The AI Files · Donald Trump / 2020 alternate elector certificates / state prosecutions · plain reading edition
The fake electors: every entry
All 48 entries of the guide, grouped by period and case, each with its bottom line and its sources. This page needs no JavaScript. The interactive guide adds the story in 20 chapters, the people, the timeline, the theories, the 15 checked claims and the media.
The memos Nov–Dec 2020
The lawyer memos
Chesebro + Eastman
After the count, before the memos
Record · History
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Biden’s leads hardened in the seven states that later produced dual papers.
By early December 2020, Biden’s wins in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were the certified popular-vote outcomes those states would ascertain. [1][2]
Trump’s public and legal challenges continued; most courtroom paths seeking to reverse those outcomes failed (sibling election-2020). [2]
Bottom line History
The alternate certificates did not create a parallel certified win — they arrived after ascertainment paths favored Biden.
What the record can’t settle
This guide does not re-litigate every 2020 fraud claim.
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Even inside the administration, the AG undercut ‘outcome-changing fraud’ before Dec 14.
On 1 December 2020 Attorney General Barr said DOJ had not found fraud sufficient to change the election outcome — a public break with the loudest fraud narrative. [1]
That undercut, for anyone listening inside government, the idea that state executives were about to reverse ascertainments. [1]
Bottom line Documented
The Dec 14 meetings went ahead anyway under a different theory: preserve papers for later recognition.
What the record can’t settle
Barr’s statement is not itself a court ruling on every county claim.
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Meet, vote, transmit — even without certification — so the votes might later count.
Kenneth Chesebro’s 9 December 2020 memo to James Troupis walks federal and state rules for Dec 14 elector meetings. [1]
It states that even though none of the Trump-Pence electors were then certified, most could still take steps to cast and transmit votes ‘so that the votes might be eligible to be counted if later recognized (by a court, the state legislature, or Congress).’ [1]
It cites Hawaii 1960 for the idea that missing a governor’s ascertainment is ‘hardly fatal.’ [1][2]
Bottom line Documented
This is the operational spine for the meetings — a lawyer memo, not a statute.
What the record can’t settle
A memo is advice/advocacy, not proof every signer read it.
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Dual slates become a lever for the Vice President.
John Eastman’s ‘January 6 scenario’ memo opens with seven states transmitting dual slates and argues the Electoral Count Act is likely unconstitutional. [1]
It proposes Pence defer decisions on those states, then treat them as having no validly appointed electors — or force a contingent House path. [1]
An Eastman email to Boris Epshteyn, copying Chesebro, forwards a Dec 23 final of the memo. [2]
Bottom line Documented
Without a chair willing to use dual slates, the certificates are paper without a parliamentary hook.
What the record can’t settle
Privilege fights surrounded the memo; the text itself is public.
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Eastman’s lever required discarding the statute Congress had used for decades.
The memo’s scenario depends on treating ECA dual-return rules as non-binding. [1][2]
Pence’s public position tracked the traditional view that the Vice President does not unilaterally decide which electors count. [3][4]
Bottom line Debated
The constitutional debate was real among a small circle; it did not become the joint session’s practice.
What the record can’t settle
Later ECRA reforms (2022) responded politically — not a 2020 court holding.
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Defenders’ best historical analogy — and where it breaks.
In 1960 Hawaii’s electoral votes were tangled in a recount; dual papers existed and Kennedy was ultimately counted after the dispute resolved. [1]
Chesebro’s memo leans on that history to say missing a governor’s ascertainment is not fatal if recognition comes later. [2]
Critics answer that 1960’s timing and court posture differ from signing absolute-sounding certificates after failed litigation in 2020. [1][3]
Bottom line Partly true
Hawaii shows dual papers can exist in American history; it does not automatically legalize every 2020 wording choice.
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Federal election-security messaging collided with the slate theory.
CISA Director Christopher Krebs’s ‘most secure election’ framing was a public federal rejection of outcome-changing fraud claims; he was fired. [1]
Bottom line Documented
Security messaging made ‘courts will soon reverse’ a harder sell inside institutions.
What the record can’t settle
CISA statements are not adjudications of each local allegation.
