In the Spirit of Jefferson Davis (part eleven)

 

Part eleven.

 

It’s important to stop here and examine the impossibility of Trump’s plan. It represented the interlocking of multiple conspiracies, all, or most, Trump was aware of/initiated.

 

Trump’s stated goal was to get the Electors returned to the states. Once there, Special Elections were possible, but as Biden had legitimately carried both States, he probably would win both again, especially given the example of how Georgia’s general and run-off Elections were excellent examples of how revulsion of Trump’s antics could turn a normally Republican-leaning State pro-Democrat. Or, this issue could’ve been handled by a vote in the State Legislatures, both of which had Republican majorities, but not unanimous ones. Trump would surely lose all the Democratic votes, so he needed an overwhelemingly majority of Republican votes, in both states, to reverse the election. Those Republican Legislators would face the wrath of a people that knew the most basic right in a Democracy was stolen from them, and this time it wouldn’t be a QAnon-inspired fantasy, but an easily-demonstratable reality. Also, Biden’s obvious, National, Popular Vote win would work into the Legislators’ calculus.

 

So, the odds of Trump’s success during the Joint Session were near-impossible, and had he somehow managed to “send it back to the States,” the reward for that success would be more bitter law suits (with better evidentiary grounding than those brought by Team Trump), ruined political careers, and probably a great deal more violence. I don’t believe either Arizona or Pennslvia would’ve over-turned the Election in the long-run.

 

But that wasn’t the worst of the problems in the plot. Returning the votes to the States was likely illegal, though maybe that’s not totally clear, because some aspects of the Electoral Vote Count of 1887 are sadly unclear. Still, it seems to given the Federal Congress the final say in an Election that had been determined as irreparably compromised, which was how the Election of 1886, which prompted the drafted of this legislation in the first place, was resolved. That likely still would’ve favored Biden.

 

But that’s not the biggest problem with the scheme. There is strong precedent that, should a handful of States Electoral votes be thrown out during the Joint Session, Congress would simply adjust the number required for a majority consistent with that, and that definitely still would’ve favored Biden. Though a host of States’ Electors had been challenged in either House of Congress, only Arizona and Pennsylvania were objected, so only they would be debated on. To win the Presidency, Biden had needed to earn 270 Electoral votes, he received 306. Had the Arizona Electors somehow been thrown out, Biden would’ve down 11 votes. Had Pennsylvania been thrown out, Biden would’ve been down 20. Biden’s totals looked like they couldn’t be reduced to no-less-than 275, still more than 270, and more importantly, still much more than Trump’s 232.

 

Trump needed Pence to go far beyond his Vice-Presidential powers, not only unilaterally declaring the irreparably compromised, but further unilaterally declare Trump’s win, usurping the powers of the States and the Federal Legislative branch. As you’ll soon read, even the plotters knew that couldn’t happen. They had something else in mind, which brings us to the Fake Electors scheme comes in.

 

Mentioned above, but never fully explained because up at this point in the story was unknown to the public. Also, of all the Lies and Conspiracies that Team Trump engaged in during their hellish assault on our Democracy, this is the one that will take the most time to explain. Ironically, even though complicated, and the fact that there’s not yet been a single arrest related to it, it’ll probably be the easiest to prove in a Court of Law, because the paper-trail is so strong. Also, Trump may be able to shrug off the responsibility in some of the criminal cases he now faces on to some hapless subordinate (as he did when Michael Cohen went to jail in 2018 because he paid Trump’s hush-money to a Porn-star), but not this one.

 

About the only thing our Villains did skillfully was keep their plans secret during the Election season, and the post-Election chaos, but finally, but even that success was lost as we started reading about it in the newspapers even before the month of January was out.

