fake elector wisc

mebbe redumbdent? see main Green BAY sweep

no charges?

ron john russia event?

mike roman?

77 pardon 11 25

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AN 6 26

Three alleged planners of Donald Trump’s 2020 fake elector scheme pleaded not guilty Tuesday to eleven forgery-related criminal charges in a Wisconsin’s County court — but they might be walking into a toothy maw of legal pain.

The Milwaukee Journal Constitution reports “Jim Troupis, a former Wisconsin campaign attorney for President Donald Trump, Michael Roman, a former Trump aide, and Kenneth Chesebro, a Wisconsin-born former Trump attorney, appeared in Dane County Circuit Court for arraignment on 11 counts of felony charges related to the so-called fake elector scheme.”

Most federal criminal cases against Trump henchmen for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election have collapsed or been dismissed after voters returned Trump to the White House in 2024. Votebeat Wisconsin reports Georgia’s election interference case got dismissed just as the prosecution nabbed guilty pleas from Trump’s allies. Michigan’s false elector case also got dismissed, and Arizona’s own investigation is stalling after a major setback for the prosecution. Nevada prosecutors resumed their own investigation after the state Supreme Court revived charges that a lower court threw out, reports Votebeat.

But the Wisconsin case is laced with pratfalls for Trump’s people. Firstly, 10 false electors from 2020 settled a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin by acknowledging that Biden won the 2020 election. But Chesebro and Troupis not only reached a settlement in that case but also turned over a trove of damning documents outlining their role in trying to overturn a legitimate U.S. election.

The office of Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul claims Troupis, Chesebro and Roman “lied to the Wisconsin Republicans who signed paperwork falsely claiming to be electors for Trump in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 election for Biden,” the Sentinel reports.

“The 10 Republicans who signed paperwork claiming to be electors have not been charged criminally related to the fake documents,” reports the Sentinel, but other state Republicans, like former Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Andrew Hitt, who was one of the 10 Republicans who participated in Wisconsin, said in 2024 he felt "tricked" by the Trump campaign to sign the paperwork.

And while other state prosecutions have been sidelines by Trump’s return to the White House or Republican judges and legislatures, the state of Wisconsin has a court system which has been streaking toward the left since Trump’s election, with the GOP not even bothering to run candidates in some court races.

Additionally, public opinion polls in this state that supported Trump’s reelection have collapsed as voters turn on Trump and his beholden Republican Party.

Worse for Trump’s henchmen, however, is the fact that if a state jury does find the three guilty, Trump will be unable to rescue them with a pardon because the charges are coming down in state, rather than federal courts. In fact, Trump already pardoned Troupis on the federal level last November, not that it helped.

The Sentinel reports Dane County Circuit Court Judge Mario White is overseeing the case.

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AN 6 26

As three alleged planners of Wisconsin’s fake elector scheme prepare to be arraigned this week in Dane County court, the criminal charges against them are moving forward in a national legal and political landscape that looks dramatically different from the one in which they were filed.

*This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

When Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the charges in June 2024, Joe Biden was president, Donald Trump was battling a criminal case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and state prosecutors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada were bringing criminal cases tied to the fake elector scheme.

That scheme arose in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Trump allies tried to keep him in power despite his loss. Those allies, who became known as fake or false electors, attempted to cast electoral votes for Trump in multiple states he lost and submit those certificates to Congress.

Now, as the three defendants in the Wisconsin case await arraignment on 11 felony forgery charges on June 16, Trump has regained the presidency, and he and his allies are undertaking extensive efforts to rewrite what happened in the 2020 election.

Since returning to office, Trump has issued a federal pardon to those involved in the 2020 scheme, and his administration has sent the FBI to investigate the 2020 election in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

The federal criminal case against Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election has been dismissed. And, until recently, his administration had plans to allocate $1.8 billion to compensate people it claimed had been unfairly prosecuted by the federal government, raising questions about whether participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and those involved in the fake elector schemes could receive taxpayer funds.

Other state cases have also faltered. Georgia’s election interference case has been dismissed, though not before the prosecution secured some guilty pleas from Trump’s allies. Michigan’s false elector case has also been dismissed. Arizona’s remains unresolved after a major setback for the prosecution, and Nevada’s just resumed after its Supreme Court revived charges that a lower court had thrown out.

Kaul faced criticism for filing his charges so late — it was the last criminal case to be filed regarding the fake electors. But two years later, that timing has left Wisconsin’s as one of the last cases standing in the broader, mostly failed effort to prosecute Trump and his allies for their attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

“The direction of activity has completely flipped, from prosecuting the people who were disrupting the election or inhibiting the normal flow of events to now going after Trump’s adversaries,” said Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor who founded the Elections Research Center.

