Video surprise - Capitol security tapes show fake GOP electors scheme
Tapes detail Jan. 5 effort to get bogus documents to Pence
The Jan. 6 security tapes being released by House Republicans have produced a surprise - video evidence of Donald Trump’s fake GOP elector scheme in action on Capitol Hill, one day before Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol.
Security videos from Jan. 5 show (on the left) attorney Ken Chesebro, a key architect of the fake elector scheme, and Trump campaign aide G. Michael Brown handing off fake elector documents to two aides (right) from the office of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). Those GOP aides then tried to give the fake documents to Senate officials a day before Jan. 6.
Buried in the thousands of hours of U.S. Capitol security tapes being released by House Republicans is video evidence of Donald Trump’s campaign trying to get slates of fake GOP electors to Vice President Mike Pence - on Jan. 5, 2021. It was all part of the larger effort to overturn the 2020 election and keep Trump in power.
The last-ditch attempt involved attorney Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects of the fake electors scheme, and G. Michael Brown, the deputy director of Election Day operations for Trump's 2020 campaign.
With fake GOP documents from Michigan and Wisconsin missing in the mail, Brown flew to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5 with a backup copy of fake elector certificates from Michigan.
The same day, bogus elector documents from Wisconsin were carried on a plane by a part-time GOP aide, who gave them to Chesebro outside the Trump Hotel.
Chesebro and Brown then walked to Capitol Hill to deliver the envelopes.
SECURITY VIDEO
The U.S. Capitol Police security camera system, which stretches far and wide across Capitol Hill, first picked up Chesebro and Brown walking towards the Capitol at 3:40 pm on Jan. 5. The cameras would track the duo for the next 25 minutes.
Chesebro and Brown walked past the West Front of the Capitol - where Trump supporters would violently attack police the next day. The two men crossed Independence Avenue and made their way to the Longworth House Office Building, which is just across the street from the U.S. Capitol.
Chesebro was carrying one set of fake GOP elector documents in a familiar manila oversized business envelope; the other set was in a white FedEx envelope.
THE HANDOFF
By 3:50 pm, Chesebro and Brown had walked up Capitol Hill and stopped on the sidewalk outside the Longworth House Office Building. (In the photos below, they are circled in orange.)
About a minute later, a pair of staffers (circled in yellow) came outside from the office of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). That’s when the bogus GOP elector documents from Michigan and Wisconsin were handed over.
After a short chat, the two aides from Rep. Kelly's office - now carrying the envelopes with the fake GOP elector documents - headed back through security at the Longworth Building. It was their job to deliver the envelopes to Senate officials for use at the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6 - all part of Trump’s plan to have Vice President Pence overturn the 2020 election results to keep Trump in office.
Outside, Brown took a selfie with the U.S. Capitol in the background to mark the moment.
"Mission accomplished," he wrote in a text.
Chesebro and Brown thought their work was finished to get the documents to Pence. But the adventure was just beginning.
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Back inside, the two staffers from the office of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) - carrying the two envelopes handed over by Chesebro and Brown - took the underground tunnels over to the U.S. Capitol.
Their destination was the office of the Senate Parliamentarian, which was ransacked a day later - on Jan. 6 - by supporters of Donald Trump.
Security video shows the aides dropping off the fake elector envelopes at 4:04 pm, but before they could get far, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ran around the corner to catch the two men. After a short discussion in the hallway, the Kelly aides returned to her office and took back the fake elector documents.
A source familiar with the matter says that the Parliamentarian's office refused to accept the envelopes. Security video shows the men leaving at 4:07 pm.
For the next 30 minutes, the two aides from Kelly's office are seen on various security cameras walking around the second floor of the Capitol - seemingly waiting for more instructions on what to do, and possibly looking to leave the envelopes at the Vice President's ceremonial office just off the Senate floor.
With the two Kelly aides unable to deliver the fake GOP elector certificates, Rep. Kelly's Chief of Staff, Matt Stroia, messaged Chris Hodgson, a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence.
"Hey Chris. This is Matt Stroia. Could you give me a call real quick when you have a minute," Stroia said in a message at 4:40 pm on Jan. 5.
By that time, the Kelly staffers had started walking back to their office, still holding the two envelopes from Chesebro and Brown. The failure to deliver the fake elector packets would spur more efforts on Jan. 6 - some involving Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) - to get the documents to Vice President Pence.
Why were the staffers for Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) part of this effort? In texts on Jan. 6 to a Wisconsin lawyer involved in the Trump effort, Chesebro said that Trump campaign aide Mike Roman - who has been indicted in several states in the fake elector scheme - set up the Jan. 5 handoff with Kelly's office.
Some press reports have said that Roman handed over the documents on Capitol Hill, but he is nowhere to be found on these security tapes involving Chesebro and Brown.
JAN. 6 PROBE
The video evidence that I found - after many hours of going through the Capitol security tapes - was evidently not uncovered by the House Jan. 6 investigation. "The Select Committee does not know where Brown delivered the fake votes," the panel wrote in a footnote in its final report.
The GOP fake elector scheme was designed to let Vice President Pence reject electoral votes from swing states where Donald Trump had lost to Joe Biden, in order to tip the election to Trump on Jan. 6. But Pence ultimately refused to go along with it. That infuriated Trump. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” Trump tweeted, just as rioters were smashing their way into the Capitol building.
Overall, the Jan. 6 security tapes have confirmed what we all saw - hundreds of Trump supporters attacked police outside the Capitol, broke through barricades, forced their way inside, interrupted the electoral vote count, and caused lawmakers and the Vice President to flee for their safety.
But now we also know the same tapes contain evidence tied to the federal and state investigations of the Jan. 6 fake GOP elector scheme.
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Wow! This has to be tedious work. How many hours have you put in so far watching these tapes? Are there any other reporters doing it? It will be interesting to see the reaction to this.
Amazing that YOU could find this when nobody else has. This should surely put you in line for the Edward R Murrow award. :-) Nice work!