 

It was a truly vast conspiracy, but a laughably hair-brained one, with the blind leading the blind while imagining they were like Specter from a James Bond film. Some drawn into it might have been unaware what they were in the middle of, many involved seemed to have taken the attitude that if one Attorney, any Attorney, said it was OK, they could blithely ignore that virtually even other Attorney in the country, a whole lot of very clearly written law, and just basic common sense, could explain how bogus it was (a corollary, 93% of Scientists in the appropriate fields have stated explicitly that Global Warming is real, serious, and human industry is a primary driver, but some people keep touting the other 7% because, well, just because).

 

It seems that these (sinister brass music starts to play) EVIL PLANS OF WORLD DOMINATION! were stopped by an even larger number of people who didn’t even know they were engaged in this specific battle, and one guy who knew exactly what was going on. Unfortunately, there were also many who were clearly aware of it, opposed to it, but didn’t seem to take it seriously enough to blow-the-whistle early enough to make a difference. It will become obvious that the Fake Electors scheme was the string that tied several other Team Trump Conspiracies together, and had it unraveled earlier, I believe that the violence of 1/6 might not have taken place.

 

The scheme was the brain-child of the already fired, then-under-indictment, Trump Strategist Steven Bannon. On Election night he contacted Trump’s son, Donald Jr, and provided a rough outline to him. The polls had consistently been going against Trump for months, so I suspect Bannon foresaw Trump’s defeat, worked up the plan long before, and then handed it over at the vital moment to seem like a White Knight. Donald Jr, in turn, handed it over to Chief of Staff Meadows.

 

November 18^th, saw perhaps the first memo describing the plot. It was penned by pro-Trump Attorney Kenneth Chesebro and, by then, Trump’s loss was already clear to almost everyone. Chesebro managed to find a precedent to, maybe, buttress the scheme, an odd little non-incident from the 1960 POTUS race between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon.

 

The Kennedy/Nixon race was famously close and fraught, but the incident cited here had a great deal to do with the overly relaxed attitudes of Hawaiians were. The State has very few Electoral votes, and is unlikely to ever decide a Presidential race on its own, which might explain why, despite its small population, they rarely seem committed to making the Safer Harbor Day deadline; or perhaps it’s the beautiful sand beaches away from grueling clerical work of the preservation of our Democracy. In 1960, the election results were famously close, winner and loser only about 100 votes apart. This triggered an automatic recount, but few believed that they would make Safe Harbor Day, or any other, deadline.

 

Nixon claimed victory during the recount, and the Governor, declaring Nixon the winner, formally Certified a slate of Electors chosen by Nixon. Kennedy’s campaign cried foul, also declared victory, and drew up their own slate of Electors.

 

One very important difference between 1960 and 2020 is that this was a legitimately disputed election, not one where a State had already Certified the results based completed count of the vote. Another difference was that the slate of Electors was approved by the State’s Governor, that would not be that case in the Fake Electors plot, or at least its later permutations. Another problem with Chesebro’s argument was that there was no real precedent set in 1960, because the competing Elector slates were never tested by Congress or the Courts: against all expectations, Hawaii finished the recount, Kennedy won, so the Governor drafted a third slate of Electors reflecting this.

 

As Nixon was the Vice President, he also the President of the Senate, so we had a situation where the guy running for office had some-sort of say in how legitimate any State’s Electors were when the joint session of Congress to certify the Election results took place. What exactly “some-sort of say” meant was at the center of many of Team Trump’s schemes. On Jan. 6, 1961, Nixon received all three slates of Electors, his own, Kennedy’, and the Governors updated one. Nixon chose the Governor’s and Kennedy’s win in Hawaii was affirmed (by then, Nixon had lost, with or without Hawaii).

 

Okay, was there precedent did Nixon set there? He got to choose, so were other Vice Presidents allowed to choose? Not by any logic you’ll find outside of Trump-Ville. At the time, there was no longer any controversy, so the “choice” wasn’t really Nixon’s anymore, but please don’t tell Trump that a Vice President hadn’t been granted special powers to protect an Incumbent.

