Special Counsel Jack Smith regurgitated Democrats’ phony “fake electors” smear in his latest brief filed against Donald Trump in federal court on Wednesday. Smith previously indicted Trump for questioning the administration of the 2020 election.
Writing in his 165-page screed about Trump’s legal efforts challenging the results of the 2020 contest, Smith claimed that Trump engaged in criminal activity by, among other alleged actions, “manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states.” This “plan,” the Merrick Garland appointee contended, was designed to “cause” Trump electors in these states to “sign and send to [Vice President Mike Pence], as President of the Senate, certifications in which they falsely represented themselves as legitimate electors who had cast electoral votes for [Trump].”
“Ultimately, the defendant and his co-conspirators would use these fraudulent electoral votes—mere pieces of paper without the lawful imprimatur of a state executive—to falsely claim that in his ministerial role presiding over the January 6 certification, Pence had the authority to choose the fraudulent slates over the legitimate ones, or to send the purportedly ‘dueling’ slates to the state legislatures for consideration anew,” the brief reads.
Contrary to Smith’s claims, the naming of contingent Republican electors during the 2020 election cycle was neither unprecedented nor unlawful. In fact, the process conducted in contested states like Georgia parallels a similar endeavor that occurred during the 1960 presidential contest between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon.
As The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland previously reported, Kennedy and Nixon electors cast their votes for their respective candidates when