The Trump administration’s new investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin and elsewhere, Burden said, “seems to be a targeted effort at people who were mostly upholding the law and trying to administer an election in a very difficult environment.”

Amid the federal government’s current activity, and nearly six years removed from the 2020 election, Burden said any guilty finding in the Wisconsin fake elector case would likely have a muted effect.

“If we wanted the public to believe that there were ramifications for that kind of unlawful behavior, it would have to happen quickly and publicly, and feel like it was an immediate response to what people had done after the 2020 election,” he said. “But that’s not where we are six years later.”

‘Shocking’ if there are no ramifications in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin criminal case is still in its preliminary stages. Although it was filed two years ago, a number of motions and an appeal have set the case back significantly.

The defendants — former Dane County Judge Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s Wisconsin campaign attorney in 2020; attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who advised Trump on legal matters; and former Trump aide Mike Roman — are scheduled to be arraigned on June 16.

Each faces 11 felony charges for his part in allegedly guiding Wisconsin’s 10 fake electors to send documents to the U.S. Capitol falsely stating that Trump had won Wisconsin in the 2020 election.

The 10 false electors from 2020 aren’t defendants in the current case, but they separately settled a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin by acknowledging that Biden won the 2020 election and pledging not to violate election laws in the future.

Chesebro and Troupis separately reached a settlement in that case, turning over a trove of documents outlining their role in 2020 and agreeing not to participate in similar schemes in future elections.

Text messages and emails show that Chesebro was a primary architect behind the 2020 plan to have Wisconsin’s GOP electors attest that Trump won the state while Trump’s court challenges seeking to overturn the election were still ongoing. Troupis discussed that plan with the Trump campaign, and Roman helped craft the language of the documents Republicans planned to send to the Capitol from states that Biden won.

Troupis has since asked the federal government to reimburse him $3.2 million from the proposed $1.8 billion fund, saying his life has been a “nightmare” since he stepped up to represent Trump.

“My experience is a poster-child for what weaponization can do,” he wrote in a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, adding that “the entire legal system is at risk if compensation is not paid.”

Attorneys for Chesebro and Roman didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Troupis’ attorney declined to comment.

Burden said it is striking that the case is still ongoing nearly six years after the election, but he said the conduct at issue remains extraordinary.

“These were among the most serious challenges to elections we’ve seen in modern times,” Burden said.

“To think that there might be no ramifications of that really would be shocking,” he said, “and, I think, at odds with how the American criminal justice system has typically operated.”

*Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander atashur@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

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an 11 11 25

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

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

Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder

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proof RJ lied about electors?

raw story 3 24

republican attorneys settled a lawsuit in Wisconsin this week involving the creation of the fake electors plot between Kenneth Chesebro and a little-known lawyer called Jim Troupis, Wisconsin Public Radioreported.

The civil lawsuit was brought by the liberal firm Law Forward in conjunction with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (I-CAP).

ICAP director Mary McCord, an MSNBC analyst and former Justice Department official, explained in her podcast with co-host and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann that Troupis began talking with Chesebro as early as Nov. 8, 2020 to hatch a scheme to create and submit fraudulent assertions that Trump had won the electoral college in Wisconsin.

IFrame Content

The idea was that they'd be passed to then-Vice President Mike Pence, who would count them instead of the authentic ones.

The fake electors then met on Dec. 14, submitting their names and information as if they were actual representatives to the Electoral College.

ICAP's case was against the electors and the lawyers.

"Really, this was driven by Trump campaign lawyer, Jim Troupis, in Wisconsin," explained McCord.

The goal of the lawsuit was to have a court say unequivocally that what was done was "unlawful and a civil conspiracy," McCord continued.

Chesebro asked Troupis to write up the plot in a memo that could then be sent to the Trump campaign, the lawsuit stated. Troupis was then connected to Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn.

Thanks to the lawsuit, all of the documents, emails and text messages were made public.

Also read:Trump lawyers 'could face discipline' if they shrugged off Weisselberg lies

One of the key parts of the Trump allies' argument was the idea that the 12th Amendment doesn't clearly state how ballots should be counted, so the allies could gum up the works with the slates of fake electors being sent to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

The Wisconsin electors made their way to Washington, D.C., thanks to GOP staffer Alesha Guenther who flew them to the Capitol. They made their way to Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who has claimed he had no idea how the whole scheme unfolded.

The emails and text messages released say something else, however. According to a text to Chesebro from Troupis, the latter said that he spoke to Johnson "last night" on the phone about Pence, "just to take his temperature." He then explained the scheme to Johnson a full month prior to Jan. 6, 2021, the messages reveal.

"I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver it, so we reached out," Johnson told CNN's Manu Raju on June 21, 2022.

