Remember that the goal was to force any kind of delay so that the Big Lie wouldn’t have to be disproved, Shaving Biden’s electoral vote total would force a 12th Amendment final decision for Trump using the majority proportion of GOP-dominated legislatures. They got desperate enough to plan several contingencies.
The plot still relied on Pence’s cooperation to stop or delay the count so that even a swap of electors might be available, but like bad magicians, the assistants made a mess of the props, including trying to crash the state-level ceremonies or submitting alternate slates to the National Archives.
Like Penn & Teller, the trick has been revealed, partially because Pence didn’t play along and disappear from the scene. The Select Committee continues a relentless path to discovery. The riot outside, complete with a “quick reaction team” and a “stack” assault team were also a contingency for Pence’s reluctance, and not random. The plot gets wacky from there on since it’s about the 12th Amendment and requires the delusion that pillow-guy “reinstatement” miracles exist:
Constitutional expert and emeritus law professor Alan Dershowitz has commented that one path to ultimate electoral victory for President Trump lies in trying to “flip” states which “appear” to have secured the popular vote for Biden over to the President.
If through litigation in the courts, two or three states with enough electoral votes – say, Pennsylvania (20), Georgia (16) and Nevada (6) – could be judicially switched from Biden to President Trump, that alone would be enough to tip the electoral count to give the President the advantage outright. Disaster averted, case closed.
Even if the prior “Biden” electoral votes were not switched over to President Trump, at minimum, it would reduce Biden’s Electoral College vote count to below 270, the “victory” threshold, throwing the contest into the House of Representatives where, under the 12th Amendment, each state is allowed to cast one vote to select – not elect – the president. Whether that reduction in Biden electoral votes comes as a result of litigation or legislative action remains an unanswered question.
www.thepostemail.com/...
14 people who received subpoenas on Friday due to their alleged involvement in a plan to send the electoral college “false slates” of “alternate electors” supporting Trump in seven key swing states that were actually won by President Joe Biden.
“The select committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives,” Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”
The so-called alternate electors met on Dec. 14, 2020, in seven states that Mr. Trump lost and submitted bogus slates of Electoral-College votes for him, the committee said. They then sent the false Electoral College certificates to Congress, an action Mr. Trump’s allies used to try to justify delaying or blocking the final step in confirming the 2020 election results — a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to formally count the electoral votes.
The 14 individuals subpoenaed on Friday were: Nancy Cottle and Loraine B. Pellegrino of Arizona; David Shafer and Shawn Still of Georgia; Kathy Berden and Mayra Rodriguez of Michigan; Jewll Powdrell and Deborah W. Maestas of New Mexico; Michael J. McDonald and James DeGraffenreid of Nevada; Bill Bachenberg and Lisa Patton of Pennsylvania; and Andrew Hitt and Kelly Ruh of Wisconsin.
The subpoenas order the witnesses, all of whom claimed to be either a chair or secretary of the fake elector slates, to turn over documents and sit for depositions in February.
Those who signed onto the fake slates of electors were mostly state-level officials in the Republican Party, G.O.P. political candidates or party activists involved with Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign. None of those who were subpoenaed responded on Friday to requests for comment.
[...]
The scheme gathered momentum as Jan. 6 approached.
On Dec. 31, according to Politico, Ms. Ellis wrote a legal memo to Mr. Trump advising him that six states had “electoral delegates in dispute” and that because of this conflict, Mr. Pence should not accept any electors from them, but rather ask state lawmakers which slate they wanted to use. On Jan. 5, 2021, with pressure building on Mr. Pence, Ms. Ellis wrote a second memo reasserting the vice president’s authority to refuse to consider electors from states that would have given Mr. Biden a victory.
Ultimately, the efforts were rejected by Mr. Pence.
Though he did not directly acknowledge the existence of alternate electors during the joint session, Mr. Pence did amend the traditional script read by a vice president during such proceedings, adding language making clear that alternate slates of electors offered up by states were not considered legitimate.
As he ticked through the states, Mr. Pence said repeatedly that the result certified by the Electoral College, “the parliamentarian has advised me, is the only certificate of vote from that state that purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of the state purporting to appoint and ascertain electors.”
www.nytimes.com/...