Setting up a system of fake electors to give to your Vice President in lieu of the real ones the country voted for, Then setting a mob on your own capitol to cause a distraction so that the correct slate of electors could not be read and the transfer of power could not take place.
Framing everything you agree with as patriotism despite it being the comp[lete opposite and in violation fo the constitution.
And continuing to support the person who did all those things.
"
The Trump team helped prepare fake certificates in seven states that Trump lost: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In many cases, these certificates falsely stated that the electors were their state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. Those phony certificates were then submitted to the National Archives and Congress. A watchdog group published some of the fake certificates.
The evidence suggests that many in Trump’s inner circle understood that the fake electors scheme wouldn’t keep him in the White House, but the goal was to create the illusion of a contested election.
Once the GOP-led state legislatures didn’t go along with the plan, the idea was to, at minimum, give Vice President Mike Pence the pretext to either block Congress from recognizing Biden’s win or delay the vote count when he performed his ceremonial role on Jan. 6. Obviously, Pence didn’t go along with that plan.
There is evidence to suggest that some believed the Trump team could cast enough doubt and then take the case to the Supreme Court, where they apparently hoped the justices would issue a favorable ruling.
What, if anything, about this plot would be unlawful (as opposed to merely destined to fail)?
Prosecutors largely charged Trump with the crimes as referred to in the target letter his attorneys received last month. Federal statute 18 USC § 241 is a Civil War-era statute that makes it unlawful for two or more people to “conspire to injury, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” in the free exercise of their constitutional rights.
Courts have repeatedly found the statute applies in the voting rights context, specifically in the right to have one’s vote properly counted. Examples of past conspiracies have included stuffing ballot boxes, destroying ballots or changing votes at voting machines. The law does not require the conspiracy to be successful.
In this case, the theory is that Trump and others participated in a scheme to send phony certificates from pro-Trump electors to the National Archives and Congress, with the aim of thwarting the will of the voters in those seven battleground states who had voted for Biden.
18 USC 1512 § (c)(2), which involves obstructing an official proceeding, is also charged. The official proceeding in this case would be the vote certification in Congress on Jan 6. The prosecutor’s argument would be that by submitting phony electoral certificates to the National Archives, Trump and his allies attempted to obstruct that normal certification process. This is a statute that has been charged frequently in other Jan. 6 cases, and has been upheld by the D.C.’s highest federal appeals court (where we believe the charges would happen).
18 USC § 371 is the other statute primarily at issue. That’s about conspiring to defraud the U.S. government. Again, the theory would be that Trump and others conspired to obstruct "the lawful federal government function" of collecting, counting and certifying the election results.
Here’s what you need to know about the "fake electors" scheme and how it relates to Trump’s federal indictment following a 2020 election investigation.
www.nbcnews.com