When Raju asked who had given him the fake electors, he claimed, "I have no idea."

“I had no involvement in an alternate slate of electors. I had no idea this’d even be delivered to us, got delivered staff to staff. My chief of staff did the right thing. Contacted the vice president's staff. They said they didn't want it, so we didn't deliver it," he said at the time.

Johnson's aide, Sean Riley, told Pence's legislative director Chris Hodgson they had the list for Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson replied.

Weissmann said on the podcast that the emails and text messages prove that Chesebro and Troupis they knew exactly what they were doing.

"It was a public nuisance because it had impacted the community in Wisconsin and their ability to actually have their votes count and that it violated another law ... where these electors took the position of real electors even though they weren't the real electors," McCord explained. "So, we used these civil causes of action, we were trying to get the court to say this is unlawful and to prevent them from ever doing it again."

"It's so important that these cases get to trial because everything that you have seen — and now a bit out there — that's the whole point of a trial for everyone to see," Weissmann said.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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sep 2024

14 fake electors from 2020 are Donald Trump electors again in 2024

Fourteen so-called fake electors who participated in former President Donald Trump’s 2020 scheme to throw the election results into chaos will once again serve as electors for Trump in 2024, including several who currently face criminal charges.

With input from the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, Republican state parties in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada have renominated 14 of the 84 fake electors from the 2020 election. Wisconsin's electors aren't publicly available until the first week of October, according to state election officials. A legal settlement bars unauthorized Wisconsin 2020 electors from serving as electors for Trump again.

There are no repeat electors from 2020 on this year’s Republican slates for Arizona and Georgia, the other two states where fake electors signed certificates incorrectly declaring Trump the winner.

The 14 former fake electors who are serving again include the Nevada Republican Party chairman, the Republican National Committeeman from Pennsylvania and several current or former county chairs.

usatoday

"Politically or in terms of the health of our democracy, the idea that people who potentially committed a crime in trying to further a scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election... the idea that they are in any way involved in politics is troubling," Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law Rick Hasen said.

While some may have acted with the belief that they were just a back up if there was a legal change to the outcome, Hasen noted, "some of them, there have at least been allegations that they knew what they were doing and they knowingly engaged in criminal conduct."

None of the 14 repeat electors responded to USA TODAY's attempts to contact them.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump is facing four felony charges in Washington, D.C. related to leading conspiracies to reverse the 2020 results and disenfranchise millions of voters. He has refused to commit to unconditionally accepting the results of the upcoming 2024 election, and while he has sometimes acknowledged that he lost the 2020 race, he has also continued to falsely tell supporters that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

Pending charges

Charges have been brought against the fake electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, as well as some people working with Trump.

Some of the cases are moving very slowly. In August, a Maricopa County judge set a tentative trial date of Jan. 5, 2026, for Arizona's fake electors case. The state GOP did not renominate any of the 2020 electors. In Nevada, the state has appealed to the state supreme court a lower court decision to reject the fake electors case stating it had been filed in the wrong county.

More:‘Somewhat dicey' and ‘problematic’: Inside Trump's bid to have fake electors overturn 2020 election

Still, electors might think twice about being party to signing such certificates again, Hasen said.

"Anyone who's an elector who's asked to do something shady this time, might think, hmm, last time around, these people were indicted, so maybe I shouldn't do that," Hasen said.

Michigan

The Michigan Republican Party has renominated the most fake electors. Six names that appeared on a certificate falsely claiming that Trump had won the state are on the 2024 list of 15 electors provided by the Michigan Secretary of State's office: Amy Facchinello, John Haggard, Timothy King, Marian Sheridan, Hank Choate and Meshawn Maddock–a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

Trump lost Michigan in 2020 by about 154,000 votes.

All six of them face criminal charges. The trial has not yet been scheduled but isn't expected to begin this year.

Choate's attorney, David Kallman, said the pending 2020 charges shouldn't affect who is picked to be a 2024 elector. Choate has pleaded not guilty.

"This was another election year. This really has nothing to do with the last 2020, election," he said. "I don't think it really impacts the criminal case at all."

Kallman said that Choate didn't know he was doing anything wrong in 2020. He said Trump's attorney's told the electors that the certificate would only be used if Trump's campaign won a court case overturning the results of the election in Michigan or if the state legislature stepped in.

"My client was told by people he trusted, attorneys at this meeting, that this wasn't going to be used unless one of those things happened," Kallman said.

He said electors were only presented with the page to sign their names, not the page that falsely claimed that they voted in the Capitol building and that Trump won.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Republicans submitted a list of presidential electors to the secretary of state’s office with five former fake electors: Bill Bachenberg, Bernadette Comfort, Ash Khare, Pat Poprik and Andy Reilly. The state has 19 electoral votes. Trump lost in 2020 by about 80,000 votes.