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Governors named Biden’s electors — the papers NARA treats as state action.
NARA’s official 2020 results page links each state’s Certificate of Ascertainment and Certificate of Vote. [1]
In the seven dual-slate states, those official instruments record Biden/Harris electors. [1]
Bottom line Official
Official ascertainment is the baseline the unofficial certificates tried to compete with.
What the record can’t settle
Ascertainment is state executive action under federal statute — not a popularity poll.
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Seven Republican slates meet and sign Certificates of Vote.
NARA’s unofficial-certificates page lists Republican slate Certificates of Vote from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. [1]
That is the documentary core of the ‘fake electors’ story: the meetings and signatures happened. [1][2]
Bottom line Documented
The existence of the signed papers is not in serious dispute.
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The map matches the Eastman dual-slate list — states Biden won that Trump still contested.
Eastman’s scenario memo speaks of seven states with dual slates. [1]
The NARA unofficial page’s Republican slate scans match that set (plus separate Sovereign Citizens AZ noise). [2]
Bottom line Documented
The geographic scope is the swing-state loss map, not a random sample.
What the record can’t settle
NM is sometimes forgotten in casual tellings; the archive includes it.
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Republican slate Certificate of Vote hosted as unofficial; separate Sovereign Citizens filings also appear.
NARA links the Arizona Republican electors’ unofficial Certificate of Vote and, separately, ‘Citizens Caucus’ Sovereign Citizens ascertainment papers. [1][2]
The Sovereign Citizens packet is not the Trump campaign slate — do not conflate them. [1]
Bottom line Documented
AZ shows both a Trump-aligned slate packet and unrelated fringe filings in the same archive folder.
What the record can’t settle
Archive presence ≠ campaign authorship of every PDF on the page.
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Georgia Republican slate Certificate of Vote in the NARA unofficial set.
NARA hosts the GA Republican electors’ unofficial Certificate of Vote. [1][2]
Georgia’s later RICO case named elector organizers; the entire case was nolle prossed in Nov 2025. [3][4]
Bottom line Documented
Paper real; criminal case against the Georgia defendants ended without trial findings on each count.
What the record can’t settle
Cross-link Georgia guide for phone-call / RICO detail.
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MI Republican slate Certificate of Vote; OFR emails used blunt subject lines.
NARA hosts the MI unofficial Certificate of Vote and related OFR correspondence, including a subject line ‘False Certificate of Votes from Michigan.’ [1][2][3]
Those email labels are archival correspondence, not a criminal judgment. [3]
Bottom line Documented
Michigan’s papers were real enough to trigger OFR/state email traffic.
What the record can’t settle
‘False’ in an email subject is not a jury verdict.
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NV slate scan; Chesebro had flagged Nevada logistics as harder.
NARA hosts the Nevada Republican electors’ unofficial Certificate of Vote. [1][2]
Chesebro’s Dec 9 memo singled out Nevada as a possible exception for taking ‘essential steps’ without officials. [3]
Bottom line Documented
Nevada shows the plan hit state-specific friction even on paper.
What the record can’t settle
Logistics difficulty ≠ proof of innocence or guilt.
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Often skipped in TV shorthand; in the archive with the other six.
NARA lists a New Mexico Republican slate unofficial Certificate of Vote alongside the better-known swing states. [1][2]
Bottom line Documented
The ‘seven’ includes New Mexico.
What the record can’t settle
NM did not host one of the major surviving 2025–26 prosecutions covered here.
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PA Republican slate Certificate of Vote in the unofficial set.
NARA hosts the Pennsylvania Republican electors’ unofficial Certificate of Vote. [1][2]
Pennsylvania was also central to Jan 6 objections on the official slate (sibling Jan 6). [3][4]
Bottom line Documented
Unofficial PA papers sat beside a fiercely contested official count.
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WI slate scan — and later the rare still-live criminal track (planners).
NARA hosts the Wisconsin Republican electors’ unofficial Certificate of Vote; OFR correspondence includes Wisconsin unofficial-certificate emails. [1][2][6]
Chesebro’s memo was addressed to Wisconsin counsel James Troupis. [3]
By mid-2026 Wisconsin’s pending case focused on alleged planners, not a mass elector trial. [4][5]
Bottom line Documented
Wisconsin ties the memo author, the certificate, and a leftover prosecution.
