// It’s F*ck around and find out Friday for the cosplay electors who signed those fake electoral college certificates saying that Trump had won their states. Fourteen witnesses just got subpoenas from the January 6 Select Committee about their participation in a plot to give Vice President Mike Pence an excuse to reject swing state ballots for Biden by pointing to “competing slates of electors.”

“The Select Committee has obtained information that groups of individuals met on December 14th, 2020 in seven states carried by President Biden, then submitted bogus slates of Electoral-College votes for former President Trump,” Committee Chair Bennie Thompson said in a press release. “The so-called alternate electors from those states then transmitted the purported Electoral-College certificates to Congress, which multiple people advising former President Trump or his campaign used to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th, 2021.”

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After Trump lost his eleventy-seven electoral challenges (not counting the still twitching Kraken tentacles), he cast around for ever more wild schemes to hold on to power. And wild men Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman were there.

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In his infamous fever dream memo, Eastman referred to “dual slates of electors” in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, and even New Mexico, which Biden won by almost 9 points. Last week, CNN revealed that Giuliani superintended the effort in the states to get the slates of fake electors sworn in.

The bogus certificates were submitted to the National Archives as if they were legitimate, which is how the non-profit watchdog group American Oversight was able to get them through a FOIA request. As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow points out, many of these certificates used strikingly similar language, which is probably not a coincidence with superlawyer Rudy running the show.

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Our brave electors standing up for what is right and casting their electoral votes for @realDonaldTrump.

We believe in fair elections and will continue the fight against voter fraud in the Silver State! pic.twitter.com/tJYbli6vhn

— Nevada GOP (@NVGOP) December 14, 2020

In fact, there were plenty of lawyers in Trumpland singing from the fake electors playbook. Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who wanted the DOJ to announce an investigation into non-existent vote fraud in Georgia, aimed to give the state’s legislature an excuse to reconvene and certify the “alternate” slate of electors. And Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a former judge, even teamed up with Arizona’s fake electors to file one of the most ridiculous election lawsuits in a season full of strong contenders, suing Mike Pence in the Eastern District of Texas to enjoin him from certifying the real electors chosen by Arizona’s voters.

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So the Committee should have lots of questions for the people on the ground in the states who put this whole harebrained scheme into action. Although the witnesses may well plead the Fifth, since the Justice Department is currently looking into the matter after at least three state AGs referred the matter to federal investigators.

It just goes to show that you should probably refrain from taking legal advice from some weirdo leaking hair dye and ranting in a Philly landscaper’s parking lot.

SELECT COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS “ALTERNATE ELECTORS” FROM SEVEN STATES [Press Release]

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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Crime, Election Law, Government