Written by Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack issued 14 subpoenas Friday to people who falsely claimed to be electors for President Donald Trump in the 2020 election in states that were actually won by Joe Biden, digging deeper into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results.
The subpoenas target individuals who met and submitted false Electoral College certificates in seven states won by Biden: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/08/1×1.png
“The select committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the committee, said in a statement. “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”
The so-called alternate electors met Dec. 14, 2020, in seven states that Trump lost and submitted bogus slates of Electoral College votes for him, the committee said. They then sent the false Electoral College certificates to Congress, an action Trump’s allies used to try to justify delaying or blocking the final step in confirming the 2020 election results: a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to formally count the electoral votes..
The 14 individuals subpoenaed Friday were: Nancy Cottle and Loraine B. Pellegrino of Arizona; David Shafer and Shawn Still of Georgia; Kathy Berden and Mayra Rodriguez of Michigan; Jewll Powdrell and Deborah W. Maestas of New Mexico; Michael J. McDonald and James DeGraffenreid of Nevada; Bill Bachenberg and Lisa Patton of Pennsylvania; and Andrew Hitt and Kelly Ruh of Wisconsin.
The subpoenas order the witnesses, all of whom claimed to be either a chair or secretary of the fake elector slates, to turn over documents and sit for depositions in February.
Check Out Express Premium
Click here for more
Those who signed onto the fake slates of electors were mostly state-level officials in the Republican Party, GOP political candidates or party activists involved with Trump’s reelection campaign. None of those who were subpoenaed responded Friday to requests for comment.
On Friday, the committee also issued a subpoena to Judd Deere, a former White House spokesman who interacted with Trump the day before the Capitol riot in a meeting in which Trump asked how to get Republicans in Congress he described as “weak” to overturn the election, according to a person familiar with the panel’s activities. That subpoena was reported earlier by CNN.
The committee’s latest subpoenas came as the Justice Department this week said it was investigating the fake electors.
The scheme to employ the so-called alternate electors was one of Trump’s most expansive efforts to overturn the election, beginning even before some states had finished counting ballots and culminating in the pressure placed on Vice President Mike Pence to throw out legitimate votes for Biden when he presided over the joint congressional session. At various times, the gambit involved lawyers, state lawmakers and top White House aides.
As early as Nov. 4, 2020, Mark Meadows, then Trump’s chief of staff, received a message from an unidentified Republican lawmaker proposing an “aggressive strategy” to maintain his grip on power. According to the strategy, Republican-controlled legislatures in states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania would “just send their own electors” to the Electoral College instead of those chosen by voters to represent Biden.
Within a month, two of Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, spoke to Republican lawmakers in swing states such as Michigan and Arizona, urging them to convene special sessions to choose their own electors.
Around the same time, John Eastman, another lawyer who would ultimately work for Trump, spoke by video to lawmakers in Georgia, advising them to “adopt a slate of electors yourself.”
As the plan became public, it was widely ridiculed by legal scholars as a futile attempt to subvert the will of the voters. Nevertheless, several prominent conservatives — among them, writer Brent Bozell and former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina — signed an open letter Dec. 10, 2020, calling on lawmakers in competitive states to “exercise their plenary power” and “appoint clean slates of electors to the Electoral College to support President Trump.”
Four days later — the day the Electoral College met — state lawmakers in seven contested swing states drafted and signed the fake slates.
To promote the plan, Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project, a conservative legal group that was working with Trump’s lawyers on lawsuits to challenge the election, fanned across right-wing media outlets that day. And Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Trump, announced on Fox News that state lawmakers in several key swing states were in the process of sending “an alternate slate of electors” to Congress.
Even after the Electoral College ignored the fake electors and certified Biden’s victory, Trump’s allies continued to push the scheme.
On Dec. 22, 2020, the Amistad Project filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to essentially force Pence to recognize the fake elector slates when he presided over Congress’ official count on Jan. 6, 2021. Although the lawsuit was dismissed, a Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, drafted a letter one week later laying out a plan to persuade officials in Georgia to call back their Biden electors and consider swapping them for those who support Trump. (The letter was never sent.)
The scheme gathered momentum as Jan. 6, 2021, approached.
On Dec. 31, 2020, according to Politico, Ellis wrote a legal memo to Trump advising him that six states had “electoral delegates in dispute” and that because of this conflict, Pence should not accept any electors from them, but rather ask state lawmakers which slate they wanted to use. On Jan. 5, 2021, with pressure building on Pence, Ellis wrote a second memo reasserting the vice president’s authority to refuse to consider electors from states that would have given Biden a victory.
Ultimately, the efforts were rejected by Pence.
Although he did not directly acknowledge the existence of alternate electors during the joint session, Pence did amend the traditional script read by a vice president during such proceedings, adding language making clear that alternate slates of electors offered up by states were not considered legitimate.
As he ticked through the states, Pence said repeatedly that the result certified by the Electoral College, “the parliamentarian has advised me, is the only certificate of vote from that state that purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of the state purporting to appoint and ascertain electors.”