 

In the memo version, this plot should only be executed if Trump’s legal challenges started prevailing, and in Chesebro’s mind that seemed to count even after Safe Harbor Day or the Electoral College’s Certification of the State Certifications. (Note: the system is set up so that any controversies should be buried by those two deadlines, so it is hard to imagine the circumstances where there could be there be legit controversies after those dates.) But as Trump continued to lose virtually every legal challenge, this questionable scheme grew darker still.

 

In late November, with the plot was fully engaged, but not fully developed, Trump hosted State Legislators from Pennsylvania at the White House to discuss reversing the election outcome. Strategic Advisor Boris Epshteyn wrote to Attorney Jenna Ellis, “The WH meeting hasn’t been made public, which is both shocking and great.” This theme of the need for secrecy would continue throughout the saga.

 

The Plotters had wished to get Republican State Legislatures and/or Governors to join them, granting them the “imprimatur” of legitimacy. But, by December, it was clear no Authorities would join the plot, but also clear that none of those rejecting the idea were going to exposed the plot either.

 

 

The next step in the evolution of the Fake Electors plot began when the Team Trump reached out to pro-Trump Attorney Cleta Mitchell who, in turn, recruited John Eastman. Eastman was brought on the Team on December 5^th, by then, more than enough States had already Certified their results so this should’ve already been over. Moreover, Safe Harbor Day, after which Trump’s legal challenges would be limited, was only four days away. Eastman was tasked with expanding on Chesebro’s plot and creating arguments that made this shit taste like cioccolato.

 

 

Eastman was a Law Professor and twice-failed Politician who once Clerked for SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas. He was already controversial because he had embraced the most-extreme possible form of Birtherism when, months earlier, he had argued that Kamala Harris was not qualified to be Vice-President Elect because she wasn’t a Natural born Citizen. 

 

When Birtherism was raised against Presidential Candidate John McCain in 2008, it was because he was born overseas, though to two Natural-born Citizens and on a US Military base; that argument was casually dismissed. Starting the same year, but dragging on for years after, Birtherism would stalk former President Obama based on demonstrably false claims that he wasn’t born on US soil, though to one parent who was a Natural-born citizen (Trump had been a major advocate of that Racist Myth starting in 2011). Trump raised the specter of Birtherism against Candidate Ted Cruz in 2016, based on Cruz being born outside of the US, to a Natural-Born Citizen and a permanent US Resident soon to become a Naturalized Citizen; this was also, easily, over-come. All these challenges were trying to find a wrinkle in the 14^th Amendment and the SCOTUS case Wong Kim Ark v. the United States (1897), to use against an opponent. But Harris was undeniable born on US soil and to two not-yet, but soon to be, Naturalized Citizens, so challenging her being Natural Born, so his version wasn’t trying to find a wrinkle in the Constitutional Amendment and the SCOTUS decision, it was bluntly ignoring them. Eastman was rebuked by his own Law School.

 

The evolved plan didn’t need any of the failing legal challenges to succeed, it need only two things, but each was a tall order: First, they only needed the Vice President to play ball with them, and second they needed to create their own slates of Electors in secret, then spring on Congress on January 6^th, surprising the Democrats (so another difference from 1960, in that case, everything was done out in the open).

 

Team Trump worked with Republican allies in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In every state they found useful idiots to put their names on fraudulent documents that declared Mr. Trump to be the victor. In every case, the Governors were to be left out of this, which (by itself, all other elements ignored) constituted a shocking violation of Federal Election Law and the laws of every State involved.

 

On Dec. 7, Wisconsin-based Attorney James Troupis emailed Strategic Advisor Epshteyn that there was “no need for the legislators to act.” He cited Chesebro’s favorable analysis of Eastman’s plan and accepted that the key to reversing the Election wasn’t blocking States Certification their legit Electors, but creating a reason for Pence to block or delay congressional certification of the Electoral College results on January 6^th.

