Page:Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/382

 dual slates of electors." When Eastman submitted his memo to Epshteyn, he also copied Chesebro, who had edited the memo and called it "[r]eally awesome."

By that point, Chesebro and Eastman were coordinating their arguments about the fake-elector votes and how they should be used. On January 1, 2021, Chesebro sent an email to Eastman and Epshteyn that recommended that Vice President Pence derail the joint session of Congress. In it, he raised the idea of Vice President Pence declaring "that there are two competing slates of electoral votes" in several States, and taking the position that only he, or possibly Congress, could "resolve any disputes concerning them."

Two days later, Eastman completed his second major memo advising President Trump and his team on strategies for January 6th, again arguing that there were "dual slates of electors from 7 states," and calling for Vice President Pence to assert power to act "[a]s the ultimate arbiter" to take steps that could overturn the election, either by sending the election back to State legislatures to reassess or by rejecting Biden's certified electoral votes from States in which there were also fake Trump electors.

By early January, most of the fake elector votes had arrived in Washington, except those from Michigan and Wisconsin. Undeterred, the Trump team arranged to fly them to Washington and hand deliver them to Congress for the Vice President himself. "Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President . . ." Wisconsin Republican Party official Mark Jefferson wrote to Party Chairman Hitt on January 4th. Hitt responded, "Ok I see I have a missed call from [Mike] Roman and a text from someone else. Did you talk to them already? This is just nuts. . . ."

The next day, Trump Campaign Deputy Director for Election Day Operations G. Michael Brown sent a text message to other campaign staff suggesting that he was the person who delivered the fake votes to Congress. After sending the group a photo of his face with the Capitol in the background, Brown said, "This has got to be the cover a book I write one day" and "I should probably buy [Mike] [R]oman a tie or something for sending me on this one. Hasn't been done since 1876 and it was only 3 states that did it." The reference to 1876 alludes to a controversy during that election about certain States' electoral college votes.

President Trump and his Campaign apparently had assistance from allies on Capitol Hill for this effort, including Senator Ron Johnson, his chief of staff, and the chief of staff to Representative Mike Kelly, although Senator Johnson has said that "[his] involvement in that attempt to