President Trump (click here) invites Sen. Ron Johnson to speak after he was introduced at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena where a president held a rally in Milwaukee last January.
By Matthew Brown
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) (click here) offered to hand-deliver certificates of fake electors to Vice President Mike Pence as part of the Trump campaign’s broader effort to overturn the 2020 election result, according to evidence released by the House Jan. 6 committee.
In texts obtained by the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a Johnson staffer approached a top aide to the vice president requesting that Pence and Johnson meet for Johnson to deliver fake electors’ votes for Michigan and Wisconsin, which the Trump campaign had also instructed the fake electors send to the National Archives.
“Do not send that to him,” the Pence aide told the Johnson staffer, rejecting the senator’s request that Pence participate in the ruse to contest the election. The previously undisclosed interaction emphasizes the degree to which elected officials in Donald Trump’s orbit tried to aid the former president in contesting the election.
The Trump campaign instructed fake electors to fabricate elector documents and send them to the vice president’s office and the National Archives as if they were the authentic electors. The electors also met in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin on Jan. 4, at the Trump campaign’s instruction.
The documents had no legal standing and consequently were ignored by the National Archives, leading to Johnson’s office to intervene and directly lobby Pence’s office, a request he ultimately rebuffed.
“Do not send that to him,” the Pence aide told the Johnson staffer, rejecting the senator’s request that Pence participate in the ruse to contest the election. The previously undisclosed interaction emphasizes the degree to which elected officials in Donald Trump’s orbit tried to aid the former president in contesting the election.
The Trump campaign instructed fake electors to fabricate elector documents and send them to the vice president’s office and the National Archives as if they were the authentic electors. The electors also met in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin on Jan. 4, at the Trump campaign’s instruction.
The documents had no legal standing and consequently were ignored by the National Archives, leading to Johnson’s office to intervene and directly lobby Pence’s office, a request he ultimately rebuffed.
