Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said in recorded testimony that the White House counsel's office advised Meadows, Giuliani and others that the plan was not legally sound. And two Trump campaign lawyers, Justin Clark and Matt Morgan, testified that they were uncomfortable with the idea of tapping fake electors.
The tactical details of the effort, according to evidence presented Tuesday, included a clandestine plot for fake electors to sleep overnight in the Michigan Capitol, the involvement of members of Congress, and a Trump campaign request for false Wisconsin certification documents to be flown across state lines to Washington in time for the Jan. 6 count.
Laura Cox, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, testified in a video clip that a person affiliated with the Trump campaign told her about the sleepover stratagem.
"He told me that the Michigan Republican electors were planning to meet in the Capitol and hide overnight so that they could fulfill the role of casting their vote per law in the Michigan chambers," she said. "And I told him in no uncertain terms that was insane and inappropriate."
And a Wisconsin Republican complained in a text message about the Trump campaign's Jan. 4, 2021, search for a plane to carry false certification documents.
"Freaking Trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President [Pence]," Mark Jefferson, the executive director of the Wisconsin GOP, wrote. "They're going to call one of us to tell us just what the hell is going on."
When Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Trump supporter who rebuffed Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani's entreaties to switch electors in his state, learned that fake electors had met, he was shocked.
False certifications from seven pivotal states were submitted to the National Archives in hopes of reversing the will of American voters.
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