IN PROGRESS
This paper is currently in progress, so it may have missing information or end abruptly.
Summary
Since the 2012 presidential election, Donald Trump has claimed various elections have been decided by fraudulent votes. During the 2020 presidential election cycle, Donald Trump, along with his allies, pushed claims that the election was rife with corruption and illegal activity, with Democrats as the primary culprit. Initially, he did so by discrediting various forms of voting, such as absentee voting, as untrustworthy. On the night of the election, he would claim that “…we did win this election,” despite all the votes not being counted yet. Once it became clear to Trump that the election was not going to go in his favor, he, together with his private legal team, plotted out ways that he could maintain his presidency. Lawyers such as Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman would write several memos detailing and “war gaming” various outcomes that could result through their plans to overturn the outcome of the Electoral College. These memos would result in the False elector scheme, based on the false premise that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional and violated the Twelfth Amendment. To accomplish this goal, Trump’s team would first gather people from several swing states and sign documents claiming to be the legal electors for their respective State’s elections. These false slates of electors would then be sent to Congress to hopefully have Vice President, Mike Pence either certify Donald Trump as the president outright or send the election back to the House delegation, which was predominantly Republican at the time, causing them to vote for Donald Trump as president for a second term. Upon being confronted by Donald Trump and John Eastman about the plot, Mike Pence thought the plan was illegal and decided not to participate, which Pence’s lawyer confirmed and agreed.
Due to Mike Pence’s supposed failure, Donald Trump would go on social media and announce to his followers a “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will [sic] be wild!” Before January 6th, he would post several false claims of election fraud and how if Mike Pence “comes through for us, we will win the Presidency.” On January 6th, Donald Trump held a rally at the Ellipse in front of the White House, where he would then send a large crowd of Trump supporters to the Capitol to protest the certification of the Electoral count. The protesters would soon turn into rioters, breaking through barriers to the Capitol, eventually getting inside, resulting in the count being paused and the members of Congress being evacuated to secure locations. During this breach of the Capitol, Donald Trump would not take any action to stop the rioters for hours while watching them on television, with White House staff pleading for him to do something, including calling for peace. Ultimately, Donald Trump would come out and release a video calling for his supporters to “go home,” while still claiming the election was stolen from him. Mike Pence later resumed Congress to finish counting the Electoral votes, certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. To this day, Donald Trump continues to claim that he won the election and that he lost due to fraud.
Overview
Important characters
Donald Trump and his close allies
Donald Trump
Donald Trump was the President of the United States and is the central antagonist to the story of January 6th and the overall coup.
John Eastman
John Eastman is one of Trump’s allies private legal counsel that helped further craft and set fourth the false elector scheme.
Kenneth Chesebro
Kenneth Chesebro is one of Trump’s private legal counsel that first created the concept of the false elector scheme.
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani is one of Trump’s private legal counsel that aided Trump in spreading and legally defending his lies about voter fraud the 2020 United States presidential election.
Sidney Powell
Sidney Powell is one of Trump’s private legal counsel that aided Trump in spreading and legally defending his lies about voter fraud the 2020 United States presidential election.
Mark Meadows
Mark Meadows was Trump’s last Chief of Staff at the White House.
Roger Stone
Roger Stone was one of Trump’s biggest followers and helped spread some of the lies about voter fraud the 2020 United States presidential election.
Jeff Clark
Jeff Clark was Trump’s Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. Trump wanted to make him the Attorney General to send out fake letters to the states saying they found proof of widespread voter fraud, which was not true.
Steve Bannon
Notable Right-wingers involved
Alex Jones
Alex Jones is a prominent far-right talk show host who was an avid follower of Donald Trump and apparently was in communications at the White House to lead the march at the Capitol.
Oath Keepers
Joe Biggs
Proud Boys
The Proud Boys are a far-right group who organized a coup at the Capitol on January 6th.
Enrique Tarrio
Enrique Tarrio is the leader of the Proud Boys.
Ethan Nordean
Zachary Rehl
Trumps former allies or those speaking against him
Mike Pence
Mike Pence was the Vice President of the United States under Donald Trump. Trump and Eastman planned to have him deny the electoral votes for Joe Biden or choose the ones for Donald Trump instead so that he would win, which Pence refused.
William Barr
William Barr was Trump’s former Attorney General, which he resigned due to disagreements on the voter fraud, since Barr and the Department of Justice could not find any evidence of widespread voter fraud within any investigations.
Jeff Rosen
Jeff Rosen took over the role of Attorney General under Trump after Barr resigned. He also disagreed with Trump over voter fraud which almost had him fired and replaced by Jeff Clark, who would’ve knowingly sent fake letters to swing states that widepsread voter fraud was found.
Richard Donoghue
Richard Donoghue was the Deputy Attorney General under Trump after Barr resigned. He would go on to disagree with Trump about his claims of voter fraud and repeating the same statements made by Barr and Rosen.
Ivanka Trump
Ivanka Trump is Trump’s daughter who spoke about against him in the context of voter fraud, agreeing with Barr.
Cassidy Hutchinson
Cassidy Hutchinson was Mark Meadows’ assistant and would follow him around everywhere, allowing her to see many of Meadows’ and Trump’s actions in relation to January 6th. She was a key witness to many big allegations, such as Trump saying “Mike deserves it,” when being informed about the chants of “Hang Mike Pence,” at he Capitol on January 6th.
Kayleigh McEnany
Chris Hodgson
Sarah Matthews
Nicholas Luna
Keith Kellog, Jr.
Molly Michael
Shealah Craighead
Christopher C. Miller
Gregory Jacob
Marc Short
Byung Jun Pak
Russel Bowers
William Stepien
Trumps enemies
Joe Biden
Joe Biden is the winner of the 2020 United States presidential election and beat Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi
Paul Irving
Actions leading up to January 6th
Prior to the November 3rd election
The day and night after the election
January 6th
Aftermath of the coup
DoJ prosecution of Trump and his allies
Alleged bias against Trump
If the DoJ was really biased towards Trump and his allies, why would they prosecute a Democrat mayor for New York City, Democrat Senator, and Joe Biden’s son himself, Hunter Biden.
Trump undermining elections
False elector scheme
January 6th
Donald Trump
John Eastman
Kenneth Chesebro
Rudy Giuliani
Sidney Powell
Roger Stone
Steve Bannon
Oath Keepers
Joe Biggs
Proud Boys
Enrique Tarrio
Ethan Nordean
Zachary Rehl
Mike Pence
William Barr
Richard Donoghue