Wisconsin fake elector scheme is at the center of Donald Trump indictment

MADISON - Wisconsin is at the center of a sweeping indictment of former President Donald Trump, who is accused by a federal grand jury of organizing a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden.

Trump's strategy to stay in office after voters elected Biden president in 2020 hinged on 84 people in seven states — including Wisconsin — who agreed to sign documents claiming to be electors for Trump despite the outcome of the election, according to the indictment that was handed down Tuesday in a federal court in Washington D.C.

The indictment listed four counts against Trump: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States; Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; and Conspiracy Against Rights.

In 2020, Biden beat Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Trump sought and paid for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, which confirmed Biden's win. Trump sued and the state Supreme Court upheld the results on a 4-3 vote on Dec. 14, 2020.

Less than an hour later, Democrats met in the state Capitol to cast the state's 10 electoral votes for Biden.

At the same time, 10 Republicans gathered in another part of the Capitol to fill out paperwork claiming Trump had won. They submitted their filings to Congress, the National Archives, a federal judge and then-Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette.

At the time, the false electors said they held the meeting to ensure the state's electoral votes were cast for Trump if a court later determined he was the true winner of the state.

The plan was spelled out after the election by attorney Kenneth Chesebro in a memo dated Nov. 18, 2020 — the same day Trump asked for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties.

The indictment makes several references to the Nov. 18 “Wisconsin Memo” and a Dec. 6, 2020 “Fraudulent Elector Memo.”

“The memoranda evolved over time from a legal strategy to preserve the Defendant’s rights to a corrupt plan to subvert the federal government function by stopping Biden electors’ votes from being counted and certified,” the indictment reads.

The fake elector certificates were used by Trump and his co-conspirators to “deceitfully target the government function … contrary to how fraudulent electors were told they would be used,” it said.

Chesebro sent the memo to Jim Troupis, the attorney who oversaw Trump's post-election legal strategy in Wisconsin. Chesebro sent a second memo on the matter on Dec. 9, 2020, after state officials certified Biden as the victor in Wisconsin.

The filings from the fake electors in Wisconsin and elsewhere helped Trump and his allies argue the results were in dispute as they tried to prevent Congress from finalizing them.

Now, the false electors' actions are under high scrutiny as Trump faces criminal charges for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Last month, Michigan became the first state to charge the Trump electors. A trial in a Wisconsin lawsuit over the actions of the 10 Republicans who posed as electors for Trump takes place just weeks before the next presidential election.

Trump announced last month that he had been notified that he was a target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into alleged election fraud. Smith's team also has interviewed election officials in Wisconsin over the 2020 election, including Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe.

As in Wisconsin, Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada signed documents purporting to be electors. Republicans in New Mexico and Pennsylvania filled out paperwork saying they should be considered electors if courts found Trump had won their states.

The counting of electoral votes was temporarily suspended while a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol. Trump had told supporters during a rally earlier in the day near the White House that "you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated."

"We fight like hell," Trump added. "And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

But Trump didn't go to the Capitol and he pointed out he also told the crowd to behave peacefully.

Trump urged Pence, in his role as Senate president, to recognize the alternate electors in seven pivotal states that Biden won. Trump's campaign recruited Republican electors to meet parallel to officially certified electors on Dec. 14, 2020, and to sign documents falsely claiming they were duly elected.

The indictment mentions a previously reported incident that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021 involving an aide to Sen. Ron Johnson attempting to hand slates of false electors to Pence.

About 20 minutes before a joint session of Congress was set to convene to begin certification of Biden’s victory that day, Johnson chief of staff Sean Riley told a staffer for Pence that Johnson wanted to hand-deliver to Pence votes from Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan who posed as fake presidential electors for Trump.

"Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise," Riley texted Pence staffer Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. that day, according to evidence presented Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"What is it?" Hodgson, a former legislative affairs director for Pence, replied.

"Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them," Riley wrote back.

Hodgson then told Riley: "Do not give that to him."

“On the morning of January 6, an agent of the Defendant (Trump) contacted a United States Senator to ask him to hand-deliver documents to the Vice President. The agent then facilitated the receipt by the Senator’s staff of the fraudulent certificates signed by the Defendant’s fraudulent electors in Michigan and Wisconsin, which were believed not to have been delivered to the Vice President or Archivist by mail,” the indictment reads, noting that Pence’s staffer rejected the documents.

Johnson has downplayed the exchange as a “staff to staff” conversation, and has said his involvement lasted just seconds.

“My involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds,” Johnson told WISN-TV’s Matt Smith in August 2022. “I think I fielded three texts and sent two and talked to my chief of staff that somebody wants you to deliver something.”

He added: “I knew nothing about it, and in the end, those electors were not delivered because we found out from the vice president’s staff they didn’t want them delivered. End of story.”

In reviewing the false elector strategy as part of a civil lawsuit, U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled the president and one of his lawyers, John Eastman, "more likely than not" acted unlawfully. Carter called the strategy a "coup in search of a legal theory."

“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” Carter wrote.

In Wisconsin, the group of false electors included a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and leaders of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Andrew Hitt, former chairman of the state GOP, testified last year for investigators of the U.S. House probe into the 2021 insurrection. His testimony and text messages provided to the committee showed Hitt and party executive director Mark Jefferson were uncomfortable with the plan but ultimately agreed to participate.

“I am def concerned about their inquiry,” Hitt texted Jefferson when he learned of the plot that followed Trump's 2020 election loss. “I hope they are not planning on asking us to do anything like try and say we are only the proper electors.”

“These guys are up to no good and its (sic) gonna fail miserably,” he texted a colleague on Dec. 12, 2020, after receiving a message about discussing the fake elector plan with Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani.

Hitt was subpoenaed, along with Kelly Ruh, chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District GOP, to testify in front of the committee in January 2022. He said at the time the alternate electors were "simply following the guidance of Wisconsin legal counsel" and told the Jan. 6 committee he would not have supported the use of the paperwork to overturn the election illegitimately.

Several of the false electors — Ruh, Carol Brunner, Scott Grabins, Darryl Carlson, Pam Travis and Mary Buestrin — were party leaders in their county or Congressional district at the time but no longer hold those positions. Two of them, Bill Feehan and Kathy Kiernan, have new positions in the state Republican Party.

One of the false electors, Bob Spindell, remains a Republican appointee to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The six-member commission gives guidance to clerks across the state. His term ends in 2026. Spindell is also the party’s chairman of the 4th Congressional District.

Here is a list of the false electors and their current or previous leadership positions within the party:

• Bob Spindell, Republican appointee to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and current chairman of the 4th Congressional District GOP

• Andrew Hitt, then-chairman of state Republican Party, now partner at Michael Best Strategies

• Kelly Ruh, current chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District GOP

• Carol Brunner, former vice chairwoman of the 1st Congressional District GOP

• Scott Grabins, former chairman of the Dane County Republican Party

• Bill Feehan, current chairman of the 3rd Congressional District GOP

• Kathy Kiernan, current second vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party

• Darryl Carlson, former chairman of the 6th Congressional District GOP

• Pam Travis, former vice chairwoman of the 7th Congressional District GOP and former staffer for Sen. Ron Johnson’s 2022 reelection campaign

• Mary Buestrin, former national committeewoman for state Republican Party

Jessie Opoien, Hope Karnopp of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Bart Jansen of USA Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump indictment keys in on Wisconsin fake elector scheme