On Wednesday, ten Republicans in Wisconsin who participated in the fake electors scheme in that state — as part of a broader multistate plot to help former President Donald Trump remain in office — declared their actions improper and invalid and recognized President Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the state, as part of a settlement in a civil lawsuit.
Their agreement to do so means they will no longer be subjected to the possibility of having to pay $2.4 million in damages, and won’t have to participate in a trial set to take place next fall.
The ten Republicans went to the Wisconsin state Capitol building on December 14, 2020, the same day legitimate electors were meeting in statehouses across the country to formally cast their ballots. While Democratic electors were casting votes in the Wisconsin Capitol for Biden, the fake Republican electors who were let into the Capitol by a GOP lawmaker engaged in their own illegitimate vote, which they claimed to have done only in order to serve as backup electors in the event that a state lawsuit recognized Trump as the actual winner — a highly unlikely scenario, as he had lost dozens of such court challenges across the U.S. up to that point.
The document they signed, however, was later transmitted to Washington D.C., intended by Trump and his allies to be counted among the real Electoral College votes in order to disrupt the certification of Biden’s win. The Democratic electors who cast the real ballots in Wisconsin later sued the fake Republican electors.
As part of the settlement, the ten individuals had to acknowledge that their actions were done in order to overturn the election and state that Biden had legitimately won the state in the 2020 contest. The Republicans also had to promise never to serve as electors again in the future, or to take part in the transmission of ballots to the Electoral College.
Within their official acknowledgment, the fake electors wrote that their meeting at the state Capitol was “in compliance with requests from the Trump campaign and Republican Party of Wisconsin.”
“We oppose any attempt to undermine the public’s faith in the ultimate results of the 2020 presidential election,” the statement read. “We hereby withdraw the documents we executed on December 14, 2020, and request that they be disregarded by the public and all entities to which they were submitted.”
Although the fake electors are no longer listed as defendants in the lawsuit, the matter will move forward, as two Republican lawyers are still being sued — including Wisconsin-based lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who was the originator of the fake electors scheme in various states that Trump falsely contended he had only lost due to fraud. The trial will take place in September.
Chesebro is also charged with similar election interference crimes in Georgia, where he has pleaded guilty and is expected to cooperate with investigators. He may also be cooperating with other state and federal investigations relating to Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, as he has requested to the Fulton County, Georgia, judge overseeing the case to be able to travel to other locations where such inquiries are happening or have already happened, including to Nevada, Arizona and Washington D.C.
After the statement from the fake Wisconsin electors was released, Jeff Mandell, one of the lawyers representing the Democrats in the civil lawsuit, praised the outcome.
“Americans believe in democracy and the idea that the people choose their leaders through elections. … We brought this case to ensure that they are held accountable,” Mandell said.
Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, also commented on the announcement from the ten fake Republican electors. Wikler said in a statement posted on social media:
No matter your party or who you voted for, honoring the outcome of a free and fair election is core to American democracy. As these 10 fake electors now admit, their actions violated this bedrock principle of our democracy in an attempt to overturn an election that Donald Trump plainly lost.
“Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election very nearly succeeded in Wisconsin. It is critical we recommit ourselves to ensuring Donald Trump never again wields the power he so flagrantly abused in an effort to undermine our democracy,” Wikler added.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.