Reilly, an attorney, is also the Republican National Committeeman from Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania electors wouldn't sign the fake certificate in 2020 unless the forms specifically said that their votes weren't to be counted until the courts ruled in Trump's favor. Therefore, electors have not been charged with a crime.

Khare, who has been an elector since 1990, told USA TODAY in April that he advocated to include that clause.

"We wanted to make sure that we’re not doing anything illegal," he said.

Nevada

The Nevada Republican Party renominated Michael McDonald, the chair of the state party, and Jesse Law, chairman of the Republican party of Clark County, both of whom signed the 2020 certificate although Trump lost the state by 154,000 votes. The state has six electoral votes.

McDonald, a longtime friend of Trump's who is senior adviser to the 2024 Trump campaign, and Law were among the electors indicted in Nevada. The case, which was dismissed over questions of whether it was filed in the correct county, has been appealed by Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, to the state Supreme Court.

Trump lost Nevada by more than 30,000 votes.

New Mexico

The New Mexico Republican Party renominated Deborah Weh Maestas, the former state party chair. The state has five electoral votes. It's role in the scheme was always considered an outlier. New Mexico is not a swing state and has supported Democrats in every presidential election since 2008. Trump lost there in 2020 but about 100,000 votes.

Like in Pennsylvania, the 2020 New Mexico electors wouldn't sign unless the forms specifically said that their votes weren't to be counted until the courts ruled in Trump's favor. New Mexico electors have not been charged with a crime.

More:Wisconsin is the last state that may prosecute Trump’s fake electors, but AG Josh Kaul is mum

A key legal change since 2020

Electors normally draw little to no attention. In a presidential election year, each party nominates state electors who will vote for their presidential nominee in the Electoral College if their candidate wins. Party leaders such as the county party chairs or local elected officials are normally selected. Their names must be submitted to the state before the election and made publicly available.

But in 2020 GOP officials in seven states that President Joe Biden won sent fake electoral certificates to Congress stating that former President Donald Trump had actually won. The certificates were an effort to baselessly convince lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence that there were substantial questions about the outcome of the election in swing states.

The House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and Trump's efforts to stay in power after losing the election found that the fake electoral certificates were part of a coordinated effort by Trump's allies to block Congress from certifying the election results. They wanted Congress to return th

Pence refused to accept, or even consider, the "alternate" electoral slates.

Jonathan Diaz, Director of Voting Advocacy for advocacy group Campaign Legal Center, said it is unlikely that scheme would be successful again. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which changed the rules so Congress can only count electoral certificates signed by the governor of the state or another official approved by state law when the House and Senate meet to count the votes on Jan. 6. It also raised the threshold for members of Congress to object to counting a state from one representative and one senator to one-fifth of each chamber. Also, in 2023 the Supreme Court ruled in Moore v. Harper that state legislatures have little power to overturn election results.

"It's really going to be much, much more difficult for a slate of fake electors to try the same kind of shenanigans that they did in 2020," Diaz said. "The [2022 law] was really targeted at plugging the holes that existed in the previous process, because the law was so old, and really making sure that the kind of effort that we saw focused on that joint session of Congress can't occur again."

*USA TODAY reporter Erin Mansfield contributed to this article

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6 24

In 2020, a group of Wisconsin Republicans, following instructions from partisan attorneys, cast fake electoral college votes as part of a nationwide scheme to overturn the results of the presidential election when Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. Law Forward has spent three years pursuing accountability and transparency from those responsible, to ensure this scheme never recurs.

We recently obtained and publishedthousands of documents that clarify the scheme’s origins, development, and connection to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. These records reveal conclusively that the leaders of the scheme acted in bad faith, desperate to keep Donald Trump in power at all costs. Just this week, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced felony criminal charges for three of the actors involved in this scheme: Jim Troupis, Ken Chesbro and Mike Roman.

Nearly four years later, we are still living with the consequences of the fake elector scheme. Election denialism and conspiracy theories continue to poison our public life. The 2020 election was free, fair, and secure, but recent polling shows that 31% of Wisconsinites — and a majority of Wisconsin Republicans — lack confidence in our elections. Election officials face unprecedented threats and harassment. Families are divided because they cannot agree on even provable, basic facts. Trump and his allies continue to seek to evade criminal responsibility for their actions. And all this traces back to claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Fake electors did not act in good faith in 2020 election

Nevertheless, commentators continue to downplay the importance and nefariousness of the fake elector scheme. For example, earlier this year in the Journal Sentinel Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig argued that Republicans who cast electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020 acted in good faith, and he insisted that criticizing them for preserving legal options is harmful. But his argument hinged on a flawed premise, because the architects of the scheme were focused not on obtaining legitimate legal relief, but on using chaos and delay to keep Trump in office—and their tactics facilitated the violence of Jan. 6. This bad-faith, profoundly antidemocratic scheme deserves to be condemned. To excuse or minimize the fake elector scheme is to minimize the damage it has already done, and worse, set the stage for further anti-democratic gambits we can ill afford.

About those Wisconsin 'fake electors':They had sound reason to vote for Trump

The two men most responsible for the fake-elector scheme, both of whom settled with our clients this spring, are Jim Troupis and Ken Chesebro. Troupis, the Trump Campaign’s top lawyer in Wisconsin for the 2020 election, brought Chesebro onto his team shortly after the election. The day after Biden was declared the winner of Wisconsin, Chesebro floated the fake-elector idea as a way to throw the election to Trump. The emails and memos Chesebro generated over the ensuing weeks display an amoral, kitchen-sink approach to challenging the election results, with the explicit goal to sow enough chaos that the Wisconsin Legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, or Vice President Mike Pence would somehow keep Trump in power.

Right off the bat, in 2020 Chesebro explained to Troupis that he wanted to generate “such a cloud of confusion” that “no votes from WI (and perhaps also MI and PA) should be counted, perhaps enough to throw the election to the House.” Later, Chesebro suggested the Trump team “use delay in litigation to try to win in the state legislature on Dec. 8,” promoting the dangerous idea that the Wisconsin Legislature could and should overrule the will of the voters. On Dec. 8, Chesebro wrote to Troupis: “On reflection, I think having the electors send in alternate slates of votes on Dec. 14 can pay huge dividends even if there is no litigation pending on Jan. 6....”

More: See Law Forward's timeline and documents from the case

Texts between Troupis and Chesebro reveal they planned to implement the fake-elector scheme regardless of what the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled. On the eve of Dec. 14, the day of the electoral college meeting, Troupis asked Chesebro: “Is everything under control for tomorrow electors vote? ... Just want to be sure we preserve our options here without regard to what Wi S Crt rules.” And if the fake electoral ballots were truly provisional, they could have said so. In Pennsylvania and New Mexico, Republican leaders added language clarifying that the votes should be counted only in the event of a future court victory. Chesebro knew that other states were using provisional language. Yet neither he nor Troupis nor anyone else included such language in Wisconsin.

After losing in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Troupis and Chesebro’s continued litigation on behalf of the Trump Campaign was half-hearted at best. As they considered appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, Chesebro admitted to Troupis, “Here the strategy is inherently political, because the value of the litigation is in part to influence Congress on Jan. 6.” There is no evidence that they even considered asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court for reconsideration, which Lessig labels a viable legal option. Instead, they waited weeks, until shortly before Jan. 6, before filing their frivolous petition in the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected it.

We must hold participants accountable for plot against democracy

Chesebro and Troupis could have abandoned their plan any time before January 6, 2021. Instead, they doubled down. On Dec. 16, 2020, they met secretly with Trump. Three days later, after Trump infamously tweeted about Jan. 6, “It will be WILD,” Chesebro texted Troupis: “Wow based on 3 days ago, I think we have unique understanding of this.” On Jan. 6, Troupis personally pushed Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson to transmit Wisconsin’s fake electoral votes to Pence, in hopes he would count them instead of the real ones, handing the election to Trump. There is a difference between good-faith legal arguments and unethical efforts to undermine democracy through delay and chaos. Chesebro and Troupis engaged in the latter.

Kenneth Chesebro’s ‘random’ insurrection tweets prove the internet is forever | Opinion Troupis and Chesebro are guilty. Don't let their lawyers convince you otherwise. | Letters Fake electors continue to make weak excuses. They deserve severe consequences. | Letters Don't turn a blind eye to Trump's lies. We all suffer from cheating. | Letters Interview with ex-Republican chair shows threat of armed coup is real in America | Letters Ron Johnson tried to overthrow fair election. He should pay price for his role. | Letters Donald Trump led insurrection, Ron Johnson took part. Time for accountability. | Letters

To maintain our democracy, we must speak honestly about the threats it faces and hold the threat-makers accountable. On Dec. 14, 2020, under Troupis and Chesebro’s direction, ten Wisconsinites cast fake electoral votes that were used in an effort to override the votes of 3.3 million Wisconsinites. Chesebro, Troupis, and others acted in bad faith. They have all since agreed never to participate in such a scheme again. But real accountability requires more — it requires all of us to take seriously the harm they caused and ensure no one can ever do it again.

*Jeff Mandell is the president and Scott Thompson is an attorney at Law Forward, a liberal advocacy group based in Madison.

