U.S. District Court Judge David Carter said in March that former President Donald Trump “likely” committed various felonies as he tried to obstruct Congress as part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election.
“Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” Carter wrote in a ruling that approved the public release of more than 100 emails that Trump’s legal adviser, John Eastman, sent to craft a legal argument for stopping the certification of the election.
Eastman’s emails, combined with a memo from Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, plotted to force Vice President Mike Pence block the election from being certified in order to keep Trump in office.
The memo was sent to Rudy Giuliani and has now been published publicly by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack and the efforts that led to the election overthrow, Politico reports.
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On Jan. 2, 2021, Eastman wrote: “The bottom line is I think having the President of the Senate firmly take the position that he, and he alone, is charged with the constitutional responsibility not just to open the votes, but to count them — including making judgments about what to do if there are conflicting votes — represents the best way to ensure: (1) that the mass media and social media platforms, and therefore the public, will focus intently on the evidence of abuses in the election and canvassing; and (2) that there will be additional scrutiny in the courts and/or state legislatures, with an eye toward determining which electoral states are the valid ones.”
Eastman then proposed that top aides to Pence and Trump do this to keep the two leaders “above the fray.” He then outlined a “chronology of how things could play out,” with Pence refusing to count the votes. The Senate would then hold hearings to talk about “widespread violations of law,” despite the fact that all lawsuits alleging fraud filed by the Trump campaign had been tossed out of court.
Read the full memo below:
