Giuliani should be prosecuted for multi-state electoral ballot forgeries

Rudy Giuliani and other Trump’s campaign officials allegedly coordinated false documents of presidential elector certificates for Trump in 7 states where Biden won. These fake certificates were submitted to the government fraudulently claiming to be valid, which is a federal crime, in violation of Title 52 §20511 of the US Code. If convicted, Giuliani, his co-conspirators, and even Trump himself could face 5 years in prison.

Forged documents

Lying is largely protected by the 1st Amendment right to free speech, but sending fake election certifications to Congress to be counted is a criminal violation of federal law. These people were not appointed by their state officials to be presidential electors, yet most of the certificates falsely assert: “WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President… do hereby certify…” with votes for Trump. This is election fraud.

Even if these electors were each honestly convinced that “irregularities” were a big problem, that still doesn’t make them duly elected presidential electors. The question here is not whether they believed the election was fairly conducted, but whether they were appointed as electors according to their State laws, and they were not!

In Arizona, electors were certified for Biden on 11/30, but the fake electors signed their false certificates for Trump on 12/14:

The Signing. pic.twitter.com/6gPsfqrk7T

— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) December 14, 2020

In Georgia and Wisconsin, the false certificates even looked similar in appearance to the real ones.

Dozens of signatories could be subject to punishment for falsifying official election documents.

Law against procuring false ballots

Title 52 involves voting and elections, and §20511 deals with relevant criminal penalties. It says:

“A person … who in any election for Federal office … knowingly and willfully … attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held, shall be fined … or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.”

Whoever coordinated the procurement of fraudulent presidential elector ballots, contrary to the ones State officials had actually certified, is guilty of trying to deprive the residents of several states a fair presidential election process. If Giuliani was the ringleader, then he deserves a prison sentence, and so do his collaborators.

Note that the US Constitution explicitly refers to electoral college certificates as “ballots”. Article II, Section 1, updated by the 12th Amendment says:

“The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, … they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President…”

Hedged language reveals intent to deceive

False electors from Pennsylvania and New Mexico added this conditional language: “on the understanding that it might later be determined that we are the duly elected and qualified…” That means signatories from those 2 States may not be guilty of election fraud.

It also means that it was known by some that claiming to be duly elected to vote for Trump just wasn’t true, which could be evidence that Trump’s campaign knowingly and willfully attempted to defraud the other 5 states of Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada where the conditional language was not used.

Other laws against false documents

Even if §20511 somehow doesn’t apply, Title 18 of the US Code has a whole chapter about crimes of fraud and false statements. §1001 says, in part:

“(a) …whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years…
…
(c) With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only to—
(1) administrative matters, including … a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch…”

Official documents sent to Congress for the administration of an election, which make false representation of being a duly elected presidential elector from a state, would be within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch and subject to penalty under this law, which also calls for up to 5 years of prison. Anyone who aids and abets this crime, such as Giuliani or Trump, would be also subject to the same punishment.

Serious crimes demand serious consequences

Not all false documents are equal in severity. A letter of complaints to Congress falsely representing yourself as the King of America might not be enough to land you in prison, but a coordinated multi-state forgery of ballots designed to deceive the federal government’s election process is explicitly criminal and demands serious consequences.

CNN reports that Giuliani “coordinated the nuts-and-bolts of the process on a state-by-state level.” Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn also admitted to being “part of the process to make sure there were alternate electors”.

Let’s also not forget Giuliani’s role in the January 6th Capitol riot, when he egged on the crowd by saying, “let’s have trial by combat,” as he alleged widespread voter fraud.

They must be held accountable for their plot to steal the election.

As of 2/15/22, Giuliani was expected to testify before the January 6th Committee.

Trump & associates accused of criminal conspiracy

On 3/2/22, a court filing from the January 6th commission says they have “a good-faith basis for concluding that the President [Trump] and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.”

The filing is regarding Trump lawyer John Eastman’s emails, one of which explicitly encouraged VP Pence to break a federal law, saying, “I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation [of the Electoral Count Act] and adjourn for 10 days to allow legislatures to finish their investigations…”

The statement also accuses Trump himself, and others in his circle, of this crime, which is:

“If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

On 5/10, Politico reported on Eastman’s released emails. One of the emails suggested legislators apply a “historical rejection rate” to discard significantly more absentee ballots (11 times as many!), saying this math would “help provide some cover” for the Pennsylvania legislature to flip the election results from Biden to Trump. Rejecting votes using statistics from past elections, without even looking at the validity of the individual votes being rejected, is very literally the destruction of democracy. His bogus math is basically just saying, “let’s ignore the votes and just say our guy won”.

On 6/21, Arizona’s Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers testified to the January 6th Commission that Giuliani and Eastman pressured him to recall or decertify presidential electors for Biden, but Bowers refused.

Department of Justice takes action

As the first batch of public hearings of the January 6th Committee wrap up, the US Department of Justice has subpoenaed Republican party leaders from Georgia and Arizona, David Shafer, Kelli Ward and several others, over the fake electors scheme. The DOJ also raided the home of Jeffrey Clark, who had pushed the department to send bogus allegations of fraud to state officials in order to help Trump’s coup attempt.

Georgia subpoenas Giuliani, Eastman

On 7/5/22, a special grand jury in Georgia subpoenaed Rudy Guiliani, John Eastman, and other Trump henchmen for their efforts to undo the state’s certified election results.

7/19/22: 16 Trump Electors Targeted in Georgia Criminal Inquiry

1/12/23: California bar unveils disciplinary charges against Trump lawyer John Eastman

5/15/23: Giuliani accused of offering to sell Trump pardons for $2 million each in new lawsuit

References

It is now from five states (up from yesterday's three) that we have obtained forged elector documents created by Republicans. pic.twitter.com/ydTgSGzIRx

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 12, 2022

Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, oversaw fake electors plot in 7 states

The 59 Republicans Who Joined Electoral Voter Fraud Scheme For Trump Could Face Prison

DOJ Is Investigating the Phony Electors

Committee investigating Jan. 6 attack issues subpoenas to 14 bogus Trump electors in states Biden won

Jan. 6 select committee subpoenas phone records of Arizona GOP chair

Giuliani asked Michigan prosecutor to give voting machines to Trump team

The full list of the 84 fake electors – Ohio Capital Journal