United States Supreme Court on behalf of APA Watch, of which he was an officer.^[5][6]

Role in the 2020 Presidential election

In December 2020, Joseph was hired as a special counsel to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to author a lawsuit Texas v. Pennsylvania aimed at overturning election results in several other states.^[7][8]

The Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit,^[9] which was widely condemned including by Republican elected officials, a group of whom described it as "mak[ing] a mockery of federalism and separation of powers" in an amicus curiae brief.^[10]

In the same month, Joseph was named as attorney for the plaintiff in Gohmert v. Pence, another attempt to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. The lawsuit was similarly dismissed by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the :{United States Court of Appeals for the :(style="background-color:#ff9900;"):}::{Fifth Circuit:(style="background-color:#ff6600;"):}:, and the Supreme Court.

ariz fake electors

Wilenchik said 'fake'? He meant to say ...

Fake electors should pay a price for this

ARIZONA (11)

Role in the 2020 Presidential election

References...