Just under a dozen individuals in Wisconsin who in 2020 signed on as ostensible electors for Donald Trump despite Joe Biden winning the state have, as part of the settlement to their portion of a sweeping lawsuit, admitted that Biden won Wisconsin.
“Under the agreement, the fake electors acknowledged that Biden won the state, withdrew their filings and agreed not to serve as presidential electors in 2024 or any other election where Trump is on the ballot,” the Associated Press reported. They’ve also released hundreds of pages of documentation related to the scheme, and the underlying lawsuit is continuing against Trump-allied lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis — a continued legal effort in which the sham electors from Wisconsin agreed to assist.
Wisconsin was one of seven states that Biden won in 2020 but where Trump allies assembled ostensible slates of electoral votes on behalf of their chosen candidate. An excuse from Trump’s circles for the efforts was that the sham electors represented merely a back-up plan to utilize if election-related litigation went Trump’s way, but indications have pointed to intentions of trying to use the sham electors regardless of courtroom outcomes. Andrew Hitt, a former chairman of the state Republican Party in Wisconsin, characterized this group of sham electors — which includes himself — as having been duped into supporting that latter ambition.
“The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy,” he said. These individuals had been slated to face a jury in 2024 and could have ended up with significant financial penalties, but that’s now off. Separately, though, CNN is now reporting the existence of an evidently state investigation in Wisconsin into the fake elector efforts there — making the state the sixth with either a similarly styled probe or actual charges. Chesebro is reportedly cooperating with the Wisconsin state investigation after facing his own criminal allegations in a related Georgia case.