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Transmission and envelopes are part of the NARA release.
The unofficial-certificates page includes electronic scans of postal envelope materials for the seven states and OFR–state email threads. [1][2]
That matters because Eastman’s scenario assumed dual returns would be ‘transmitted’ to the President of the Senate. [3]
Bottom line Documented
The plan was not only to sign in a statehouse room — it was to create a federal counting problem.
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Archives’ own frame: not accepted as official State action.
NARA’s page title and lede state the certificates and related correspondence were ‘not accepted as evidence of official State action,’ including alternate-elector submissions. [1]
Official certificates live on a different NARA page. [2]
Bottom line Official
The federal archive itself refused to treat the Trump slates as the states’ electoral votes.
What the record can’t settle
Archival labeling is not a criminal mens rea finding.
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Not every PDF on the NARA page is the Trump slate.
NARA’s unofficial page separately lists ‘Citizens Caucus of the Great State of Arizona’ Sovereign Citizens ascertainment papers. [1]
Conflating them with the Republican slate is a sourcing error. [1]
Bottom line Documented
Keep the Trump-aligned slate distinct from fringe freelancers.
What the record can’t settle
Fringe filings can still confuse casual readers of the archive page.
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Bureaucrats noticed the duplicate papers in real time.
NARA’s page links OFR legal emails about unofficial certificates from PA, MI, WI, AZ, GA, NV, NM. [1][2]
Subject lines sometimes say ‘False Certificate’ — contemporaneous federal labeling. [1]
Bottom line Documented
The paperwork was never invisible inside the federal records system.
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The intent fight turns partly on what the certificates said.
Supporters describe the slates as contingent backups if courts or legislatures later reversed results — the Hawaii-style story. [3][1]
Critics say several certificates did not clearly say they were contingent and read like ordinary Certificates of Vote. [1][2]
Both descriptions appear in the public fight; the difference is central to criminal intent. [1]
Bottom line Disputed
Wording is why ‘documents real’ and ‘crime proved’ diverged in court.
What the record can’t settle
This guide does not reprint every signature page; NARA has the scans.
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Strongest defense reading of the same papers.
On the defense steel-man, Dec 14 meetings preserved electoral votes in case a court or legislature later declared Trump the winner — as Hawaii’s dual papers once existed. [1][2]
Signers, on this view, lacked intent to defraud because they believed they were creating a contingent instrument. [3][4]
Bottom line Debated
This reading won breathing room in Michigan’s dismissal framing; it is not a universal adjudication.
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Strongest prosecution reading of the same papers.
On the prosecution steel-man, submitting certificates that declare a slate ‘the’ electors — especially without clear contingency — is a false instrument aimed at Congress. [1][2]
Eastman’s memo shows a use-case beyond quiet contingency: pressure the Vice President to reshape the count. [3]
Bottom line Debated
This reading powered indictments; most state cases still failed to convict.
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The dual-slate machine needed a willing chair. It did not get one.
Pence publicly stated he lacked authority to decide unilaterally which electors to count or to reject certified electors. [1][2]
That refusal collapsed the Eastman scenario’s operational hinge. [3]
Capitol violence and the interrupted session are covered in the January 6 sibling guide — not rebuilt here. [4]
Bottom line Documented
Without Pence, the certificates remained unofficial papers.
What the record can’t settle
Pence’s letter is his constitutional position, not a ruling on each signer’s intent.
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Congress counted the certified electors; Trump 232.
NARA’s official results record Biden/Harris 306 and Trump/Pence 232, with notes on objections and the delayed certification after violence. [1]
The seven states’ official Biden electors were included in that total. [1]
Bottom line Official
Whatever the alternate papers were for, they did not become the counted votes.
What the record can’t settle
Objections to AZ and PA official slates failed (sibling Jan 6).
Legislatures did not appoint replacement electates
Record · Documented
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Another path — state legislatures flipping electors — also failed.
