–Updated with a statement by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office.
Washington – Court records show that Washington – A memo was circulated by a Trump-connected attorney in the weeks preceding the attack on the Capitol. It contained plans to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes at the joint session, according to court records.
On December 13, 2020, Attorney Kenneth Chesebro emailed Rudy Giuliani, a former New York Mayor and Trump attorney, detailing plans that would place then-Vice President Mike Pence, and Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley (Republican of Iowa), in central positions in the Congress’ joint session. The subject of the email was “Brief notes about the President of Senate” strategy.
According to an email obtained by the House Jan.6 Committee, Chesebro requested that Pence be removed from his constitutional role as President of the Senate and presiding officer for the joint session. He also claimed a conflict of interest by being a candidate on the ballots.
Pence did in fact preside over final certification of the Electoral College vote and resisted the pressure from Trump and his allies to stop Joe Biden’s win.
The email stated that Grassley, or another senior Republican majority member, would be the presiding officer for the joint session and start the election certification.
The memo mentions the possibility of an alternate elector set. It continues that the new Senate presiding officer “then opens two envelopes from Arizona and announces that he can and will not, at minimum as of that date,” count any electoral college votes from Arizona due to the existence of two ballot slates.
Joe Biden won Arizona with just over 10,000 votes. A report by Arizona state Senate Republicans on the 2020 elections in Maricopa County confirmed the results.
The memo states that the presiding officer would offer Arizona three options following the hypothetical dispute at the joint session. He could redo the election or ask for a federal review. Or, he could have the Republican state legislature appoint its electors.
Cheseboro stated that his interpretations of the Constitution’s 12th Amendment provided the presiding officer at the joint session with “enormous leverage” and allowed him to enact any remedies he deemed necessary.
Grassley’s Office stated in a statement, that neither senator nor his staff were aware of the memo and its arguments before it was made public well after President Biden assumed office. This plan was not discussed with the senator or his staff.”
The memo then presents various scenarios that could be based on the Supreme Court’s possible rulings on Arizona’s voters. Chesebro stated that if Mr. Biden wins in court, Trump’s lawyers and activists would still have built public momentum to prevent similar abuses in future.
According to the email, scenarios could arise in which Pelosi and Pence are elected acting president of Congress if the high court decides not to address the issue.
Chesebro stated, “It doesn’t seem fanciful that Trump and Pence might end up winning the voter after some legislatures appoint voters.”
Guiliani was told by the attorney that any of these unusual and potentially unstable outcomes seemed “preferable to” allowing the normal process of vote certification to continue and having Pence preside over the “charade of a Biden win” by Chesebro.
The memo also advised members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to lay the groundwork for this president-of-the-Senate strategy in advance of Jan. 6 by conducting hearings during which certain scholars could promote the power of the presiding officer.
The House Committee subpoenaed Chesebro to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. CBS News did not reach out to him for comment.
According to the subpoena dated March 1, House investigators believe that he “participated” in “terror or delay certification of the 2020 presidential results.” Later, Chesebro was accused of actively supporting “theories in the Trump campaign supporting alternate slates for electors in states where former President Trump had lost.”
The court filing reveals Chesebro later sent his president-of-the-Senate memo to Eastman in the days leading up to the assault on the Capitol.
In a recent court filing, Eastman stated that neither Trump nor he were involved in the Chesebro Memo and that the “explicit purpose of that recommendation was not overturning the election as the Select Committee repeatedly claims” but to increase scrutiny of allegations of irregularities in the election.
