Federal prosecutors are investigating the Trump attorneys who worked on the plan to send alternate slates of electors to Congress for Jan. 6, the New York Times reports.
A D.C. federal grand jury has issued multiple subpoenas, the newspaper reported, asking for information about attorneys who developed the plan, which called for pro-Trump electors in states that Trump lost to sign certificates.
Those reportedly named in the subpoenas include Rudy Giuliani, Trump attorney John Eastman, and Ken Chesebro. TPM profiled Chesebro on Thursday; the Trump lawyer, who, according to memos released by the Times, appears to have come up with the plan for alternate slates of electors, had avoided the press before TPM’s exclusive interview.
Chesebro authored a November 2020 memo earlier reported by the Times which laid out the scheme, including a plan for pro-Trump electors to sign certificates in states that Trump lost. Eastman and others planned for state legislatures to certify those certificates so that Vice President Mike Pence could approve the non-Biden votes as “legitimate.”
That plan, Pence’s attorneys and White House counsel told the Jan. 6 panel, could have resulted in mayhem and violence in the streets.
In a committee hearing Thursday, witnesses laid out the way in which the plan evolved into the fulcrum around which much of the violence on Jan. 6 turned — rioters purportedly grew more aggressive after they learned that Pence would not go along with the plan.
The Times story does not specify who or what entities received the subpoenas asking for information about the attorneys. Jenna Ellis, another Trump attorney, is also reportedly named.