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wisc exmr

The 10 Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors for President Donald Trump in 2020 even though he had lost the election settled a lawsuit against them Wednesday, acknowledging their actions were part of an effort to overturn the election results.

The lawsuit was filed last year by two of the state’s rightful electors, alleging the 10 false electors had engaged in a plot to defraud Wisconsin voters. The lawsuit had sought up to $200,000 from each elector, but no money is being exchanged as part of the settlement.

Wisconsin was one of several swing states in which groups of Republicans cast false electoral votes for Trump and sent them to Congress. The electors in two other states are facing criminal charges for their actions. The settlement marks the first time false electors in any state have revoked their filings and said they will not repeat their actions.

The 10 Republicans have also agreed not to serve as electors in any presidential election in which Trump is on the ballot. Trump is currently the leading candidate in the Republican primary race.

On the day that the duly elected presidential electors met in December 2020, the group of Republicans met in secret to cast Electoral College votes for Trump, claiming they were casting them in case Trump’s efforts to change the election results in court were successful. The false votes were cast hours after the state Supreme Court had voted 4-3 against the Trump campaign’s efforts to toss out hundreds of thousands of votes in Dane and Milwaukee counties in an attempt to change the results — effectively ending the campaign’s legal battles in Wisconsin.

The false electoral votes were sent to the National Archives, Congress, then-Secretary of State Douglas La Follette and a federal judge. The votes played a major role in sparking the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“On December 14, 2020, in compliance with requests received from the Trump campaign and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, we met at the Wisconsin State Capitol and executed a document titled ‘Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Wisconsin,’” the 10 Republican electors said in a statement as part of the settlement. “That document stated, in part, that we were ‘the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Wisconsin.’ The Elector Defendants took the foregoing action because they were told that it was necessary to preserve their electoral votes in the event a court challenge may later change the outcome of the election in Wisconsin. That document was then used as part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”

“We hereby reaffirm that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. won the 2020 presidential election and that we were not the duly elected presidential electors for the State of Wisconsin for the 2020 presidential election,” the statement continues. “We oppose any attempt to undermine the public’s faith in the ultimate results of the 2020 presidential election.”

While the 10 Republican electors agreed to settle the claims against them, the case continues against two attorneys who played a crucial role in the scheme. Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge who served as legal counsel for the Trump campaign, and Kenneth Cheseboro, who urged the Wisconsin Republicans to undertake the plan in a November 2020 memo and is facing criminal charges in Georgia for the false electoral votes cast in that state, are set to face a civil trial next year.

The group of false electors included Andrew Hitt, who was then the chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and Robert Spindell, who continues to serve as a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission — the agency responsible for administering elections in the state.

Documents released as part of the settlement include text messages in which one of the Republicans refers to the false elector plan as a “possible steal.” Another text showed an elector saying that not going along with the plan would “piss off the Trump base.”

The emails and text messages released show the electors had varying degrees of belief in the likelihood of the plan succeeding, some of which had previously been released by the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.

The released texts show that on Jan. 5, 2021, Wisconsin GOP staffer Alesha Guenther flew to Washington D.C. to deliver the false votes.

“5 minutes until I make the drop,” she wrote to Hitt. “I feel like a drug dealer.”

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AN 12 23

Many voters who served as fake electors in support of ex-President Donald Trump during the 2020 election are adamantly rejecting the idea of helping the MAGA hopeful again next year.

"How do you convey laughter in a newspaper article?" former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman and GOP elector Andrew Hitt said to The Washington Post. "No, I will not be serving as an elector again."

Hitt's comments come as ten Wisconsin GOPers earlier this week, according to ABC News, "settled a civil lawsuit and admitted their actions were part of an effort to overturn President Joe Biden's victory."

Additionally this week, former Trump attorney and Georgia election case co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro — "who was one of the architects of the 'fake elector' scheme that attempted to overturn the 2020 election in multiple swing states — "is now assisting state attorneys general in both Michigan and Wisconsin's fake elector investigation," CNN reports.

"Knowing what I know now? No," Republican Party activist and Ken Carroll told the Post in response to whether he'd serve as a fake elector again. "But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don't have at the time of an event."

Noting that "Carroll was one of 84 Republican presidential electors who convened to cast votes for Trump in 2020 across seven states where Joe Biden had been declared the certified winner," the Post reports, "In the past few months, 25 of those 84 electors have been charged with felonies, such as forgery, false statements and filing false documents."

The Post notes:

*Another force will make it harder for electors to do what Trump’s slates did in 2020: The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, bipartisan legislation intended to prevent the chaos surrounding the events of the last presidential election.

*Among other provisions, the new law empowers a state executive, typically the governor, to determine which slate of electors — Republican or Democratic — will be counted during the joint session of Congress. No other entity or individual is given the power to do so, and Congress is required to accept that determination, absent a court ruling.

