CNN’s Marshall Cohen on Thursday outlined the exclusive reporting on pro-Trump election lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and revealed fresh details to Michigan prosecutors regarding the 2020 Trump campaign’s efforts to use fake electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
It has been noted that Chesebro was indicted alongside Trump in the Georgia election case, but has since pleaded guilty to one felony count and accepted a plea bargain requiring him to testify against Trump and the other remaining defendants via Mediaite.
Bianna Golodryga introduced the new reporting, saying, “We start with breaking news in our law and justice lead. CNN has obtained exclusive recordings that reveal a chaotic last-ditch effort by former President Trump’s campaign to get fake elector ballots to D.C. They were trying to get the fake ballots to former Vice President Mike Pence in a final push to overturn the 2020 election.”
“The plan involved a haphazard chain of messengers, staffers for two sitting Republican members of Congress, and talk of even chartering a private jet. All of this to ensure the fake ballots from Michigan and Wisconsin got to the Capitol in time for the Electoral College certification on January 6th, 2021. Emails and recordings show new context in the dizzying scope of the unsuccessful fake electors’ plot,” Golodryga said as she introduced Cohen.
“Hey, Bianna. We’ve known bits and pieces of this story, but now we’re getting the full picture. And it comes from Ken Chesebro, who in many ways was the architect of the fake electors’ plot. CNN has obtained recordings of his recent interview with Michigan investigators and hundreds of emails that he also turned over. They are revealing the last-minute scramble on the eve of January 6th to get those fake certificates to Washington, DC,” Cohen began before playing a clip of Chesebro:
“The general counsel, the Trump campaign is freaked out that Roman reported that the Michigan votes are still in the sorting facility in Michigan, which doesn’t look like they’re going to get to Pence in time. So the the general counsel, the campaign was alarmed and was chartering, they didn’t have to charter a jet, but they did commercial. This is like, yes. So this is a high-level decision to get the Michigan and Wisconsin votes, too. And they had to enlist, you know, a U.S. senator, too, to try to expedite it, to get it get it to Pence in time.”
“Remember, they needed to get those ballots to the House floor because they wanted Mike Pence to throw out Biden’s real electors and replace them with Trump’s fake electors. So in the end, the campaign didn’t need to charter a jet. Staffers booked last-minute tickets on commercial flights, but they ferried those ballots to Washington, D.C. on January 5th. And once they got to D.C., there was a series of handoffs and couriers that even included some help from Senator Ron Johnson’s office. Those ballots eventually reached the U.S. Capitol in time, but Pence’s team said they didn’t want him. He refused to go along with the plan,” Cohen added.
“Fascinating new detail. Marshall, how does this all factor into Jack Smith’s criminal case against Trump?” Golodryga asked.
