Explainer: Pennsylvania plays prominently in indictment of former President Donald Trump

Pennsylvania plays a prominent role in Tuesday’s indictment against former President Donald Trump.

Channel 11′s Pete DeLuca combed through all 45 pages to find how the allegations laid out in relation to our state.

From late November 2020 all the way until the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, the indictment spells out the alleged efforts by former President Trump and his inner circle to use fake electors and claims in Pennsylvania to overturn the election.

On Nov. 25, 2020, Republican state senators gathered in Gettysburg for a hearing on voter fraud claims, which was partly manufactured by Doug Mastriano and Kim Ward of Westmoreland County was among the participants.

Rudy Guiliani was there and then-President Trump called in by speaker phone.

The indictment says at that event, Guiliani falsely claimed Pennsylvania issued 1.8 million absentee ballots and had received 2.5 million in return, which was a claim even Trump campaign staffers said was wrong.

Weeks later, the indictment alleges Trump and his inner circle came up with a new plan for seven states including Pennsylvania to make and send fake certifications to send to Vice President Mike Pence and Congress.

On Dec. 14, 2020, Republicans who had been chosen as electors for Trump went to Harrisburg to sign fake certifications that the indictment alleges were to be used to create controversy on Jan. 6 if Pence would accept them.

Among those fake electors were Mastriano and Allegheny County GOP Chair Sam DeMarco.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said last year while he was still attorney general that the fake electors would not face criminal charges because the fake ballots included a conditional clause that they were only to be used if a court overturned the results in Pennsylvania.

Other states’ fake ballots did not have such language, and in Michigan, the attorney general just charged 16 people with felonies for their role in the plan.

In the hours before the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump again pointed to Pennsylvania as a state of false controversy.

During the Stop the Steal rally, the indictment says Trump falsely told the crowd the Pennsylvania legislature wants to recertify their votes. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to give it back to the states. According to the indictment, the crowd then began chanting, “Give it back.”

We reached out to Allegheny County GOP chair Sam DeMarco. He declined to comment tonight.

We did get a statement from Republican Congressman Mike Kelly who said:

“Yet again, the Biden Justice Department is targeting President Trump. Make no mistake – the two-tiered Biden Justice System has been weaponized against Donald Trump. If it wasn’t for a double standard, there would be no standard at all. If this can happen to a former President, this can happen to anyone. Where is the outrage?!”

We’ll continue to follow the reaction here in Pennsylvania.

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