Prosecutors have unearthed a previously unknown memo drafted by a lawyer allied with former President Donald Trump that outlined a plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election that even he knew to be illegal, reported The New York Times on Tuesday.
"The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a copy obtained by The New York Times shows for the first time that the lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, acknowledged from the start that he was proposing 'a bold, controversial strategy' that the Supreme Court 'likely' would reject in the end," reported Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage, and Luke Broadwater. "But even if the plan did not ultimately pass legal muster at the highest level, Mr. Chesebro argued that it would achieve two goals. It would focus attention on claims of voter fraud and 'buy the Trump campaign more time to win litigation that would deprive Biden of electoral votes and/or add to Trump’s column.'"
The memo argued for the appointment of fake electors, and outlined a "messaging" strategy to use them as evidence of the former president's supposed victory.
“I believe that what can be achieved on Jan. 6 is not simply to keep Biden below 270 electoral votes,” said Chesebro in the memo. “It seems feasible that the vote count can be conducted so that at no point will Trump be behind in the electoral vote count unless and until Biden can obtain a favorable decision from the Supreme Court upholding the Electoral Count Act as constitutional, or otherwise recognizing the power of Congress (and not the president of the Senate) to count the votes.”
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According to the report, the memo, which was never uncovered by the House January 6 Committee, is being used by prosecutors as a crucial turning point at which Trump and his associates' plot evolved into a criminal conspiracy.
This comes shortly after the former president was indicted on four counts as part of the scheme. The indictment outlines a half dozen unindicted co-conspirators.
