Trump team's apparent scheme to fly fake elector ballots to DC comes to light

Washington DC - A new report has revealed how Donald Trump and his allies apparently plotted to fly their "fake elector" ballots to the nation's capitol ahead of the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

New documents reveal plans by Donald Trump and his allies to transport "fake elector" ballots to Washington DC to overturn the 2020 election results.
New documents reveal plans by Donald Trump and his allies to transport "fake elector" ballots to Washington DC to overturn the 2020 election results.  © OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP

Audio recordings and messages obtained by CNN newly detail the plan, which reportedly began two days prior to January 6, 2021 - the day Vice President Mike Pence was set to certify the election results.

The most important of these include testimony given by former Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who agreed to a plea deal in October, admitting to conspiracy to file false documents.

As a part of his deal, Chesebro has been cooperating with prosecutors in the Georgia election interference case and others in Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, where investigators are looking into allegations of questionable fake elector certificates used in their states in 2020.

Trump gets temporary reprieve from courthouse grind as he heads to Wisconsin
Donald Trump Trump gets temporary reprieve from courthouse grind as he heads to Wisconsin

In recorded testimony with Michigan prosecutors, Chesebro claimed "the Trump campaign [was] freaked out that the Michigan votes [were] still in the sorting facility in Michigan, which [didn't] look like they were gonna get to Pence in time," and even considered getting a private jet to make the delivery of the fake ballots on time.

"They didn't have to charter a jet, but they did commercial," he continued. "This [was] a high level decision to get the Michigan and Wisconsin votes there, and they had to enlist a US senator to try to expedite it to get it to Pence in time."

So what does this "fake electors" scheme mean exactly, and why was Trump's camp seemingly scrambling?

What are Trump's fake elector ballots and what happened on January 6?

In US presidential elections, the winner is not chosen by which challenger receives the most votes, but by a slate of state sanctioned "electors" that cast their own ballots. By law, those votes must be delivered in person to the US Senate to tally the votes.

Trump and his allies allegedly planned to hand off fake ballots from unofficial electors to Pence before the certification, and expected him to accept these fake electors over the real ones.

On January 6, an aide to Senator Ron Johnson attempted to deliver the fake ballots, texting Pence's aide Chris Hodgson that he needed to "hand" them to Pence "because archivist didn't receive them."

"Do not give that to him," Hodgson responded.

Cover photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP

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