Republican Congress members held one other of their many, many rage-filled hearings on Thursday. This one had the said objective of propping Republican-supported spoiler candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in entrance of the cameras in order that he may spew his racist, antisemitic, anti-scientific conspiracy theories whereas crying to a worldwide viewers that he was being censored.
However after all, that wasn’t the only objective of the listening to. Republicans additionally used the time to unfold their own elaborate conspiracy theories and discuss America’s most vital points: Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, and Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. Not less than this time round they didn’t select for instance their factors with revenge porn.
As Republicans rolled on by means of the day, tossing their very own model of woo woo onto the heaping pile of ugly and dangerous nonsense that Kennedy carried into the chamber, one factor about all this started to make sense: Republicans ought to consider in an elaborate scheme involving 1000’s of people and tons of of officers cooperating to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election. As a result of that’s precisely what occurred.
NPR has been retaining a helpful database of these concerned within the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. As of July 14, a complete of 1,064 individuals have confronted prices in connection to the failed rebellion. Of these, 617 have pleaded responsible. One other 124 have confronted trials. Solely two have been acquitted.
Estimates of these who battered their method into the Capitol on Jan. 6 put the quantity at over 2,000. As well as, tons of extra pro-Donald Trump rioters battered police, broken buildings, and violated D.C. weapons legal guidelines. So it’s seemingly that each one the numbers above will proceed to develop as extra of these concerned are recognized and arrested.
However these individuals are, for probably the most half, simply foot troopers. Certain, amongst them had been members of the Oath Keepers who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to years in federal jail, however even these guys had been method down within the pecking order. They’re the followers.
This week, Michigan Lawyer Common Dana Nessel charged 16 false electors who signed certificates alleging that Donald Trump had received the 2020 election with eight felonies every, together with conspiracy to commit election regulation forgery. Every of those prices has a most sentence of 14 years. Because the 16 false electors vary in age from 55 to 81, they might need to rethink their retirement plans.
However Michigan isn’t the one state that had slates of false electors, or the one state the place they might face prices. Wisconsin has been contemplating prices towards the ten false electors there, and a lawsuit is shifting forward that seeks $2.4 million in damages from the electors and from the Trump attorneys who suggested them. False electors in different states have been related to subpoenas from the FBI and meetings with the workplace of the particular counsel, suggesting that federal prices might quickly be filed by Jack Smith.
In all, there are 84 of those false electors scattered throughout Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Because the AZ Mirror reviews, the group contains:
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Georgia’s present lieutenant governor.
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A former Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona.
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A county councilman from Pennsylvania.
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Two former Republican candidates for governor of Pennsylvania.
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An alderperson from Wisconsin.
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A former member of the Wisconsin Election Fee.
In Michigan, these already charged embrace a Republican Nationwide Committee member, the clerk of Shelby Township, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Social gathering, and the mayor of a small metropolis.
The total record is rotten with the names of Republican county chairs, co-chairs, treasurers, and others with authority within the occasion. Extra names come from the heads of Republican-aligned suppose tanks, institutes, and foundations. The false elector record reads like a who’s who of Republicans in every state.
These 84 individuals aren’t simply mid-level officers within the rebellion: They’re individuals who completely knew higher. They weren’t individuals picked off the road, and even volunteers from a Trump rally. They had been insiders. Those that confirmed up on the Capitol to scream and break home windows might have been ignorant sufficient to consider Trump and the indignant rhetoric flying their method. These false electors had been totally conscious they had been mendacity once they signed their names to pretend certificates whereas claiming to be duly appointed representatives of their state’s voting outcomes.
They had been educated, prepared members in a scheme to overturn the result of a free and honest election for president of america.
The false electors had been removed from alone in that data. Dozens, if not tons of, extra Republican officers and politicians had been concerned. This contains individuals like legal professional Robert Cheeley, who met with Georgia state legislators and confirmed them video clips edited to make it look like election employees had been concerned in fraud. Or Sen. Ron Johnson, who not solely had a hand in organizing false electors in Wisconsin, however handed Mike Pence a list of false electors in the course of the chaotic and violent occasions on Jan. 6.
On the high of the pyramid had been Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and others who weren’t simply concerned within the false elector scheme: They had been the authors. They weren’t taking orders. They had been creating the technique and ways that resulted within the outreach to these false electors, the lies instructed to legislators, and the rallies that stored Trump voters riled up and able to march.
Protecting Trump in energy was the aim of the scheme, however Trump wasn’t alone. There have been actually tons of of Republicans who had been conscious of what was happening and took half within the efforts to defeat the result of a democratic election. They ought to consider in conspiracies. As a result of they’re conspirators.
They usually’re enthusiastic about giving it one other attempt.
