Wow. I did not know about that Icarus.
I’m surprised it’s not more common knowledge, but a lot of what was going at that time has been quite effectively buried.
And the Florida Secretary of State (responsible for election running) was Bush’s Florida campaign director.
And the governor of Florida was Bush’s brother.
Funny how all that, mendacious and evil as it was, seems petty by the standards of today’s GOP.
It was just all part of shifting the Overton Window of political skulduggery.
Here’s my simple version of this charge, but also seen in the bigger context.
After the Nov 2020 election votes were cast, the election was called for Biden. Trump did not accept that, and met with his advisors on how to stop it from being formalized. They pitched martial law; having the military seize voting machines; filing lawsuits; making Sidney Powell a special prosecutor to investigate voter “fraud”; submitting fake electors in all the swing States; using a mob to storm the Capital on Jan 6 to prevent Pence from finalizing the election for Biden. Only one of those was legal (lawsuits), but even that hinged almost entirely on baseless claims. Some of those they did, others they were talked out of.
Any Michigan related court case re: the election/fraud had been decided by Dec 7, 2020 and they all said Biden won/Trump lost; the Michigan AG said there was no voter fraud.
The fake electors were aware of this and this case is about the fake electors part to stop Biden from becoming President. Every State does their elector process differently. Several States, like Michigan, has rules requiring electors to cast their votes in the State capitol building, and rules governing the process for approving substitute Electors. Trump campaign knew this as stated in a Dec 9 2020 memo by a Trump advisor/attorney Chesebro advised:
to abide by such [State election] rules, when possible, but also recognized that these slates could be “slightly problematic in Michigan,” “somewhat dicey in Georgia and Pennsylvania,” and “very problematic in Nevada.”
It’s problematic in Michigan because the original 16 electors have to sign the form, in person at the Capitol. That’s where the Democratic electors did it on Dec 14, 2020. Also, it has to be the original 16 electors previously submitted to the Sec of State prior to the election.
Instead, on Dec 14, 2020, the 16 Republic Michigan electors (14 originals, 2 new ones) tried to go to the Capitol to sign the document, but were denied entry. So they left and met at their party HQ.
There they signed the document at party HQ asserting many false things, including that they met and signed this document at the Capitol at 2pm. The fake electors then tried to go back to the Capitol and submit the forged document. They were denied entry (I believe this is the part on video).
Later, they sent that forged document to the National Archives (with mail tracking) and elsewhere as if it were the real electoral certificate (ie, a forged public record).
Thank you. Your explanation has cleared up a few questions I’ve had about this the entire time.
To me it’s all sounded so utterly ridiculous and comical, like if Jalen Hurts and the Eagles had knocked on the door of the White House back in late February, thinking that if they could gain entry and shake hands with President Biden before Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs got there, that they could just declare themselves the Super Bowl winner.
Yes, thanks for this straightforward explanation.
ISTM (and IANAL) that, while nefarious, none of these actions constituted a crime until the document was sent to the National Archives.
So I’m wondering: in the rest of the states that had a group of fake electors, did any of them send a ‘final’ document to the Archivist?
I think the conspiracy is a crime once they commit the first overt act. Signing the forms knowing they were not the duly elected electors is a crime. Sending it to the National Archives is another crime.
In reading the charges, sounds like just talking about falsely signing the forms is conspiracy.
I hope all of these idjits see some time behind bars, with convictions being handed down prior to November of 2024.
Yes. A lesson needs to be sent to these muppets (and those who would emulate them) that:
- What they were doing are criminal acts
- They will be caught and punished
- The elite will hang them out to dry.
Also not a lawyer but, assuming that Michigan law is consistent with other places, a conspiracy has been committed once a group of people take a concrete action towards seeing through a criminal act that they’ve discussed doing.
Further, as I understand it, incompetence is not a mitigating factor. If you want to blow up a school and murder everyone in it but get the wrong address and end up blowing up an empty warehouse, you will still be prosecuted for a conspiracy to commit murder. So, likewise, if other groups thought that they should send it to the state capitol or whatever else, if the intent was to commit a crime then that’s all that matters.
Yeah, that’s basically what the charges stated, which I should have read before posting.
Thank you for the summary. That is pretty damning. I hope they all go to jail for the rest of their lives. People need to understand that you don’t get to subvert the Democratic process even if you really really like the losing candidate.
Except to Trump. Giving over documents to the Archives, who does that? In fact this almost proves that Trump wasn’t the mastermind of this evil scheme.
Absolutely. They are public record in the National Archives: 2020 Presidential Election Unofficial Certificates submitted to The Office of the Federal Register.. You can see them all, including the Michigan one that was sent.
I’ll add, to round out the bigger context, these were also sent to Pence (aka “President of the Senate”), as is law and as the real electors were. Presumably, Pence would be “confused” and throw up his hands and delay the Presidential certification for Biden, etc. Luckily, he sought advice prior to Jan 6, and did not do that even under immense pre-planned pressure on Jan 6.
It might have been a crime from the beginning, but I’d assume they would never have been caught or even been on anyone’s radar unless it was sent in.
It’s sort of like writing a death threat, but nobody knows unless you send it to the victim.
That’s kinda what I was trying to say earlier.
Or writing a hot check but never taking it to the store.
the first thing you notice is how plain and similar they are. the real ones are a mess of sizes, fanciness, and paper types.
there wouldn’t have been any confusion at all.
Exactly. Like maybe they were all given a template by the Trump campaign and deviated from the template only to comply with quirks in their laws. I don’t know this to be true at all, just a guess.
That aside, this is feeling more like a close one. In hindsight, had Trump kept this more private and NOT openly pressured Pence/no Jan 6 riot, and then out of the blue on Jan 6 Pence declares say Arizona/Michigan for Trump…yikes.
yeah, it was a close one. I don’t think the plan was for Pence to accept these fake certificates, but to use them to say there’s a controversy and not accept either these or the real ones. Then the election goes to the House, and we’re screwed.