Scott Morgan/Reuters
- A CNN report describes efforts the Trump campaign made to get fake electors' certificates to Mike Pence.
- The report includes a recording of prosecutors interviewing former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.
- The fake electors plot has been mentioned in several cases related to efforts to overturn the election.
In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump's campaign was racing to get fake elector certificates into the hands of Vice President Mike Pence in order to stop him from certifying the election for Joe Biden, according to a new report from CNN.
CNN reviewed emails sent at the time and recordings of Michigan prosecutors interviewing lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, a former Trump ally who wrote a memo in 2020 outlining the false electors plot.
Chesebro was indicted alongside Trump in the Georgia racketeering case alleging a plot to overturn the election, but took a plea deal in October and agreed to cooperate with investigators. Chesebro has also spoken to prosecutors investigating the fake electors plot in Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
In the recording obtained by CNN, Chesebro says lawyers for the Trump campaign were "freaked out" when they realized the fake elector certificates might not make it to Pence before he was set to certify the election on January 6. On January 4, they were trying to figure out how to transport the fake elector certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to Washington, DC, the following day.
"Can we charter a flight? The only available commercial from MKE (Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport) to DCA (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) arrives at 2130 tomorrow night," Mike Roman, a campaign official, wrote in an email to Chesebro late on the fourth, per CNN.
CNN reported that a flight was not chartered, and instead, a Wisconsin GOP official and a Trump campaign staffer were tasked with physically flying the documents to DC. They eventually brought the documents to Chesebro, who then had to get the documents into the Capitol and into Pence's hands.
Chesebro said that the papers were brought to a staffer for Republican Rep. Scott Perry, who planned to bring them to the Senate, CNN reported. However, the January 6 committee previously said that a staffer for Republican Rep. Mike Kelly had helped deliver those documents.
Chesebro said he did not know why they did not give the documents directly to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who the January 6 committee previously said had tried to hand-deliver the fake electors documents to Pence.
Trump's office did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Representatives for Perry, Kelly, and Johnson did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.