“While John Eastman has been singled out,” the Jan. 6 committee learned “it was actually Kenneth Chesebro who was the architect” of the fake elector plot, NBC News reported on Thursday, December 22, 2022, after the committee released its final report (read story here).
Chesebro (photo, left), a Harvard-educated Trump campaign lawyer, has an ethics complaint pending against him in New York for his role in Trump’s attempt to overthrow America’s lawfully-elected government (read story here; see the complaint here). It remains to be seen whether he’ll be indicted, but prosecutors are known to be closely examining the fake elector scheme.
The report says, “The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memoranda written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump campaign: Kenneth Chesebro. Although John Eastman would have a more prominent role in advising President Trump in the days immediately before January 6th, Chesebro … was central to the creation of the plan.”
NBC News also reported that Vince Haley (photo, right), a Trump speechwriter and former Newt Gingrich associate (details here), told Trump’s personnel director that a purportedly “stolen election” was “only one rationale” for the fake electors, and they also should argue that state legislatures had “a constitutional right” to override the voters’ decision “if that prevents socialism.”
I’m thinking a couple things here. One is that if Haley is charged with election-related crimes, and that’s his defense, he should be required to prove Biden is a “socialist” to make the defense stick.
The other is, if that works for Trumpers, then Democrats in Congress should be allowed to replace or disregard GOP electors “if that prevents fascism.”
Of course I’m not advocating that; it’s a silly argument. The sad part is that so many Republicans don’t get how silly it is, or that it violates the most basic rights of tens of millions of Americans. The entire Republican Party is caught up in that silliness, and that’s why you can’t vote for GOP candidates for the time being, no matter what your ideology is. Preserving America’s democracy has to be every voter’s top priority right now.
These lawyers attacked our democracy, and that’s why I want to see them disbarred and prosecuted for their crimes against the people.