Back in March, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ruled that one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald J. Trump “more likely than not” knowingly attempted to obstruct Congress in connection to his ongoing criminal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 presidential election that he lost to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
In his ruling, Carter wrote, “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.” In addition to this particular finding, the federal judge also signed off on the public release of over 100 emails sent by Trump’s legal adviser, John Eastman, as part of the attorney’s concerted effort to stitch together a legal justification for overturning the 2020 presidential election back into his client, Donald Trump’s favor.
In combination with a memo from one of Trump’s other attorneys, Kenneth Chesebro, Eastman’s emails uncover a crafted now-infamous strategy that consisted of Donald’s Vice President Mike Pence refusing to certify the results of the Electoral College votes in Biden’s favor. The Cheseboro memo was ultimately sent to Trump’s now-former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Politico reports that this very same memo has now been publicly published by the January 6th House Select Committee in connection to their ongoing investigation into the violent Capitol attack and Donald Trump’s specific efforts to overthrow a legitimate United States election.
Eastman wrote in an email on On Jan. 2, 2021, just days ahead of the insurrection, “Ken, Did you do a memo on the Jan 6 authority that includes the competing scholarship on the topics? If so, can you send it to me? I might have it in my inbox, but I can’t find it at the moment.”
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Cheseboro responded, “Oh, I did a very rough e-mail on Dec. 13, which [redacted] requested on behalf of the Mayor. A lot of it is irrelevant at this point. The end discusses the originalist view of the 12th Amendment.”
Kenneth included the memo that, according to the Dec. 2020 email, he had been constructing on a hotel computer.
The memo begins: “I have not delved into the historical record (Vice President Pence’s counsel has, and seems totally up on this and I’m sure there are many other lawyers who can add great detail, [Redacted] in particular), and am writing this with reference 3 law 104 N.C. L. Rev. 1732 (2004); and Foley, 51 Loyola U. Chi. L.J. 309 (2019).”
The bottom line is I think having the President of the Senate firmly take the position that he, and he alone, is charged with the constitutional responsibility not just to open the votes, but to count them — including making judgments about what to do if there are conflicting votes — represents the best way to ensure: (1) that the mass media and social media platforms, and therefore the public, will focus intently on the evidence of abuses in the election and canvassing; and (2) that there will be additional scrutiny in the courts and/or state legislatures, with an eye toward determining which electoral states are the valid ones.”
Cheseboro goes on to suggest that top aides to Pence and Trump follow this strategy in an effort to keep the two US leaders “above the fray.”
He goes on to outline a “chronology of how things could play out,” should Pence decide to go along with the plan and refuse to certify the Electoral College votes. He notes that the Senate would then hold hearings to discuss “widespread violations of law,” in spite of the clear fact that multiple lawsuits filed by the Trump Campaign, alleging widespread voter fraud, had been humiliatingly tossed out of numerous courts already.
The Trump attorney goes on to claim that the Senate Judiciary Committee would then be forced to explore “the constitutional question of how the votes must be counted, with at least two highly qualified legal scholars concluding that the President of the Senate is solely responsible for counting the votes, and that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional in dictating limits on debate and dictating who wins electoral votes when there are 2 competing slates and the House and Senate disagree.”
They just keep exposing you, don’t they, Trump?
You can read the full memo here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
