TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
BY AMY GARDNER,
BETH REINHARD,
ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN
AND JACQUELINE ALEMANYA staffer for Donald Trump’s
presidential campaign instructed
Republicans planning to cast elec-
toral college votes for Trump in
Georgia despite Joe Biden’s victo-
ry to operate in “complete secrecy,”
an email obtained by The Wash-
ington Post shows.
“I must ask for your complete
discretion in this process,” wrote
Robert Sinners, the campaign’s
election operations director for
Georgia, the day before the 16 Re-
publicans gathered at the Georgia
Capitol to sign certificates declar-
ing themselves duly elected. “Your
duties are imperative to ensure
the end result — a win in Georgia
for President Trump — but will be
hampered unless we have com-
plete secrecy and discretion.”
The Dec. 13, 2020, email went
on to instruct the electors to tell
guards at the building that they
had an appointment with one of
two state senators. “Please, at no
point should you mention any-
thing to do with Presidential Elec-
tors or speak to the media,” Sin-
ners continued in bold.
The admonishments suggest
that those who carried out the fake
elector plan were concerned that,
had the gathering become public
before Republicans could follow
through on casting their votes, the
effort could have been disrupted.
Georgia law requires that electors
fulfill their duties at the State Cap-
itol. On Dec. 14, 2020, protesters
for and against the two presiden-
tial candidates had gathered on
the Capitol grounds.
The House select committee in-
vestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack
on the U.S. Capitol, which begins
public hearings on Thursday, is
likely to highlight the scheme to
appoint fake electors and explore
whether top Trump campaign offi-
cials initiated the strategy as part
of a larger effort to overturn the
democratic election.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution and the
counsel to House Democrats for
Trump’s first impeachment, said
the email could suggest those in-
volved knew their actions could be
problematic. “If there was nothing
wrong with it, why go through
such extraordinary lengths to hide
what you’re doing?” he asked.
Georgia was one of seven states
won by Biden where Republican
electors gathered Dec. 14, 2020,
signing certificates purporting to
affirm Trump as the actual victor
of their states. Though Biden’s win
in Georgia had been formally cer-
tified — and reconfirmed after a
recount and court cases — Trump
supporters later cited the actions
of the electors to argue Biden’s win
in Georgia and elsewhere re-
mained in doubt.
They argued that when Con-
gress met on Jan. 6, 2021, to count
the electoral college votes that
Vice President Mike Pence could
choose to recognize Trump’s elec-
tors over Biden’s. Trump support-
ers violently stormed the U.S. Cap-
itol after Pence announced he be-
lieved that the Constitution re-
quired him to recognize only
official electors.
In a statement, Sinners said he
was working at the direction of
senior campaign officials and
Georgia Republican Party Chair-
man David Shafer, who served as a
Trump elector in the state. “I was
advised by attorneys that this was
necessary in order to preserve the
pending legal challenge,” he said.
“Following the Former Presi-
dent’s refusal to accept the results
of the election and allow a peace-
ful transition of power, my views
on this matter have changed sig-
nificantly from where they were
on December 13th,” said Sinners,
who now works for Georgia Secre-
tary of State Brad Raffensperger
(R), who resisted Trump’s efforts
to overturn the result.
Robert Driscoll, a lawyer for
Shafer, said the Georgia GOP
chairman has provided all of his
communications about the elector
process to the Jan. 6 committee.
“None of these communications,
nor his testimony, suggest that Mr.
Shafer requested or wished for
confidentiality surrounding the
provisional electors,” he said.
He noted that Shafer invited
journalists to attend the proceed-
ings and gave interviews immedi-
ately afterward explaining the
goal had been to ensure Trump
electors were in place should a
court overturn Biden’s win in re-
sponse to a pending case. “In order
for that lawsuit to remain viable,
we were required to hold this
meeting to preserve [Trump’s]
rights,” Shafer said at the time,
according to a video clip posted by
Fox 5 Atlanta.A Trump spokesman did not
respond to a request for comment.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa
Monaco confirmed in January
that the Justice Department is in-
vestigating whether what she
termed “fraudulent elector certifi-
cations” violated federal law. In
Georgia, Fulton County District
Attorney Fani Willis is investigat-
ing whether the appointment of
fake Trump electors broke state
law, said two people familiar with
the probe, who, like others, spoke
on the condition of anonymity to
discuss sensitive law enforcement
matters.
The Justice Department has
sent subpoenas and sought inter-
views with some of the 15 people
around the country who were slat-
ed to be Trump electors but were
replaced on the day of the electoral
college vote, several people told
The Post. Some of those Republi-
cans have told The Post they didn’t
participate because Biden had
won the popular vote in their state
and they did not think the gather-ings were appropriate; others said
they were ill or had scheduling
conflicts.
Among those who refused to
participate were Pennsylvania Re-
publican Party Chairman Law-
rence Tabas, an election-law ex-
pert who had defended Trump in
2016 against a recount push by
Green Party candidate Jill Stein;
former congressman Tom Marino
(R-Pa.), one of the first members of
Congress to endorse Trump’s
presidential campaign; and Geor-
gia real estate investor John Isak-
son, son of the late Republican
senator Johnny Isakson.
The subpoenas seek all docu-
ments since Oct. 1, 2020, related to
the electoral college vote, as well
as any election-related communi-
cations with roughly a dozen peo-
ple in Trump’s inner circle, includ-
ing Rudy Giuliani, Bernard Kerik,
Boris Epshteyn, Jenna Ellis and
John Eastman.
One would-be Trump elector in
Georgia, Patrick Gartland, had
been appointed to the Cobb Coun-ty Board of Elections and Registra-
tion and believed that post created
a conflict of interest for him. Still,
two FBI agents recently came to
his home with a subpoena and
asked whether he had any contact
with Trump advisers around the
time of the November election.
“They wanted to know if I had
talked to Giuliani,” Gartland said.
He said he has also been inter-
viewed by investigators with the
Fulton County District Attorney’s
Office.
Former Cobb County GOP
chairman Jason Shepherd said in
an interview that he too has been
interviewed by the FBI. “They
seem the most interested in Sha-
fer’s role and any communications
from the White House or mem-
bers of Congress,” he said.
In Georgia, Democrats met on
the floor of the state Senate to cast
16 electoral college votes for Biden
in a ceremony presided over by
former gubernatorial candidate
Stacey Abrams. Trump electors
gathered in a conference roomnearby, sitting around a U-shaped
table as they signed certificates
declaring themselves the state’s
viable electors.
The email obtained by The Post
shows the campaign went to con-
siderable lengths to keep the effort
quiet in advance. Trump electors
were told not to reveal their plans
to security on arriving at the State
Capitol but instead to say they
were on-site to attend a meeting
with either state Sen. Brandon
Beach or state Sen. Burt Jones,
both Republicans.
Jones, who was among the 16
Trump electors, won the Republi-
can nomination to be Georgia’s
next lieutenant governor last
month.
Beach declined to comment,
citing the grand jury investiga-
tions. Jones said he was not famil-
iar with the email and denied be-
ing a “point of contact” for the
gathering.Matthew Brown contributed to this
report from Atlanta.Fake Trump electors in Ga. told t o shroud plans in ‘secrecy,’ email shows
OLIVER CONTRERAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Vice President Mike Pence arrives to preside over a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes for president at the U.S. Capitol
on Jan. 7, 2021, one day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after Pence announced he would recognize only official electors.RELIABLE DECK EXPERTS
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