Two Arizona Republicans, recruited by allies of former President Donald J. Trump to join a bid to keep him in office after he lost the 2020 election, became so concerned about the plan that they told the lawyers who worked on fearing their actions as treason, according to emails reviewed by DailyExpertNews.
Kelli Ward, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, and Kelly Townsend, a state senator, were both reported to have expressed concerns to Mr. Trump’s attorneys in December 2020 about participating in a plan to join a string of voters who claimed that Mr Trump had won Trump Arizona, even though Joseph R. Biden Jr. the state had won.
The plan was part of a wider bid — one of the longest-running and most complicated Mr Trump made as he tried to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election — to falsely win a win for him by falsely trying to create electoral rolls in battlefield states that would claim he had been the real winner.
Some lawyers who initiated the effort questioned its legality, and the emails, which have not previously been reported, were the latest indication that other key players also knew they were on shaky legal ground, and made an effort to create a reason that could justify their actions.
Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who works for Mr. Trump’s campaign, wrote in a Dec. 11, 2020 email to other members of the legal team that Ms. Ward and Ms. Townsend had expressed concerns about casting votes as part of an alternate list of voters because there was no pending legal challenge that could reverse the results of the Arizona election.
“Ward and Townsend are concerned it may look treacherous for the AZ voters to vote Monday if there is no pending legal proceedings that could ultimately lead to the voters being ratified as the legitimate ones,” Mr. Chesebro wrote to the group, which includes Mr. Trump’s Rudolph W. Giuliani personal lawyer.
Mr. Chesebro wrote the word ‘treacherous’ in bold.
The use of the word underlined how well at least some of Trump’s allies were aware that they were taking truly extraordinary steps to keep him in office, so much so that they risked being seen as a betrayal of their country.
Ms. Ward, who insisted that the voter plan be kept secret, eventually joined the effort, signing a document claiming to be a “certificate of the votes of the 2020 Arizona voters” and claiming that Mr. won the state election. 11 Electoral college votes.
One person working on the plan, Arizona-based attorney Jack Wilenchik, admitted in emails that the Electoral College votes that the campaign was “running its not legal under federal law” and repeatedly referred to them as “fake”, The Times has reported.
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In a later email, Mr Wilenchik said the rush to file the papers with the Supreme Court was “to give AZ voters legal ‘coverage’ to ‘vote'” on Dec. Electoral college was scheduled to collect and cast votes.
Ms Townsend did not serve as one of the voters for Mr Trump, but pushed his claims of election stolen.
Both Ms. Ward and Ms. Townsend have since received subpoenas from the Justice Department asking questions about the bogus electoral plan and demanding documents detailing communications with Mr. Trump’s legal team.
Ms Ward, Ms Townsend, Mr Wilenchik and Mr Chesebro did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The push to organize slates of false voters included hands-on work from Mr. Giuliani, who, according to the emails, spoke to Ms. Ward and Ms. Townsend as the Trump campaign apparently urged voters to vote on Dec. 14.
Mr. Chesebro asked Mr. Wilenchik for assurances that he would soon file documents with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging an Arizona Supreme Court ruling confirming Mr. Biden’s victory in the state.
“The reason is that Kelli Ward & Kelly Townsend just spoke to the mayor about the campaign’s request that all voters vote Monday in all disputed states,” Mr. Chesebro wrote to Mr. Wilenchik, apparently citing a conversation with Mr Giuliani.
He said Ms Ward and Ms Townsend’s concerns were that activating an alternative group of voters in favor of Mr Trump “might seem treasonous” in the absence of a pending trial. “That’s a valid point — in the Hawaii incident in 1960, when the Kennedy voters voted, there was a recount pending,” added Mr. Chesebro.
He referred to an example he and others used as the basis for their argument that they could present false voter lists. In 1960, the outcome of the Hawaii elections was uncertain, as the electoral college was nearly convened. The governor cleared some voters in favor of Richard M. Nixon, who claimed he won as the recount went on. John F. Kennedy also formed a list of voters.
When the vote count was over, Mr. Kennedy had won and his list of voters was finally certified.
However, there was little about the 1960 incident that resembled what happened in 2020. By the time the Electoral College convened on December 14, 2020, all votes had been tallied, Mr Biden had been declared the winner, and several courts had filed charges against Mr. Trump’s allies.
In a follow-up email, Mr Chesebro wrote that he no longer saw “cause for concern” because a legal action that part of the group planned to file was “with the printer” and that the Supreme Court called for an action such as considered fixed when mailed. He wrote that it would be in the mail by the time the Electoral College met.
mr. Wilenchik filed the petition the same day, the records show. (The Supreme Court rejected the request in February 2021.)
In the weeks following the election, Mr. Chesebro wrote a series of memos outlining a plan to send so-called deputy voters to Congress for certification. Just over two weeks after Election Day, Mr. Chesebro sent a memo to James Troupis, another attorney for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, outlining a plan to name pro-Trump voters in that state, which was also won by Mr. Biden.
Mr. Chesebro also sent a December 13, 2020 email to Mr. Giuliani encouraging Vice President Mike Pence to “firmly take the position that he, and he alone, is entrusted with constitutional responsibility, not just to open the votes, but to count them – including making judgments about what to do if there are conflicting voices.”
That idea became the basis for Mr. Trump’s press campaign against Mr. Pence, in which the president tried to convince his own vice president that he could block or delay congressional certification of Mr. Biden’s January 6, 2021 victory.
Mr. Chesebro was also involved in a December 24, 2020 email exchange with John C. Eastman, the pro-Trump attorney, about whether or not to file legal documents they hoped would get four judges to agree. to handle a Wisconsin election case.
In those emails, Mr Chesebro argued that the “chance of action before January 6 will become more favorable if the judges begin to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on January 6 unless they rule by then, anyway.” .”
Their exchange took place five days after Mr. Trump called on his supporters to attend an Ellipse protest at the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress would confirm the number of electoral votes to confirm the victory. from Mr Biden. “Be there. Go wild!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.
