A plot to overturn the 2020 election with the help of “fake voters” was laid out in a memo obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday, the document revealing a key pillar of Jack Smith’s indictment of Donald Trump.
The memo was sent on December 6, 2020 by a Trump-affiliated attorney, Kenneth Chesebro, to another attorney for the then president, James Troupis.
It was one of at least three memos Chesebro sent to the Trump team outlining a legal rationale for overturning Biden’s victory when the votes were certified on Jan. 6, 2021.
The “fake voter” strategy is one of the main allegations in the August 1 indictment against Trump on charges of attempting to overturn the election.
Chesebro is not named in the indictment and is still being charged, but is referred to as ‘Co-Conspirator 5’.
Donald Trump is seen at a rally in Windham, New Hampshire, on Tuesday before revealing details of a classified memo sent to one of his lawyers about quashing the 2020 election
Kenneth Chesebro is identified in the indictment as “co-conspirator five.” He sent at least three memos to other Trump-supporting attorneys suggesting how to reverse the 2020 election
He is described in the indictment as an attorney who “helped devise and execute a scheme to file fraudulent lists of presidential voters to obstruct the certification process.”
The memo’s existence was first revealed in last week’s indictment, but its contents were not made public.
The memo details Chesebro’s plan to have a group of pro-Trump voters meet in six contested states on December 14, 2020, and produce phony votes.
Chesebro admitted that he was proposing “a bold, controversial strategy” that the Supreme Court would “likely” reject.
But, he argued, it was a viable way to ensure Joe Biden’s Jan. 6 victory was not approved.
He recommended presenting the meeting as “a routine measure necessary to ensure” that the correct election list could be counted by Congress if courts or lawmakers later concluded that Trump had actually won the states.
And he acknowledged that it would be a provocative move: Chesebro recommended holding the meetings behind closed doors.
Chesebro spent a lot of time playing Mike Pence, the vice president, whose certification of the votes on January 6 would normally be purely ceremonial and low-key.
Jack Smith is pictured on Aug. 1 explaining the charge at a press conference in Washington DC
The Capitol is attacked on January 6, 2021 after Chesebro and others proposed a plan to void the election results
Rioters storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021
Chesebro pleaded for Pence to “take the position that it is only his constitutional power and duty, as Senate President, to both open and count the votes.”
He claimed that Pence could count Trump voters’ bogus votes as long as a lawsuit was pending disputing Biden’s victory.
Pence eventually told Trump and his allies that he was not constitutionally entitled to carry out their wishes.
According to the indictment, Trump told Pence he was “too honest.”
On Tuesday night, Trump again attacked Smith over the indictment.
He was also furious at allegations that the January 6 commission investigating the riot failed to adequately preserve documents, records and video footage.
Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who is investigating the actions of the January 6 Committee, said Fox News digital that his staff had been unable to obtain the materials needed to investigate the now-disbanded commission.
“Part of our job as an oversight subcommittee is to actually address the security flaws, investigate how it happened … how these people got into the Capitol,” Loudermilk said.
He said the documents they obtained came in boxes and were totally disorganized.
“Nothing has been indexed. There was no table of contents index. When you do this level of research, you usually use a database system and everything is digitized and indexed.
‘We don’t have anything like that. We only have raw data,” he said.
“So it took us a long time to go through it and one thing I’ve started to realize is we don’t have anything from the Blue Team at all.”
Trump said Loudermilk’s allegations meant that Smith’s case should be dismissed.
“So now that I have full subpoenas power over the free speech sham charges by Crooked Joe Biden, deranged Jack Smith and the DOJ, it has just been reported that the Unselect January 6 Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs has lost their Records and Documents,” he wrote on social media.
“This is unthinkable and the bogus political charges against me must be dropped immediately. The system is Rigged & Corrupt, just like the 2020 presidential election.
“We are a nation in decline!”