Judge Tanya Chutkan has published this Friday some 2,000 pages of documents of what is supposed to be the evidence against former President Donald Trump for which he is accused in a Washington court for trying to reverse the 2020 electoral result. The vast majority of The pages are under summary secrecy, so only one word appears on them: “Sealed.” Among the documents in the summary appears a document attributed to John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer, which details the plans for Trump to be elected president on January 6, 2021 instead of the winner of the elections, Joe Biden. The prosecutor accuses him of “desperate” attempts to steal the elections. The judge has decided to release the documents, explaining that retaining them due to their possible political repercussions would amount to electoral interference.
Judge Tanya Chutkan denied this Thursday Trump lawyers’ request to delay until after the election the publication (with parts still under secrecy) of judicial records and evidence of the case, as they alleged that their dissemination would represent a form of “electoral interference” before the November presidential elections.
In its five-page resolutionChutkan noted that “the incidental effects of litigation on politics are not the same as a court’s intentional interference in it.” “It is in fact the measure requested by the defendant that runs the risk of undermining that public interest: if the court were to withhold information to which the public has a right to access solely because of the possible political consequences of its disclosure, that retention could constitute in itself ―or appear to be― electoral interference. “Therefore, the court will continue to keep political considerations out of its decision-making, rather than incorporating them as requested by the defendant,” he added.
Among the documents provided to the summary in one of the annexes, The plan is unsigned and unattributed, but Eastman was identified as the author. His incorporation is one more sign that the prosecutor in the case, Jack Smith, will try to demonstrate to Chutkan, if the case finally goes to trial, that Trump tried to hold on to power and that in that attempt he committed the four crimes of which accuses him.
The success of that plan depended on the actions of Vice President Mike Pence. That same January 6, 2021, at a rally before his followers, Trump said: “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the elections, we become president (sic) and you are happy.” Trump intervened with the White House, from where part of the attendees then went to assault the Capitol, about two kilometers away.
The document has a heading that reads: “January 6 Scenario.” It is based on the premise that from seven States where the result had been close, two different lists of Electoral College electors were sent to Pence, those who actually elect the president. After a first discussion on the constitutionality of the electoral legislation, we move directly to the plan.
“This is the scenario we propose,” he says, to then list a series of steps to proclaim Trump president in a kind of self-coup d’état. “1. Vice President Pence, presiding over the joint session (or Senator Tem Grassley, if Pence recuses himself), begins opening and counting the ballots, starting with Alabama (without conceding that such a procedure, specified by the Electoral Recount Act, is required). 2. When he arrives in Arizona, he announces that he has several lists of voters, so he is going to postpone the decision on the matter until he finishes in the other States. 3. At the end, he announces that, due to disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be considered validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of ‘designated electors’ – the language of the 12th Amendment – is 454. This interpretation of the 12th Amendment has also been proposed by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe. Therefore, a ‘majority of designated electors’ would be 228. There are currently 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gives the gavel (to proclaim) President Trump as re-elected,” say the first three steps of that plan.
The plan contains more points in case things got complicated. If the Democrats indicated that it was necessary to reach the 270 votes required for the proclamation of the president, the way to proceed would be as follows: “Pence says: Well, in accordance with the 12th Amendment, no candidate has achieved the necessary majority. That sends the matter to the House (of Representatives), where ‘voting will be done by State, the representation of each State will have one vote.’ Republicans currently control 26 of the state delegations, the minimum majority needed to win that vote. “President Trump is also re-elected there,” says the “proposal” of unidentified origin.
Pence’s role
The plan included more suggestions for dealing with complications in that parliamentary procedure, including resorting to the filibuster, before concluding: “The main thing here is that Pence does this without asking permission, whether from a joint session vote or from the Court . Let the other side challenge their actions in Court, where, again, Tribe (and others) argue that these are non-justiciable political issues to get those actions dismissed. The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the vice president as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all our measures taking this into account,” the document says in the first person plural.
The vice president did not want to bow to pressure from Trump, who At his rally next to the White House, he had said: “Mike Pence is going to have to cut his losses and if he doesn’t, it will be a sad day for our country. And Mike Pence, I hope you will stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you don’t, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I’ll tell you right now.” The vice president accepted the legitimate lists of voters provided by the States. The process of certifying the electoral result was interrupted by the assault on the Capitol. The insurrectionists chanted: “Let’s hang Mike Pence!”
Former Vice President Pence is one of the Republicans who have distanced themselves from Trump’s candidacy for the elections on November 5. He has pointed out that he cannot, “in conscience”, ask for the vote for him. This week, Trump has said that January 6, 2021, the date of the assault on the Capitol, was “a day of love.”
