(Photo : Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 19: U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a committee business meeting at Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill October 19, 2021 in Washington, DC. The committee voted to hold former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon in criminal contempt for refusing to cooperate with the committee’s subpoena.
The House Select Committee has issued subpoenas to the fake Electoral Colleges that were allegedly involved in former United States President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
It was discovered that the Republican businessman installed fraudulent GOP electors in seven swing states to subvert the Electoral College process. The controversy is far more complicated than it seems because it involves arcane laws governing the presidential transition process and Trump's attempts to exploit the weaknesses in the system.
Fake Electors
The issue occurred more than a year ago during the tumultuous time of the 2020 presidential elections. However, the case is still extremely relevant because both state and federal prosecutors are investigating the incident.
The fake Electoral College issue was allegedly led by Trump's then-attorney Rudy Giuliani in what others call was an attempted coup. It was reported last week that the former president's campaign officials were leading the scheme under Giuliani's orders.
The fake electors are believed to have pretended to do all the things that the real electors are required to do under the Constitution. However, all of it was just for show because Trump allegedly had allies on the inside, hoping to gin up coverage on the right-wing OAN network, CNN reported.
The House Select Committee has decided to step in and investigate the issue by issuing subpoenas to the "chairperson" and "secretary" for each of the fake elector certificates. The swing states include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
All of the involved states were won by President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections but still submitted false slates of electors to the National Archives. They claimed that Republican Trump was the actual winner in their states. Additionally, the fake electors said that Mike Pence won as vice president.
Furthermore, Trump's scheme allegedly tried to delay or block Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. The committee said in a statement that the panel was seeking "information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme," Forbes reported.
Committee's Subpoenas
The committee's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, said that the individuals they have subpoenaed are believed to have information regarding the scheme. The fake electors allegedly met on Dec. 14, 2020, in the seven swing states that Trump lost.
The House Select Committee issued the subpoenas on Friday and were sent to 14 individuals: Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino from Arizona, David Shafer and Shawn Still from Georgia, Kathy Berden and Mayra Rodriguez from Michigan, Jewll Powdrell and Deborah Maestas from New Mexico, Michael McDonald and James DeGraffenreid from Nevada, Bill Blachenberg and Lisa Patton from Pennsylvania, and Andrew Hitt and Kelly Ruh from Wisconsin.
The panel's subpoenas are requiring the alleged fake electors, all of whom claim to be either a chairperson or secretary of the slates, to turn over documents and sit for depositions in February. The people who signed up to be fake electors for Trump were mostly state-level officials in the Republican Party, the New York Times reported.
Related Article: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022: Did Trump Get Richer Since Leaving the US Presidency?
