Ten Republican “fake electors” in Wisconsin who falsely claimed Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election in the state settled on Wednesday a civil lawsuit for which they admitted that President Joe Biden’s victory was legitimate and agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding other cases.
As part of their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Republicans in seven swing states submitted slates of fake electors to Congress based on Trump’s discredited conspiracy theory that the vote had been stolen from him by fraud. The claims have been repeatedly rejected in courts and by independent legal experts.
In Wisconsin, the 10 accepted that they had been “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results” as part of the deal, and withdrew the false filings they sent to Congress claiming Trump had won the state.
They also pledged to cooperate with “any ongoing or future investigations or prosecutions” brought by the DOJ against those accused of breaking the law in their bid to block Biden’s election win. They weren’t required to pay any damages or attorney fees or admit liability.
The Wisconsin case was brought by a group of Democrats that also sued two of Trump’s attorneys in lawsuits that are ongoing, including Kenneth Chesebro, who has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents as part of a similar case in Georgia.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, former Department of Defense special counsel and law professor Ryan Goodman said the deal strengthens Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal election meddling case against Trump.
He wrote: “Valuable evidence for DOJ [Department of Justice] and other criminal cases involving 2020 false electors scheme!
1/ Valuable evidence for DOJ and other criminal cases involving 2020 false electors scheme!
Plus civil case in Wisconsin now focused on Chesebro with these new, strong witnesses against him.
Most important, supports Jack Smith theory of the case…https://t.co/U8CZlrHB6s pic.twitter.com/VKWyywhapB
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) December 6, 2023
“Plus civil case in Wisconsin now focused on Chesebro with these new, strong witnesses against him. Most important, supports Jack Smith theory of the case…”
Goodman continued: “10 Wisconsin false electors statement to legal authorities: 1. We were told our action was contingent on court victories. (Ken Chesebro etc. planned to use them regardless!) 2. Certified docs were used “to improperly overturn” the election. 3. We were not duly elected.
“4/ This appears to be Jack Smith’s theory of the case and is what gets Trump-Chesebro-Giuliani in deep legal trouble.”
In a statement, one of the fake electors, former Wisconsin state Republican Chairman Andrew Hitt, claimed they had been misled by those behind the scheme and believed it was merely intended to keep the Trump campaign’s legal options open.
Drew Angerer/GETTY
He said: “The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump via the online contact form on his official website for comment.
Also on Wednesday, six Republican fake electors in Nevada were charged with “offering a false instrument for filing” and “uttering a forged instrument.”
Fake electors have also been charged with criminal offenses in Michigan and Georgia, in the latter case as part of a larger election interference case that includes Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.