"I think the message being sent on a state-by-state basis, without necessarily any coordination and without the overarching reach of a federal prosecution is: don't mess around with the integrity of state election proceedings," ex-US attorney Carol Lam told the Post.

Still, Atlanta, Georgia GOP consultant Brian Robinson said, "The party will find no shortage of volunteers for the job," but some might hesitate. He added, "With the precedent now set by the district attorney, electors of both parties might get a little nervous if it's once again a razor-thin margin, which is quite possible."

Hitt, who no longer supports Trump, the Post notes "has been cooperating with federal special counsel Jack Smith's investigation since May 2022, said Trump won't have any problem finding people who will serve as electors next year if he wins the party's nomination."

He said, "There will be activists who will do it, no doubt about it. They're not going to have a hard time because they still have people who will do anything for the guy.

*The Washington Post's full report is here (subscription required).

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12 23

CNN

The 10 fake electors from Wisconsin disavowed their attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, recognized the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory, and pledged not to serve as real electors in 2024 or any election when Trump is on the ballot, or to act as sham electors in any future election, as part of a civil lawsuit settlement announced on Wednesday.

This is the latest measure of accountability for the Trump campaign’s seven-state plot to undermine the Electoral College and block the transfer of power. Federal prosecutors indicted Trump in connection with the scheme; the entire faux delegation from Michigan was hit with state charges; and so have three of the 16 fake electors from Georgia.

As part of the Wisconsin settlement, the 10 fake electors issued a statement acknowledging that the phony certificates they signed in December 2020 were “used as part of an attempt to improperly overturn” the lawful election results.

“We hereby reaffirm that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. won the 2020 presidential election and that we were not the duly elected presidential electors for the State of Wisconsin for the 2020 presidential election,” says a portion of their statement. “We oppose any attempt to undermine the public’s faith in the ultimate results of the 2020 presidential election.”

The agreement also requires the 10 GOP activists to provide “full cooperation” with any “ongoing or future” Justice Department probes related to the 2020 presidential election. Special counsel Jack Smith, who has investigated the 2020 election subversion, indicted Trump and interviewed some fake electors, but hasn’t charged any of them.

Wisconsin’s delegation of sham electors was led by Andrew Hitt, the state GOP chair at the time, and included Robert Spindell, now a member of the Wisconsin Election Commission. They both were part of Wednesday’s settlement.

The civil case is unrelated to any potential state criminal inquiry into the electors plot.

Two liberal-leaning groups filed the case: Wisconsin-based Law Forward and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, at Georgetown University. The groups said the deal penalized people who “ignore our nation’s democratic ideals” and “helps ensure that a similar effort to subvert our democracy will never happen again.”

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WISCONSIN (10)

Andrew Hitt*: The chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin from 2019 until 2021, Hitt is a partner at consulting and lobbying firm Michael Best Strategies.

Kelly Ruh*: Ruh was an alderperson for De Pere but :{lost her bid for reelection:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: in April. She has also been chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District Republican Party and a controller for Bay Industries in Green Bay.

Carol Brunner: Brunner is the vice chairwoman of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District Republican Party.

Edward Scott Grabins: Chairman of the Dane County Republican Party, Grabins is a technology professional, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bill Feehan: A business manager based in La Crosse, Feehan was a 2012 candidate for District 32 of the Wisconsin state Senate.

Robert F. Spindell Jr.: Spindell has been a :{commissioner:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: on the Wisconsin Election Commission since 2019 and recently ran to chair the commission and lost. After Biden won the election, Spindell :{appeared at a “stop the steal” rally:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: at the state Capitol.

Kathy Kiernan: Kiernan is the 5th Congressional District chairman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Darryl Carlson: Currently executive director of conservative organization No Better Friend Corp., Carlson ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2014 for the Wisconsin State Assembly. He is a veteran and has also represented the 3rd aldermanic district in Sheboygan.

Pam Travis: Travis has served as treasurer of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women and is currently the 7th Congressional District vice chairman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Mary Buestrin: A former national committeewoman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Buestrin :{says she has done:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: volunteer work supporting Republican candidates for more than 50 years.

Slated to appear but replaced:

Tom Schreibel: Schreibel is a partner at consulting and lobbying firm Michael Best Strategies and a national committeeman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4138124-trumps-fake-electors-7-states-he-lost/

no lnx

What’s happening with Trump’s ‘fake electors’ in 7 states he lost

BY NICK ROBERTSON - 08/04/23

Former President Trump was arraigned Thursday on four charges alleging that he attempted to orchestrate a scheme of fraudulent electoral college votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In seven states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — so-called “fake electors” signed paperwork attempting to cast electoral college ballots for Trump instead of their states’ actual winner, President Biden.

