Trump Lawyers Believed Clarence Thomas Would ‘End Up Being Key’ to Overturning 2020 Presidential Election: Newly Revealed Emails
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U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of California ordered the release of eight emails between Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, and other members of the former president’s 2020 election legal team on Wednesday.
The emails were handed over to congressional investigators and they add additional details to then-President Donald Trump’s schemes to overturn the 2020 presidential election and remain in power despite losing the electoral college by over 70 electors.
The Washington Post reported on the emails on Wednesday and highlighted an email “from Chesebro to Eastman and several others sent on Dec. 31, 2020,” in which Chesebro pinpointed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a “key” ally in their potential plans to stop the transition of power:
Chesebro argued that Thomas would “end up being key” to asking the high court to overturn then-President-elect Joe Biden’s win in contested states, and that they should “frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt.”
“Realistically, our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress, is from Thomas — do you agree, Prof. Eastman?” the email adds.
The Posts notes Chesebro sent another email hours later:
Chesebro reiterated that he viewed “the best shot at holding up the count of a state in Congress” would be to get a case “pending before the Supreme Court by Jan. 5, ideally with something positive written by a judge or justice, hopefully Thomas.”
Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, has sparked controversy in recent months as her many activities surrounding Trump’s plots to stay in power have come to light, including pressuring various state lawmakers to throw out the Biden slate of electors and replace them with Trump electors. The House Jan. 6 committee spoke with Ginni Thomas regarding her activities and what impact they may have had on the attack on the U.S. Capitol that day to stop the Congressional certification of the electoral college.
In mid-October several dozen lawyers and former government officials filed an ethics complaint under the group, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, asking for the New York Supreme Court to investigate Chesebro, who they claim was the “mastermind behind” Trump’s scheme to use “fake electors” to stay in office.
Judge Carter previously ruled that emails from Eastman, who worked and schemed to overturn the 2020 presidential election, must be turned over to the Jan. 6 House committee.
In his lengthy opinion in late October, Carter wrote that those emails “show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.” Carter argued that Trump knowingly signed court documents containing false information.