 

I’m uncertain exactly when Trump started pressuring Pence to betray his country, but it would’ve been around this time. I’m also uncertain when Pence learned about the role the Fake Electors would play in all this, but likely around this time and no later than January 4^th. One thing that is clear though, Pence was key to the Conspiracy, and he repeatedly told Trump (I’m paraphrasing here), “Hommie don’t play that.”

 

December 8^th, 2020, Arizona-based, pro-Trump Attorney Jack Wilenchik, actually wrote in an email he knew it was a crime, but seemed unbothered by it. “His idea is basically that all of us (GA, WI, AZ, PA, etc.) have our electors send in their votes (even though the votes aren’t legal under federal law — because they’re not signed by the Governor); so that members of Congress can fight about whether they should be counted on January 6^th. Kind of wild/creative — I’m happy to discuss. My comment to him was that I guess there’s no harm in it, (legally at least) — i.e. 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.”

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

Those emails went to Strategic Advisor Boris Epshteyn and half a dozen other people.

The same day, Wilenchik wrote another email that the chair of Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward, had recommended trying “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.”

 

 

December 12^th, pro-Trump Attorney and One America News Network host Christina Bobb sent as email discussing that the Pennsylvania “Point Person” for the plot, Douglas V. Mastriano, needed assurances to go along with a plan because other Republicans he’d spoken to were telling him was “illegal” She wrote that “Mastriano needs a call from the mayor [Giuliani]. This needs to be done. Talk to him about legalities of what they are doing … Electors want to be reassured that the process is * legal * essential for greater strategy.”

 

This plot continued to unfold even after DoJ AG Barr informed Trump, and then went public, that there were no legitimate claims of fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the Election. After Safe Harbor Day on December 8^th. After the seven the above listed states all Certified Biden’s victory with the Electoral College on December 14^th.

 

It was on the night of the 14^th that the Fake Electors met in their various States and signed documents asserting they were “duly elected" to the Elector’s role. In an email from Michigan Plotters to Team Trump, the Michigan plotters they needed to be in the State Capitol Building to execute their plan, but the CV19 pandemic rules insisted on early closing of the building. The Michigan plotters were considering hiding overnight in the building, as if that would make them more legitimate.

 

At least some of the Fake Electors then submitted these documents to the National Archives and to Pence. As the “duly elected” part was false, and they knew it, every one of them were committing the crime of fraud, but the submission to the National Archives was a crime specifically spelled out in the penal code.

 

This was an important landmark on our road to perdition, it was the fist overt criminal act they had committed. This was now officially a criminal conspiracy. The Fake Electors in one State asked for a promise if Trump would pay their legal fees if they were sued or charged with a crime.

 

December 14^th, Troupis wrote “The second slate just shows up at noon on Monday [January 5^th] and votes and then transmits the results ... It is up to Pence on Jan 6 to open them. Our strategy, which we believe is replicable in all 6 contested states, is for the electors to meet and vote so that an interim decision by a Court to certify Trump the winner can be executed on by the Court ordering the Governor to issue whatever is required to name the electors. The key nationally would be for all six states to do it so the election remains in doubt until January.”

 

It was just about that time that White House Council Cipollone told Giuliani that the plan was illegal, but that didn’t slow them down one bit. As with most of Team Trump’s post-election antics, Giuliani was a lead player. Giulani’s coordination with the State-level Plotters is documented in multiple emails, and at least one also confirms Chief of Staff Meadow’s involvement. Meadows wrote, “We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for states.”

 

Strategic Advisor Epshteyn was as deeply involved as Giuliani. He handled questions regarding how to pay Eastman, made the arrangements for Eastman to visit the White House, and coordinated with Attorney’s Bobb, Ellis and Bruce Marks, and Deputy Director of Election Day Operations Gary Michael Brown.