The groups hoped that former Vice President Pence would count the fake electors’ certifications instead of the legitimate ones when the electoral college vote was certified on Jan. 6, 2021, changing the result of the election, the indictment alleged. None were successful.

Here’s what each state is, and isn’t, doing to investigate and prosecute them.

Arizona

A group of 22 Arizona Republicans, including the Republican Party chair and multiple state legislature members, signed papers intending to cast false electoral college votes in December 2020. That paperwork is now the focus of both a federal and state investigation.

State Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) ratcheted up her investigation into the group in July, requesting records from involved figures. The investigation is in its early stages.

Figures surrounding the case also received federal subpoenas for information and communication, according to local media.

Georgia

On the day that Georgia certified its electoral results in favor of Biden, 16 Republicans — led by the state’s Republican Party chair — allegedly met in a secret meeting in the state capitol to discuss plans to send an alternate slate of votes to Washington. The group also signed paperwork making their plans official.

The scheme is central to prosecutor Fani Willis’ (D) state probe into attempts to overturn the 2020 election, which may result in an additional indictment for Trump.

At least eight of the fake electors have signed immunity deals with Willis’ office, offering to cooperate in exchange for not being prosecuted.

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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 8 23 no lnx

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trump-fake-elector-prosecutions-congress/

Trump fake elector prosecutions could soon ensnare members of Congress

Matt Laslo

August 04, 2023

WASHINGTON – The justice system is closing in on former President Donald Trump, and soon, some expect that dragnet will ensnare elected members of Congress.

Before lawmakers left town for a month-long recess, Raw Story caught up with two Republicans the U.S. House January 6 select committee named as central to the scheme to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to certify slates of fake electors after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

The two lawmakers were dismissive and said no prosecutors, either local or federal, had contacted them in their quest to hold fake electors and their enablers accountable.

“Not me. I've gotten nothing,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) –who allegedly tried to pass Wisconsin fake electors to Pence — told Raw Story at the Capitol. “There’s nothing to come after me for.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)

Johnson also dismissed the fake elector case in Michigan as “absurd.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) – chairman of the House Freedom Caucus – also brushed aside concerns and said he hasn’t been contacted.

“No,” Perry – who the January 6 select committee flagged to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to sit for an interview – told Raw Story while walking to the Capitol. “I don’t have any concerns.”

Others aren’t so sure. During the Jan. 6 select committee proceedings, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) accused Perry of asking Trump for a pardon after the failed insurrection.

ALSO READ: Mark Meadows ‘flipped hard’ on Trump: ex-January 6 committee adviser

“Look at the congressmen and their text messages, they obviously were in some coordinating function. The issue is, does it rise to the level of indictment?” former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) – who served as an adviser to the Jan. 6 committee –told Raw Story this week. “But as this testimony comes out, I think they're going to get on one of those things called aPucker Factor 10. I think they're going to be biting buttonholes in their underwear when the actual evidence comes out.”

Perry and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged at least 62 text messages between the 2020 election and President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. In one exchange, Perry informed Meadows they’d begun the “cyber portion” of their efforts to overturn the election results in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona.

Hot pursuit of fake electors

In July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped felony charges on 16 Republicans she alleges were at the center of her state’s fake elector scheme. Last week, the Associated Press reported the FBI and Justice Department questioned Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe earlier this year.

The scheming around fake electors is also central to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump. He dubs the “criminal scheme” to send slates of fake electors to Congress the “Wisconsin Memo.”

“The plan began in early December,” the indictment reads, “and ultimately, the conspirators and the Defendant’s Campaign took the Wisconsin Memo and expanded it to any state that the Defendant claimed was “contested” — even New Mexico which the Defendant had lost by more than ten percent of the popular vote.”

The indictment then quotes a Dec. 6 email from former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that accompanied the Wisconsin Memo.

“We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for states,” Meadows is quoted on page 23 of the indictment as sending campaign staff.

Then, on Dec. 27 – just over a week away from the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. – the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, told Trump, according to the indictment, “that the Justice Department could not and would not change the outcome of the election.”

“Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” Trump is quoted as replying.

The evidence speaks for itself, Riggleman tells Raw Story.

“To quote Hunter Thompson: facts are a million-pound s— hammer. And fact-based insights based on data is a 2-million-pound s— hammer,” Riggleman said.

All eyes are now watching to see if other state attorneys general follow Michigan’s lead and seek prosecutions for those involved in the fake elector plot, including Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“I give credit to the attorney general because people are not above the law, and they broke the law,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) recently told Raw Story. “These are people that lied about the most important thing, which is our democracy.”

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