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Just five days after Election Day 2020, a conservative lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro sent an email to James R. Troupis, a former judge who worked for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, offering ideas on how to overturn the results. promoted.
Chesebro said in a lawsuit that the Trump campaign alleges “various systemic fraud,” and that court proceedings are pending, “alternative candidates” who could be certified in place of the Biden electors chosen by the voters, ” could prompt Congress to appoint pro-Trump electors.
“In this cloud of confusion, at the very least, the votes from Wisconsin (and probably Michigan and Pennsylvania as well) should not be counted, and are probably enough votes to throw the election into the House,” Chesebrow said. he said in a letter to Troupis. battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania;
Mr. Troupis quickly recruited Mr. Chesebro to Trump’s defense team and instructed him to compile the plan into a series of memos that are now at the center of the prosecution of Donald J. I got their cooperation. White House Chief of Staff — secured a meeting with Trump at the White House.
This email is the earliest known evidence of Mr. Chesebro’s involvement in what became known as the election sham conspiracy. The documents were made public Monday along with a trove of more than 1,400 pages of text messages and emails belonging to Mr. Troupis and Mr. Cesebro in a settlement of a lawsuit filed in Wisconsin.
Taken together, these documents provide new detail that the Trump campaign’s litigation strategy was not designed to hide their political efforts, but rather to win in court. It shows. And they underscore the central role Mr. Trupi, previously little known in the effort to overturn the election, played in promoting the plan.
The messages also described how Chesebro tried to get fake voter documents into the hands of members of Congress, and how Chesebro has since pleaded guilty in Georgia to a felony charge of conspiracy in connection with the scheme. It also details how he celebrated the crowd. These were the people gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021, before a violent mob stormed the Capitol.
“Enjoy the history you made possible today,” Trupi wrote in a text message to Chesebro at 11:04 a.m. that day.
The new details come in a lawsuit filed by the progressive law firm Law Forward and Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection against Chesebro, Troupis and Wisconsin’s so-called fake electors. This is what was gained from the settlement.
This lawsuit was filed on behalf of legitimate Wisconsin presidential electors and voters.
The alleged electors have already settled their share of the lawsuit and recognized President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Mr. Troupis and Mr. Cesebro have agreed not to engage in similar activities in the future, including not participating in any scheme to advance fake electoral candidates.
The proposed settlement also included payments of an undisclosed amount to the plaintiffs.
“These documents show that the voter fraud conspiracy began in Wisconsin, that Trump campaign lawyer James Troupis and general counsel Ken Chesebro cooked up the conspiracy, and that it ultimately led to rioters justifying the storming of the Capitol. provided a false narrative that was used to do so,” Mary McCord said. , director of the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Defense and Advocacy.
Trupi said in a statement that the settlement was reached “to avoid endless litigation, and today’s settlement does not and should not be an admission of fault.”
“Regardless of popularity, it is the duty of lawyers to vigorously represent their clients within the bounds of the law,” he said. “Our expression was vigorous and ethically appropriate.”
Chesebro’s memo was central to the federal indictment of Trump on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. They reveal how the Trump campaign’s plans have shifted from a legal challenge to what prosecutors describe as a criminal plot to engineer a “sham controversy to derail the proper certification of Biden as president-elect.” It is taken up as evidence.
The memo also became the basis for a strategy advocated by conservative lawyer John Eastman and Mr. Trump that a federal judge called a “coup in legal theory.”
In a Nov. 19, 2020 email to Troupis, Chesebro said Trump’s lawyers were pursuing “two bites at the apple, a ligation, and by January 6th, We hope to win, but we should also take advantage of the postponement.” On December 8th, he filed a lawsuit in the state Legislature that he hopes will win. ”
Some of the documents refer to a meeting between Mr. Trupi, Mr. Cesebro, and Mr. Trump that took place in the Oval Office on December 15, 2020.
“The public clearly understands that this would not have happened if you, Reince, and others did not push for it,” Chesebro wrote to Trupi two days before the White House visit. wrote.
They were told to keep the meeting secret and not to bring anything for Trump to sign, according to the messages.
“Mr. Reins advised me very clearly not to tell anyone about his meeting with the President,” Troupis later wrote to Mr. Cesebro.
Mr. Chesebro briefed Michigan prosecutors investigating the election fraud conspiracy about the meeting. He said Priebus told the men not to get their hopes up about Trump’s chances of winning, but Chesebro admitted he didn’t heed that advice.
“We had until January 6th to win,” Chesebro recalled telling Trump during the meeting, adding, “After that, we got in real trouble,” according to audio obtained by CNN. Ta.
Chesebro did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Preibus declined to comment. As a lawyer in his home state of Wisconsin, Troupis recommended Troupis to the Trump campaign but was not involved in his day-to-day legal work, according to people familiar with his actions.
The person said he had only arranged a “photo shoot” of the men at Mr Turpi’s request and had not met Mr Cesebro or knew who he was until that day. This person provided a similar account of the meeting with Chesebro, saying Preibus did not want to encourage the president to fight the election results.
Still, after the meeting, both Mr. Troupis and Mr. Cesebro seemed to feel they had special knowledge of Mr. Trump’s plans.
After Trump posted on Twitter that he would be holding a rally in Washington on January 6, he urged people to “get there and have a blast!” Chesebro addressed his followers in an important message that served as a call to action for far-right groups. Mr. Chesebro wrote to Mr. Tropis: I think we have our own understanding of this based on 3 days ago. ”
Although the plan began in Wisconsin, messages indicate that the men considered Georgia the key to achieving their goals.
Chesebro wrote on December 26, 2020, “If Georgia is before the Supreme Court on January 6th, and Mr. Pence arrives in Georgia, he will simply refuse to open the Georgia envelope. “That’s probably the boss’s actions,” he wrote. He was referring to Vice President Mike Pence’s ceremonial role in Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results.
On the morning of January 6, Chesebro, working with Michael Roman, the Trump campaign’s director of election day operations, said that the day before he had given an aide to Republican Rep. Mike Kelly a document regarding the false slate of electors. Told. of Pennsylvania. His aides reportedly took them to the senator.
“That’s great,” Trupi replied. “Tomorrow we’ll talk about SCOTUS’ future strategy. Enjoy the history you’ve made possible today.”
Chesebro then sent a photo of himself with the crowd on January 6 at 12:26 p.m.
Turpi responded with a clap emoji.
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