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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A Trump campaign official who delivered false elector lists to Capitol Hill in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on January 6 2021 have been identified.
Mike Roman, a one-time White House researcher reportedly passed the names to a House-GOP aide so it could be delivered to Pence, people familiar with the situation told Politico.
Roman who
was then Trump’s 2020 director of Election Day operations delivered false
elector certificates signed by pro-Trump activists in Michigan and Wisconsin to
Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-Pa.) chief of staff at the time, both people told
Politico. Kelly’s top aide received the documents from Roman before deputizing
a colleague to disseminate copies on Capitol Hill, according to Politico.
The
documents never got to Mike Pence before he presided over certification of Joe
Biden’s victory on January 6. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the false elector
lists came from Kelly who denied the allegations, Politico reported.
“They have changed their story, from denying
their involvement outright to now not denying their former chief of staff’s
involvement,” said Alexa Henning, a Johnson spokesperson, according to Politico.
“Congressman Kelly should be issuing Senator Johnson an apology for
participating in the perpetration of false stories regarding Senator Johnson’s
minimal involvement in this matter.”
Kelly noted
that the results of an “internal investigation” identified Matt Stroia, his
chief of staff at the time as the intermediary for the lists.
“Matthew got
the information,” Kelly’s current chief of staff, Tim Butler, said in an
interview, according to Politico. “There was another staffer here in the office
who was asked to physically walk it over. And it’s just those two individuals
that were involved.”
Trump planned to either block or delay Biden's victory
Both people
who spoke with Politico confirmed Roman’s involvement in the transmission of
the elector lists
Under
Trump’s plan, Pence –required by the Constitution to preside over the counting
of electoral votes on January 6, 2021 – would cite the “alternate” and
illegitimate electors to either block Biden’s victory or delay the count
altogether but the plan was rejected by state legislators, Politico reported.
Pence ultimately refused to accept the plan.