Arizona Speaker Rusty Bowers publicly refused schemes to have the legislature replace electors; his stance became part of the Jan 6 hearing record. [1][2]
Without legislative appointment, the Dec 14 slates remained unofficial volunteers. [3]
Bottom line Documented
The dual-slate plan was a substitute for a legislative coup that did not occur.
What the record can’t settle
Bowers is one state example; not every legislature’s internal debate is covered here.
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Jan 6 committee put the memos and slate story in a narrative report.
GovInfo hosts the committee’s final report materials, including Chesebro’s Dec 9 memo. [1][2]
Committee products are investigative and political; they are not criminal judgments. [1]
Bottom line Mixed
Use the committee for document pointers; use courts for adjudication.
What the record can’t settle
Partisan composition is a live criticism of the committee.
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Jack Smith’s election indictment described an alternate-elector scheme; the federal case did not deliver a trial verdict.
The federal election case materials discuss fake/alternate electors as part of a charged conspiracy. [1][2]
That federal case was later dismissed — see sibling federal-election guide. [2]
Bottom line Alleged
Federal allegations amplified the narrative; they are not a standing conviction.
What the record can’t settle
Do not treat a dismissed indictment as a finding of guilt.
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Congress tightened the rules the Eastman memo tried to blow open.
After 2020 and Jan 6, Congress passed Electoral Count Reform provisions clarifying the Vice President’s ministerial role and dual-slate mechanics. [1][2]
Bottom line History
Legislative reform is a legacy of the dual-slate crisis — not proof of any defendant’s mens rea.
What the record can’t settle
Statute text details belong in legislative history, not this short entry.
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January 6, Election 2020, Georgia, Federal election: doors, not chapters.
Capitol violence, the Ellipse speech, and the interrupted count: [[../trump-january-6/|January 6 guide]]. [1]
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Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin — different charging theories.
State AGs and DAs opened criminal cases tying the certificates to forgery, fraud, or conspiracy theories. [1][2][3][4][5]
Who was charged varied: mass electors in some states; organizers/lawyers in others. [6][7]
Bottom line Documented
There was no single national elector trial.
What the record can’t settle
Charging decisions are prosecutorial, not archival facts about the PDFs.
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Nessel’s case treated the MI certificate as criminal forgery/conspiracy territory.
Michigan prosecuted Trump electors over the unofficial certificate. [1][2]
The theory required proving criminal intent to defraud — the hinge that later broke. [3]
Bottom line Alleged
Michigan was the clearest early test of elector-as-defendant liability.
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Fulton County’s indictment swept electors into a broader conspiracy case.
Georgia’s case named Trump, Eastman, Meadows, Shafer, Still and others — elector conduct as one strand. [1][3]
Some defendants took pleas before the case collapsed; the final order wiped remaining defendants. [2]
Bottom line Alleged
Georgia mixed elector facts with many other allegations — sibling guide for the rest.
What the record can’t settle
Pleas and dismissals must be read person-by-person.
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Mayes charged electors and high-profile Trump allies.
Arizona’s prosecution swept in Giuliani, Meadows and others alongside electors. [1][2]
Courts faulted aspects of how electors are certified / jury instructions — press describes a grand-jury timing maneuver. [1]
Bottom line Alleged
Arizona shows how hard multi-defendant elector conspiracies were to land.
What the record can’t settle
Press on legal strategy is secondary to docket orders.
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Ford’s case focused on the NV certificate signers.
Nevada prosecuted six Republicans over the bogus/unofficial certificate declaring Trump the winner. [1][2]
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Sep 2025: judge finds the state failed the intent showing.
A Michigan judge dismissed the case; Reuters reported the court framed defendants as exercising constitutional rights without intent to defraud. [1][2]
AP coverage treated the intent problem as a warning for other elector prosecutions. [2]
Bottom line Cleared
Dismissal here is specifically about mens rea proof — not a rewrite of who won Michigan.
What the record can’t settle
A preliminary-exam dismissal is not a Supreme Court precedent.
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Nov 26 2025 McAfee order: nolle prosequi, case over.
