Donald Trump’s campaign directly orchestrated the filing of a certificate, signed by 16 Michigan Republicans, that falsely claimed he won the state’s 2020 election, according to internal campaign emails obtained by The Detroit News.
The e-mails are part of the documents procured by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s ongoing investigation into the slate of 16 false electors who gathered to sign a false certificate inside state party headquarters on December 14, 2020. The e-mails were gathered by the AG’s office after Kenneth Chesebro began cooperating with authorities. Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in Georgia’s probe of the 2020 election.
Trump’s campaign staff helped coordinate the gathering of false electors, and prepared the official mailing of the false certificate to Vice President Mike Pence and the National Archives. Later when it was uncertain the mailing would arrive to Pence on time, campaign employees helped facilitate a plan to fly the certificate to Washington.
Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who helped create the false electors plan, e-mailed Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn on January 1, 2021, about the plan to “void the results favoring” Joe Biden in order to bolster the idea of a “rigged” election.
Trump campaign staffer Shawn Flynn prepared the certificate for mailing, and sought advice about how to safely get it to Pence’s office.
“Choose the fastest,” Mike Roman, the Trump campaign’s director of Election Day operations, replied at about 2 p.m. Dec. 15, 2020.
On Jan. 4, 2021, Roman, the Trump campaign operative, emailed Chesebro and Matt Morgan, general counsel for the Trump campaign, saying the Michigan certificate was mailed on Dec. 15, 2020, but was still “in transit.”
The internal Trump campaign emails indicate that it was Trump campaign employees, not the electors, who presented the false document to federal government agencies. And in court last month, multiple Michigan Republican officials linked the Trump campaign to the organization and execution of the false electors’ scheme.
Asked why it appeared those who coordinated the false electors plan hadn’t been charged by the Attorney General’s office, Nessel spokesman Danny Wimmer said the investigation remains “active and ongoing.”
“…(T)he department has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants,” Wimmer added.
Many more details and name-drops in the full article at The Detroit News.
