So far undisclosed emails offer an inside look at the increasingly desperate and often reckless attempts by former President Donald Trump’s aides to reverse the electoral defeat in the weeks leading up to the Jan. A key element of the plan was of dubious legality and lived up to accusations that it was false.
The dozens of emails between people connected with the Trump campaign, outside aides and close associates show a particular focus on creating lists of people who would claim – without base – to be Electoral College voters in favor of the Republican in hotly contested states where he lost. .
In emails seen by the New York Times and authenticated by people who worked on the former president’s campaign, a lawyer involved in the discussions repeatedly used the word “fake” to refer to alleged voters, who intended to provide Vice Mike Pence and Trump allies in Congress a justification for blocking the election result certification process.
Lawyers who worked on the proposal made it clear that they were aware that the pro-Trump voters they were presenting might not resist legal scrutiny.
“We would be sending ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress could object when they started counting votes, arguing that ‘fake’ votes should be counted,” wrote Jack Wilenchik, a lawyer who helped organize pro-Trump voters in Arizona, in a December 8, 2020, email to Boris Epshteyn, the campaign’s strategic adviser.
In a follow-up email, Wilenchik wrote that “‘alternative’ votes would probably be a better term than ‘fake,'” adding a smiley face emoji. The emails offer more detail on how one wing of the Trump campaign worked with outside lawyers and advisers to organize the election plan and pursue a range of other options, often without thinking about their feasibility.
An email showed that many of the former president’s top advisers were made aware of problems nominating Trump voters in Michigan – the state in which he lost – because pandemic rules closed the state Capitol building where would-be voters were supposed to gather.
The emails also show that participants in the discussions reported details of the activities to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, and in at least one case to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff. At the time, according to the House committee investigating Jan 6, Meadows emailed another aide, saying, “We just need to have someone coordinating voters for the states.”
Many of the emails were to Epshteyn, who served as people coordinator in and out of the Trump campaign and the White House and remains a close aide to the former president. As the emails show, he was a regular point of contact for John Eastman, a lawyer whose plan to derail the Electoral College result certification on January 6, 2021, was adopted by Trump.
Epshteyn not only presented and conveyed to Giuliani the detailed proposal prepared by Eastman; he also handled questions about how to pay Eastman and made arrangements for him to visit the White House on January 4, 2021, as the emails show. That was the day of the Oval Office meeting in which Trump and Eastman unsuccessfully pressured Pence to adopt the plan — a communication witnessed by Pence’s two top aides, Marc Short and Greg Jacob, who testified last week in federal jury court. who investigates the assault on the Capitol and what led to it.
The emails highlight that much of the work on finding ways to contest defeat in the hottest states was done by Mike Roman, director of Election Day operations for the Trump campaign. Epshteyn and Roman, according to the emails, were coordinating with others in Trump advising roles, such as attorneys Jenna Ellis and Bruce Marks; Gary Michael Brown, who served as deputy director of Election Day operations for the campaign; and Christina Bobb, who then worked for One America News Network and now serves on Trump’s political action committee (PAC).
The emails were apparently not shared with members of the White House attorney’s office, who said the “false voters” plan was not legally sound, or with other campaign lawyers. Some of the participants also expressed approval in the emails for keeping some of their activities out of public view.
After Trump hosted Pennsylvania state lawmakers at the White House in late November to discuss reversing the election result, Epshteyn cheered when news of the meeting didn’t quickly leak out. “The meeting has not been publicized, which is shocking and great,” he wrote to Ellis.
On December 8, 2020, Wilenchik wrote that Kelli Ward, an Arizona Republican who participated in the fake voters plan, recommended “keep secret until Congress counts votes on January 6 (so we can try to ‘surprise’ Democrats) and the media)”. “I tend to agree with her.”
Epshteyn, Wilenchik, Roman, Eastman, Bobb and James Troupis, another attorney involved in the plan, declined to comment or did not respond to emails or calls requesting comment. Marks, in an email, denied that there was anything inappropriate or inappropriate going on.
“I don’t believe there was anything ‘false’ or illegal about the alternate delegate slates, and particularly in Pennsylvania,” he said. “There was a history of alternative slates from Hawaii in the 1960s. There was no secret about it – they were provided to the National Archives, as I understand the procedure, and then it was up to Congress to decide what to do.” Marks added, “I had no involvement with Professor Eastman’s advice on the vice role, which I only learned about after the fact — and did not support.”
The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill produced evidence that Trump was aware of the voters’ plan. Ronna McDaniel, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in testimony to lawmakers that the former president called her and put Eastman on the phone “to talk about the importance of the committee helping the campaign bring these contingent voters together.”
The panel also heard testimony from Jacob, who was Pence’s White House attorney, that Eastman admitted at the Oval Office meeting on Jan. electoral certification violated the Electoral Counting Law.
By early December, Epshteyn was apparently helping to coordinate the efforts, communicating several times with Marks and others. Wilenchik told his fellow lawyers that he was discussing an idea proposed by another lawyer who worked on the campaign, Kenneth Chesebro, an Eastman ally, to present slates of voters loyal to Trump.
“His idea is that all of us (Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, etc.) make our voters cast their votes (even if they are not legal under federal law because they are not signed by the governor) so that members of Congress can discuss whether to be counted on January 6th,” Wilenchik wrote in the December 8, 2020 email to Epshteyn and half a dozen others.
“Kind of wild/creative – happy to discuss,” continued Wilenchik. “My comment to him was that I don’t think there’s any harm in that (legally at least) – that is, we would just send ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can object when they start counting and pass to argue that ‘false’ votes should be counted.”
The emails showed that the group initially hoped that state legislatures or Republican governors would adhere to their plans and give them legitimacy. But by December it became clear that no official would agree, so Trump’s lawyers focused on pressuring Pence, who was due to preside over the joint session of Congress on January 6.
On December 7, Troupis, who worked on Trump’s Wisconsin campaign, wrote to Epshteyn that “there was no need for lawmakers to act.” He cited Chesebro’s legal analysis that the key to Trump’s hopes was not to block state certification of voters on Dec. 14, but to create a reason for Pence to block or delay certification by Congress on Jan. 6.
Lawyers were aware that their legal efforts were being mocked. On December 23, Marks wrote, “You are getting killed in the media over your litigation strategy, even at Fox and among Conservatives.” But they were not intimidated. On Christmas Eve, it seems Eastman wanted to take advantage of the millions of Trump supporters. At 8:04 pm that night, he sent Epshteyn an email he had received, in which a woman implored him to ask Trump “to spread the word about what he would like his 74 million followers to do to help.” He added, “We need to be a single voice, laser-focused, TALKING TO THE 74 MILLION FORCE.”
On December 27, Epshteyn wrote that Trump “liked” an aggressive approach proposed by the lawyers and that Eastman would be the “face of media strategy”, along with Giuliani. “We need a voice out there,” Epshteyn wrote of Eastman, saying he “has already been chosen/approved by POTUS [sigla em inglês para presidente dos EUA]”. There were only a few days left until January 6th.