 

A recurrent theme during Trump’s years in office was the seeming near-illiteracy of those in his Inner Circle. Documents released to the public, submitted to SCOTUS, and even Executive Orders (for example, the 2021 EO ending Trump’s much condemned policy of separating undocumented children from their families at the border) were often ripe with grammatical errors and misspellings (like writing “seperation” instead of “separation” in the EO’s title). Epshteyn repeatedly took umbrage in Team Trump members spelling Cleta Mitchell’s first name either “Clita” or “Clavita,” and once wrote Attorney Marks, “Do you mean Arizona when you say Nevada???”

 

December 17^th, Epshteyn wrote Giuliani about a document on Election Fraud had been created by Trade Adviser Navarro, it “appears to be the most comprehensive summary of voter fraud from this election season.” But the document, when released, met with overwhelming ridicule.

 

 

December 17^th was also the day that Trump posted his notorious tweet inviting his supporters to descend on Washington on January 6^th promising it would “be wild.” Directly and indirectly, the plotters would refer to this tweet again and again.

 

December 23^rd, Marks acknowledged the plot lacked solid foundations in actual law. “You folks are getting killed in the media on litigation strategy, even on Fox and among conservatives.” Note that he wrote “you” instead of “we” as if he didn’t understand he was up-to-his eyeballs in it already.

 

On Christmas Eve, Eastman sent an email to Epshteyn referring to another email that he’d received from a woman imploring him to ask Mr. Trump “to put out what he would like his 74 million followers to do to help. ‘We need to be one voice, with laser focus, SPEAKING AS 74 MILLION STRONG’ … Thought I’d forward this. 74 Million strong. Let’s figure out a targeted way to deploy them. Rolling thunder? One legislature at a time? The others can see it coming.” The phrase “Rolling thunder” refers to a three-year bombing campaign by US forces aimed at breaking the back of Ho chi Mins resolve during the Vietnam War. It’s odd Eastman would reference it in this context, because it resulted in enormous civilian casualties and failed in its objectives.

 

December 27^th, Epshteyn wrote that Trump “liked” the aggressive approach of the Plotters and recommended that Mr. Eastman would be the “face of the media strategy … We need one voice out there [Eastman has] already been out/liked by POTUS.”

 

Trump’s meetings with Eastman are truly damning evidence that the President was a central plater in plot. Chairperson of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, who just happens to be related to long-time Trump adversary Mitt Romney, testified under Oath that Trump had called her and put Mr. Eastman on the line, “to talk about the importance of the R.N.C. helping the campaign gather these contingent electors.” The “contingent electors” were the Fake Electors.

 

January 4^th, Pence met with Trump and Eastman at the Oval Office and Trump (not for the first time) pressured Pence to refuse to Certify the Electoral votes on January 6^th. This was all witnessed by Pence’s two top Aides, and his Council Greg Jacob and Marc Short. Again, Pence refused. This is when we knew for certain he learned about the Fake Electors plot, though it probably happened much earlier.

 

On that same day, there were text messages between Team Trump and Republican Party Officials in Wisconsin, Team Trump was asking for someone to fly the Fake Electors' documents to Washington. This is part of the documentation establishing who was most directly involved.

 

January 6^th, just minutes before the joint Session of Congress was to begin at 1:05 p.m, there was text from the Chief of Staff of Senator Ron Johnson, Sean Riley, and Pence Staffer, Chris Hodson. It stated that Johnson needed to hand to Pence an "alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them." (Wisconsin is Johnson’s home state). Hodgson replied that the documents should not be delivered.

 

When this was revealed at the 1/6 Congressional Hearings in June 2022, the Spokesperson for Johnson, Alexa Henning, tweeted that Johnson played no role in the creation of the Fake Elector slates and didn’t know that they would be delivered to his office. "This was a staff to staff exchange. His new Chief of Staff contacted the Vice President's office. The Vice President's office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story." As Johnson was an advocate for the Big Lie, few believe that.

 

The attempted Coup had already erupted with a violent assault on Police on the steps of the US Capitol even as Reilly sent his text.

 

The battle would rage all day and into the night.

 

People died.

 

But the Traitors lost.

 

Or, at least they did this time.