Rudy Giuliani oversaw state effort to send fake electors to declare Trump victory in 2020, report says

Rudy Giuliani and other Trump campaign officials were involved in overseeing efforts in December 2020 to put forward illegitimate electors in seven states, according to US media reports.

The news comes just days after the House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riot issued a subpoena to Mr Giuliani.

CNN and The Washington Post, citing party leaders and campaign officials who wished to remain anonymous, reported on Thursday on the steps the Trump campaign had taken to try and overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US presidential elections.

The illegitimate electors were put forward in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all the states in which Donald Trump had lost the elections from.

Campaign officials had lined up supporters to fill elector slots and had secured meeting rooms in these states for fake electors to meet in December that year, according to the media reports.

An anonymous Trump campaign staffer with knowledge of the matter told CNN that Mr Giuliani was “calling the shots”.

“It was Rudy and these misfit characters who started calling the shots. The campaign was throwing enough shit at the wall to see what would stick,” the former Trump campaign staffer told the news network.

Mr Giuliani reportedly participated in at least one call between Trump campaign officials and GOP state officials.

Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, was one of the 16 fake electors from the state who signed the illegitimate electoral vote certificates, according to CNN.

The news channel obtained a copy of a recording of a public event that had Ms Maddock claim the Trump campaign had channelled efforts over the electors.

“We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that,” Ms Maddock said at the event last week, according to the recording obtained by CNN.

Spokespeople for Mr Giuliani and Mr Trump did not respond to requests for comment, the broadcaster reported.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee had said on Thursday that the panel was looking into whether there was a broader conspiracy or involvement from the White House in the creation or submission of the fake electors.

He said that this was a “concern.”

The subpoena that was issued to Mr Giuliani had also referenced his efforts to convince state legislatures to overturn election results.

DC-based watchdog group American Oversight had earlier in March last year obtained forged electoral certificates of pro-Trump electors from these states.

The watchdog, in a 12 January release, said the forged documents were “a critical piece of the coordinated, multi-state effort to cast doubt on the 2020 election and subvert the will of American voters.”

The release also said that “none of the fake certificates contained any indication that they listed illegitimate slates of electors.”