Two newly surfaced memos from the aftermath of the 2020 election link former President Donald Trump’s team with an effort to create fake election certificates.
Jim Troupis, a lawyer hired by the Trump campaign to lead its recount effort in Wisconsin, received the memos outlining a strategy for setting up an alternate set of electors in the state who would support Trump, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
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“It 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,” the first memo said. “However, a fair reading of the federal statutes suggests that this is a reasonable course of action.”
The first memo was sent Nov. 18, 2020, from another lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro, who said Troupis asked him for a legal analysis of the deadline for setting the state’s electoral votes. The memo was sent the same day Troupis filed paperwork to begin recounts in Dane County and Milwaukee County, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Despite the recount in those counties, Trump ultimately lost Wisconsin by over 20,000 votes.
Wisconsin was one of at least seven states that President Joe Biden won in 2020 from which fake electoral certificates were sent to Congress in the aftermath of the election to justify blocking its certification. The certificates showed so-called alternate electors who intended to vote for Trump in the Electoral College vote. The fake certificates came when Trump was contesting the 2020 election, claiming there was widespread fraud and irregularities in the election. Some fake electoral certificates from Pennsylvania and New Mexico said the documents were prepared in case it was determined that Trump was the winner.
The first memo cited Jan. 6, 2021, as the deadline, with the “ultimate significance” under federal law because it was the day the House and the Senate would count the electoral votes. The memo said Jan. 6 was more important than Dec. 8, 2020, which was the deadline for states to select electors, and Dec. 14, 2020, the day electors vote on the president.
The second memo was sent Dec. 9, 2020, from Chesebro to Troupis. It expanded on the plan and analyzed the legal requirements for electors in six states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. All six had alternative electoral certificates sent to Congress. A seventh state, New Mexico also had fake certificates sent to Congress, according to documents published by government watchdog American Oversight. New Mexico was not mentioned in the second memo.
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The two memos were used by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies such as John Eastman as they developed a strategy to exploit election laws in Trump’s favor, a source told the New York Times. The Washington Examiner reached out to Troupis and Chesebro but did not receive a response.
Last week, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill issued subpoenas for 14 officials who participated as “alternate electors” in seven different states during the aftermath of the 2020 election. A Justice Department official also suggested that the department is investigating the fake certificates, which ultimately did not change the outcome of the election.
