'Reason to sweat this one': New fake elector indictments could shred Ron Johnson's story

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's angry reaction to the indictment of three Donald Trump allies over attempts to interfere with the 2020 presidential election is a sign that he fears he could, once again, be swept up in the criminal case, according to a conservative writer.

After Kenneth Chesebro, Michael Roman and James Troupis were indicted by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on a single felony count that carries a possible six-year prison sentence on Tuesday, Johnson jumped on X and raged, "Now Democrats are weaponizing Wisconsin’s judiciary. Apparently conservative lawyers advising clients is illegal under Democrat tyranny. Democrats are turning America into a banana republic.”

According to writer Charlie Sykes, a longtime resident of Milwaukee, Johnson has good reason to be disturbed by the turn of events.

ALSO READ: Ron Johnson finally admits Jan. 6 was violent — then blames it on 'outside agitators'

Specifically, he wrote for MSNBC, "Johnson has reason to sweat this one."

He wrote, "The criminal case is likely to bring renewed attention to his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his shifting and inconsistent explanations."

Case in point, he notes, are text messages suggesting Johnson's involvement.

"Johnson initially said he was 'basically unaware' of what was going on, dismissing the attempted handoff of the fake certificates as a 'staff-to-staff exchange,'" he wrote.

"Later, however, he admitted that his staff had been in touch with Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa) 'about how Kelly’s office could get us the electors because they had it.' Even so, he continued to insist that he 'had no idea that there was an alternate slate of electors.'"

Sykes added, "Documents released as part of the civil lawsuit in March seemed to blow a hole in Johnson’s story. In a Dec. 8, 2020, email to Chesebro, Troupis wrote that he 'spoke with Senator Johnson late last night about the Pence angle at the end.' Troupis wrote, 'Just wanted to take his temperature.'"

According to attorney Jay Kuo, "It would be extremely unusual for a senator’s chief of staff to be arranging such a high-level handoff of something as important as Wisconsin’s false electoral college certification without the senator himself being fully in the know and involved.”

Sykes added, "Which is perhaps why Johnson protests so much. The new documents shred his tortured explanations, and the new criminal charges guarantee that he will face more questions — a lot more questions — about what he knew and when he knew it."