An inside look at the fake elector scheme

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Former president and current candidate Donald Trump continues to make the “Big Lie” a cornerstone of his third bid for the White House. As he campaigns across the nation, he still insists that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that Joe Biden is not legitimately the U.S. president.

But 1,400 pages of emails, texts and other documents made public this week have confirmed that his attorneys and some supporters knew the truth and conspired to challenge the validity of the Biden win in several states, including Minnesota’s neighbor to the east. The settlement of a Wisconsin case left no doubt that a scheme was planned and orchestrated by Trump lawyers and campaign officials and was replicated in six other states.

As Americans are in the throes this year’s presidential campaign, they should keep in mind this proof-positive, critical evidence of lies and fraud from the Republican candidate’s campaign. The newly released documents show that Trump’s team tried to use fake electors, even tricking some of them, to create a “cloud of confusion” to assist efforts to overturn the election.

The documents were released on Monday in connection with agreements to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Democrats in 2022 against the two attorneys and 10 Republicans in Wisconsin who posed as fake electors. The Republicans settled in December.

As part of the agreement, attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis turned over the documents, photos and videos with details about the scheme’s origins in Wisconsin.

A few days after the 2020 election Chesebro emailed Troupis, a former judge who was working for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, and explained how to overturn the vote.

Key to the plot would be alleging “various systemic abuses.” With matters tied up in the courts, legislatures would be pushed to appoint “alternative” pro-Trump electors that could be certified instead of the Biden electors.

“At minimum, with such a cloud of confusion, no votes from WI (and perhaps also MI and PA) should be counted, perhaps enough to throw the election to the House,” Chesebro wrote to Troupis, referring to key battleground states. Fortunately for America, that didn’t happen.

In settling the lawsuit, Chesebro and Troupis did not have to admit wrongdoing or liability, but they promised to never participate in similar efforts involving future presidential campaigns. Chesebro has already pleaded guilty to charges in Georgia stemming from the 2020 election, and Troupis must also pay an undisclosed amount to the Wisconsin plaintiffs.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told an editorial writer that the Wisconsin settlement “exposed the breadth and depth of this plot … and it was a plot … to overturn the valid, legal results of an election.” He called the documents a “treasure trove” of information that is revealing and alarming.

Simon said that it’s not unusual to have disputes or challenges in elections, but the way to resolve them is through the courts. He offered the Minnesota example of the close 2008 Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken that was ultimately decided after a nine-month-long legal battle.

“They [Trump lawyers] sent in a forged, fabricated list of electors that set aside the will of Wisconsin voters. ... When you go outside the court, go around the system and commit fraud — that’s not the way we do things,” Simon added.

“This is a warning for us to be very concerned about those who would go around the law to get the outcome they want. Our strong rule of law — and courts that will enforce those laws — is one of the reasons for America’s success.”

In yet another attempt by Trump to work around the law, a recent New York civil fraud trial against the former president resulted in a $355 million fine plus interest, a three-year ban from running companies in New York (including his own), as well as fines and similar two-year bans against two of his sons. Trump supporters and attorneys called prosecutors “corrupt” and suggested that there were no victims of the business practices. But as the Star Tribune Editorial Board and many experts noted, there were indeed victims — including banks whose lending rates were affected by financial misstatements, competitors who do business honestly and society generally.

Now that Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, it’s critical for voters to understand how the corruption that occurred after his 2020 defeat helped fuel the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The Big Lie was a major threat to our democracy four years ago, and no American should want to see a rerun.