A new measure of Trumpworld’s willingness to let others take the fall
Kathy Berden, Hank Choate, Amy Facchinello, Clifford Frost, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Mari-Ann Henry, Timothy King, Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, Mayra Rodriguez, Rose Rook, Marian Sheridan, Ken Thompson and Kent Vanderwood are under indictment in Michigan, each facing criminal counts centered on forgery.
In Nevada, James DeGraffenreid, Durward Hindle, Jesse Law, Michael McDonald, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice face similar charges, as well. Cathy Latham, David Shafer and Shawn Still were indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., on charges of forgery and impersonating a public officer.
In Wisconsin, Carol Brunner, Mary Buestrin, Darryl Carlson, Bill Feehan, Edward Grabins, Andrew Hitt, Kathy Kiernen, Kelly Ruh, Robert Spindell Jr. and Pam Travis avoided criminal charges but settled a civil case brought against them. Luckily for them, that settlement excluded the $200,000-per-person penalty that had originally been sought.
In total, that’s 34 people who are either awaiting trial or were part of the Wisconsin settlement. They may be joined by 11 others from Arizona, where a similarly focused investigation is underway.
Their shared (alleged) misconduct? Serving as fake electors in support of Donald Trump’s effort to retain power after 2020.
These nearly three dozen individuals are not the only people who exposed themselves to potential sanctions for actions they took in support of Trump. There are also those 1,200-plus people charged with or who pleaded guilty to having participated in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The nature of the alleged criminal conduct is obviously different. But the motivation is similar: being convinced by Trump and/or Trump’s allies that they had a role to play in helping Trump overcome his election loss.
For years, Trump and his team have insisted that their actions were a function of legal advice they’d been given, that the president believed the election was stolen (despite the lack of evidence to that effect) and that his lawyers told him there were legitimate ways in which he could counteract that theft. The fake-electors scheme was perhaps the most explicit, getting individuals to submit their names to the National Archives in the same manner as their states’ legitimate, Joe Biden electors, just in case there was a way to swap their votes in for the real ones.
But there were important differences in how those illegitimate votes were presented. In Georgia, the submitted votes were presented as those of “the duly elected and qualified Electors” of the state. In Pennsylvania, they were offered just in case “we are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors.” The former statement is untrue; all but one of the signatories to it now face criminal charges. (The exception reached a deal with prosecutors.) The latter statement is moderated and no charges have been filed.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Detroit News published text messages demonstrating how that difference was effected. Sent between Kenneth Chesebro — a Trump attorney who agreed to cooperate with the Fulton County probe — and Mike Roman, a Trump campaign staffer, the discussion centers on the language used in the Pennsylvania document.
“Mike, I think the language at start of the certificate should be changed in all the states,” Chesebro writes. “Let’s look at the language carefully.”
“[I] don’t,” Roman replied, curtly.
“I can help with drafting in a couple [of] hours,” Chesebro wrote.
Roman responded with an expletive: “f--- these guys.”
Chesebro replied, “Just placate [Pennsylvania]? OK.”
That exchange occurred on Dec. 12, 2020, two days before the fake electors met to sign their names to the documents provided by the Trump team. This was an explicit conflict between the legal side, Chesebro, and the political side, Roman — and the political side won out. The language was not moderated and the Trump “electors” in other states have subsequently faced sanction.
Analysis by Philip Bump
National columnist, The Washington Post