The December 13 email, written by a New York lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro, is significant because it is the only document so far the House has obtained solely because of a judge’s finding. that it could become evidence of a crime. The email came to light as part of a legal battle over right-wing lawyer John Eastman’s email account.
Chesebro’s email, in its subject line, referred to the proposal as “the President of the Senate’s strategy.” The committee obtained the email several weeks ago, and it recently became public in the court filing.
On January 2, 2021, Chesebro said in a follow-up email that the proposal had largely become moot. It is just one of many communications and legal arguments in which Trump’s advisers have discussed blocking his loss of the presidency.
Still, a federal judge pointed to the proposal as an early indicator of how Eastman and other Trump lawyers wanted to wreak havoc on the Jan. 6 Electoral College certification.
“This was perhaps the first time members of President Trump’s team turned a legal interpretation of the voter count law into a day-to-day action plan. The draft memo pushed a strategy which knowingly violated the Voter Count Act, and Dr. Eastman’s subsequent memos closely follow his analysis and proposal,” Judge David O. Carter previously wrote of the Chesebro email. “The memo is both intertwined with and clearly advances the plan to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”