Judge Scott McAfee’s order grants the State’s motion for dismissal and states the case is dismissed in its entirety. [1]
The order is a one-page disposition — not a trial opinion weighing each elector allegation. [1][2]
Bottom line Cleared
Whatever one thinks of Willis’s case, the docket ended without a completed elector trial.
What the record can’t settle
Nolle prosequi is the state’s abandonment — often after prosecutor disqualification fights (sibling).
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2026: case dismissed; KJZZ says Mayes can still refile.
LA Times reported a June 2026 voluntary dismissal while seeking a new indictment path. [2]
KJZZ’s 11 August 2026 report: judge dismissed the case but Mayes could still refile charges. [1]
Bottom line Cleared
Dismissal without prejudice is not acquittal after trial — and not a finding Trump won Arizona.
What the record can’t settle
Refile possibility can expire or fail; watch the docket.
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Aug 13 2026 dismissal; October appeal notice.
AP: judge dismissed the yearslong case against six Nevada Republicans. [1]
Review-Journal: AG Ford filed a notice of appeal in October 2026 after Judge Holthus’s dismissal. [2]
Bottom line Cleared
Appeal keeps legal questions alive; it does not reinstate a conviction that never existed.
What the record can’t settle
Appellate outcomes can change — status as of late 2026 reporting.
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The short case’s core verdict, still true after the 2025–26 wave.
Hub short-case verdict: dismissals turned on intent, procedure and a disqualified prosecutor — not on any finding that Trump won those states. [1]
Georgia’s order is a nolle prosequi, not a declaration of Trump electors. [2]
What the documents prove vs what convictions established
Question · Debated
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The central open fork of this whole file.
Documents prove: meetings occurred; certificates were signed and transmitted; NARA refused them as official; Eastman/Chesebro memos show a Pence-facing plan. [1][2][3]
Convictions mostly did not establish: that individual electors possessed criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt. [4][5][6]
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The label is itself a battlefield.
‘Fake electors’ became the dominant media/committee frame in 2021–22. [1][2]
Defense and aligned media prefer ‘contingent electors,’ stressing Hawaii and failed-litigation backups. [3][4]
As dismissals piled up, the naming fight intensified — see memory phases. [2]
Bottom line Disputed
This guide uses both labels with attribution; NARA says ‘unofficial’ / ‘alternate.’
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Not every defendant in every state walked the same path.
Georgia saw some guilty pleas before the remaining case was nolle prossed. [1][2]
Michigan, Arizona and Nevada’s elector cases ended in dismissals without those trials completing. [3][4][5]
Wisconsin remained an open criminal path against alleged planners. [6]
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Forgery/fraud statutes usually need a lying mind, not just a controversial PDF.
Michigan’s dismissal, as reported, turned on failure to prove intent to defraud. [1][2]
Defense counsel nationwide argued advice-of-counsel and contingent-belief theories grounded in the Dec 9 memo. [3]
Prosecutors answered with Eastman’s Pence use-case and absolute-sounding wording. [4][5]
Bottom line Debated
Intent is why ‘looks fake to me’ is not enough in criminal court.
What the record can’t settle
Civil or bar-discipline tracks can use different standards — mostly out of scope here.
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The leftover track — Troupis, Chesebro, Roman per press — not-guilty pleas June 2026.
AP: three Wisconsin defendants pleaded not guilty in June 2026. [1]
Votebeat: the case continues against alleged planners (Troupis/Chesebro/Roman), while other states’ elector cases faltered. [2]
Bottom line Alleged
Wisconsin is why the short case still says ‘pending.’
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2025–26 federal clemency politics hovered over the ecosystem.
Votebeat notes federal pardons and compensation rhetoric after Trump’s return, raising questions about Jan 6 and fake-elector participants — while state cases are separate sovereign prosecutions. [1][2]
Bottom line Mixed
A federal pardon is not automatically a state dismissal.
What the record can’t settle
Track each sovereign’s docket; do not assume blanket immunity.
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Documents real / most prosecutions dismissed / Wisconsin pending.
The hub short case status line remains accurate after the 2025–26 wave. [1]
Its verdict separates archival reality from unproved crimes — the editorial rule this full guide keeps. [1]
Bottom line Documented
Expanding to a full guide does not flip the short case’s careful split.
