Trump Allies Created Fake Electoral College Certificates

By Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen | CNN

In the weeks following the 2020 election, allies of then-President Donald Trump sent fake certificates to the National Archives claiming that Trump had won seven states he actually lost. The documents did not affect the outcome of the election, but they are another example of how the Trump Team is trying to overthrow the Electoral College — a key line of investigation by the committee Jan.

The fake certificates were created by Trump allies in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico.

The documents are signed by Trump supporters, who claim to be legitimate electors from the seven states President Joe Biden has won. But these rogue electors don’t have the backing of any elected officials in the seven states – like the governor or secretary of state, who certify the results – and they serve no purpose. which is justifiable.

The documents were first posted online in March by the government’s monitoring group. But they received renewed attention this week, as the January 6 committee stepped up its investigation into Trump’s coup attempt, including how his allies tried to prevent states from certifying war. Biden’s victory was, in part, by installing groups of friendly electors who would subvert the will of the voters.

Politico and MSNBC were the first to report on the documents this week.

Fake groups of electors

As part of the Electoral College process, governors are required to sign an official “certificate of confirmation,” verifying that the winning group of electors statewide are legitimate electors. These voters then sign a second certificate, officially confirming their vote for the presidency.

These documents are sent to the National Archives in Washington, DC, where they are processed before being sent to Congress, where the electoral votes will be formally counted on January 6.

The real certificates, posted to the National Archives website, correctly state that Biden has won in seven battleground states. They also listed the group of legitimate electors from each state, rather than the fraudulent pro-Trump group included in the unofficial documents.

According to the documents, several fake certificates with pro-Trump electors were sent to the National Archives by top officials representing the Republican Party in each state.

They sent these fake certificates after Trump himself failed to block the governors from signing the real certificates. Specifically, Trump encouraged Republican governors in states like Georgia and Arizona not to certify election results, while falsely claiming that the election was rigged. But these GOP officials ignored Trump, followed the law, and handed Biden the electoral votes.

Installing groups of “alternative electors” is an integral part of an evil plan conceived by Trump’s allies to usurp power on January 6 by pressuring the Vice President to Mike Pence eliminated the Biden-supporting electors selected by the voters. The idea is promoted by Trump advisers inside and outside the White House, including controversial right-wing lawyer John Eastman.

Eastman, who was subpoenaed on January 6 by the committee, authored a memo outlining a six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election and hand Trump a second term. The plan includes removing results from seven states because they are supposed to have competitive electors.

In fact, no state actually has two competing groups of electors. Pro-Trump electors merely claim without any authority to become electors, as documented in fake certificates submitted to the National Archives. Certifications are essentially a complex public relations exercise.

The new documents are not the only fake certificates submitted to the National Archives. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, told CNN’s Don Lemon that a second group called “The Sovereign Citizens of the State of Arizona” sent a forged document to the National Archives joined in 2020 and she said they used the state seal of Arizona inappropriately. on their fake certificate.

“They used this fake seal to make it look official, which is not a legitimate operation,” Hobbs said.

Key focus for the January 6 dashboard

The fake certificates and accompanying emails also obtained by American Oversight were sent in mid-December 2020, while the Trump Team is actively promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud in an effort to overturn the election. Weeks later, pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in a violent attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.

Their pressure campaign against election officials in many of these battleground states is now an area of ​​focus for the House Select Committee that is investigating the January 6 attacks.

An entire team of investigators, known as the “gold team,” is dedicated to unpacking that pressure campaign. The panel spoke to multiple election officials from states where Trump falsely claimed there was evidence of fraud and in some cases traveled to those states.

All of the testimony and information the committee has gathered from these election officials about the pressure campaign will come to fruition during the first hearing, likely at prime time, set to unravel. “Big lie” that the election was stolen. Some state election officials that the committee has personally interviewed may even appear as witnesses.

Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the Democratic chairman of the committee, told CNN, “We’ve been to Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania. We reviewed 60 bizarre lawsuits that have been filed in various federal courts and have apparently been dismissed. We spoke to people who conducted elections in areas where people said those elections were rigged.”