Transcripts reveal link between Trump and fake Nevada voters

LAS VEGAS (AP) — New transcripts of closed-door testimony before the House committee on Jan. 6 show that Donald Trump and his allies had direct involvement in the Nevada Republican Party’s plan to send out a fake voter certificate. to Congress in 2020 in one last attempt. end the attempt to keep the former president in power.

Documents made public Wednesday night included interviews with state party leader Michael McDonald and Republican National Committee member Jim DeGraffenreid in February. Both men served as false voters in Carson City on December 14, 2020.

That day, six members of the Nevada Republican Party signed certificates falsely claiming Trump won Nevada in 2020 and sent them to Congress and the National Archives, where they were ultimately ignored. The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is looking into the role these phony voters in key battleground states played in Trump’s attempt to cling to power after his defeat in 2020.

McDonald and DeGraffenreid invoked Fifth Amendment protection hundreds of times in their separate interviews with the committee on January 6, declining to answer questions about their involvement and the extent to which Trump’s top allies helped orchestrate the plot.

Still, the transcripts provide an unprecedented glimpse into the coordinated efforts by the Trump team in Nevada to overturn the election results, efforts that included direct communication between McDonald and the president himself.

On November 4, 2020, for example, the day after the election, McDonald had a conference call with Trump, his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani, and his son Eric Trump.

“They want full attack mode,” McDonald later wrote in a text message describing that call. “We’re going to have a meeting in the war room in about an hour.”

Both McDonald and DeGraffenreid turned over their communications to the committee on January 6 related to bogus voter fraud. The FBI also seized McDonald’s cell phone in June as part of an investigation into the scheme.

Those documents, spelled out in detail in the transcripts, included text messages, emails, and internal memos distributed by the national Republican arm; handwritten graphics, press release templates, and the fake certificate itself; and “explaining the reason to voters” talking points.

The planning was extensive, the transcripts show, and began as early as four days before the election, when state party officials began discussing whether Nevada Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske would approve the alternative list of voters.

DeGraffenreid, in a text conversation with party officials, said Cegavske “could do a lot of things, but sending out a list of Republican voters without clearly being the winners of the popular vote is not one of them.”

Cegavske ultimately certified President Joe Biden’s victory in Nevada, defending the results as reliable and accurate despite attacks from Trump and others within his own party, prompting the Nevada Republican Party to censor it He later conducted an investigation that found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud throughout the state.

Meanwhile, the day before the fake voter list was assembled, transcripts show that McDonald grew increasingly frustrated with the RNC’s direction on how to go about signing the certificate. He seemed like he had gone back and forth with the NCR about the logistics of the ceremony: the location, how they would publicize it, and what they would say in their speeches.

“RNC essentially put us in a box about what we can say, but it doesn’t sound too bad,” Shawn Meehan, one of the fake voters, said in a text message to DeGraffenreid.

Meehan also told DeGraffenreid that McDonald wanted a smaller group to plan the final details over breakfast, and that he is “emphasizing the optics.” He was visible to several of the fake voters: Earlier that day, another fake voter had texted DeGraffenreid that McDonald was upset with “conflicting messages and directions about advertising for tomorrow.”

“He is very concerned that RNC will cut the cord if it looks bad and steal credit if we get it right,” Meehan wrote in a message.

“I know,” DeGraffenreid responded. “She’s worried that we’ll look like whiny fools.”

Ultimately, the Nevada Republican Party would go ahead, and after more than two months of planning, McDonald, DeGraffenreid, and the other false voters gathered in front of the Capitol building in Carson City for a ceremony.

“History made today in Carson City, Nevada,” the state party would write on social media after the ceremony, “as @McDonaldNV leads our constituents in casting Nevada’s 6 electoral votes for the Nevada winner. , @realDonaldTrump and @Mike_Pence.”

McDonald’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night. An attorney for DeGraffenreid said he declined to comment.

The nine-member committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot will be disbanded when Republicans take control of the House next month. The committee was expected to release its full report on Thursday, which they hope will lead to criminal charges against Trump and his key allies.

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Stern, a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, reported from Reno. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Follow Stern on Twitter: @gabestern326.

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