From The NY Times:
Kenneth Chesebro on Friday became the second lawyer in two days to plead guilty in a criminal racketeering indictment that also named Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Chesebro also agreed to cooperate with state prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., who have accused him, Mr. Trump and 17 others of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. On Thursday, Sidney K. Powell made a similar deal and said she, too, would cooperate with the prosecutors.
Mr. Chesebro was accused of conspiring to create slates of fake electors to support Mr. Trump in Georgia and several other states won by President Biden. His lawyers had argued that he was merely offering legal counsel to clients.
One of those "other states" was Pennsylvania.
Back to The Times:
As part of his deal, Mr. Chesebro agreed to “truthfully testify” against the remaining co-defendants, as had Ms. Powell and Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman who was the first to accept a plea deal in the case in late September. Mr. Chesebro also agreed to turn over documents and other evidence relevant to the case.
And:
Mr. Chesebro is the first person with inside knowledge of the wide-ranging plan to create fake slates of pro-Trump electors in states that Mr. Trump actually lost to have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the authorities.
Pennsylvania was one of those "states that Mr. Trump actually lost" doncha know.
This is what Count 13 of the Georgia indictment looks like:
And now we get to the curious case of the Pennsylvania "fake electors."
Five of the seven states with "fake electors" tried to submit certificates that started with this text:
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of...
And yet Pennsylvania's "fake electors" certificate started with this:
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, we are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Pennsylvania...
For some reason (gee, what could that reason be?) Pennsylvania Trump-electors added this text to the original:
... on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, we are ultimately recognized as...
All the other text was identical. I can only guess they did it to give them some legal, if not political cover.
But that leads to the question: why would they feel the need for such cover?
In any event, despite the added differences in Pennsylvania, the source of the documents was Chesebro.
From The January 6 Committee report:
Despite the fact that all major election lawsuits thus far had failed, President Trump and his co-conspirators in this effort, including John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, pressed forward with the fake elector scheme. Ultimately, these false electoral slates, five of which purported to represent the “duly elected” electoral college votes of their States, were transmitted to Executive Branch officials at the National Archives, and to the Legislative Branch, including to the Office of the President of the Sen- ate, Vice President Mike Pence.
The fake electors followed Chesebro’s step-by-step instructions for completing and mailing the fake certificates to multiple officials in the U.S. Government, complete with registered mail stickers and return address labels identifying senders like the “Arizona Republican Party” and the “Georgia Republican Party.” (p.43) [Emphasis added.]
See?
And now Kenneth Chesebro has agreed to testify about his plan on submitting fake Trump electors. And there were fake Trump electors in Pennsylvania.
And from The NYTimes we learned in 2022:
As they organized the fake elector scheme, lawyers appointed a “point person” in seven states to help organize those electors who were willing to sign their names to false documents. In Pennsylvania, that point person was Douglas V. Mastriano, a proponent of Mr. Trump’s lies of a stolen election who is now the Republican nominee for governor.
Ok, so I'll ask it again:
Will someone please ask Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano about his participation in Donald Trump's "fake elector" scheme?
