Frederica Freyberg:

Wisconsin is once again in the mix as former president Donald Trump and 18 others are indicted on charges of racketeering in Georgia this week. The charges are the result of Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. While the focus of the investigation is on Trump’s efforts to flip Georgia’s electoral votes, the indictment refers to a similar plan in this state. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz explains while no one from Wisconsin was indicted, a couple of prominent state Republicans show up in the evidence.

Zac Schultz:

The indictment comes from the Fulton County prosecutor in Georgia, but it doesn’t take long for Wisconsin to enter the picture. The charging document alleges a conspiracy hatched by Donald Trump and his associates, referred to as the enterprise in documents, the plan was to have Republicans in key battleground states sign up as a slate of false electors to delay the certification of Joe Biden as president. The prosecutor says Acts 39 and 46 of the conspiracy involved Jim Troupis, a prominent Wisconsin Republican lawyer in a memo urging him to get a slate of false electors to meet in Wisconsin on December 14th, 2020. Acts 50 and 64 involve memos in a meeting with Brian Schimming, the current chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The documents say Schimming was given proposed language for the false elector documents, and during a meeting two days before the real electors met, Schimming was on a phone call with Trump lawyer and co-defendant Rudy Giuliani where he was told to keep news of the false electors away from the media. Schimming did not answer questions about the Georgia indictment during a press call this week, but issued a statement that read, “As stated previously, Republican electors met in accordance with state statutory guidelines on the advice of attorneys and with precedent to preserve all legal options still pending before the courts. Had the courts ruled differently, the alternate electors would have been needed.” However, Act 107 of the conspiracy says the false electors were not for the courts but for January 6th. It says Republicans were to contest the counting of electoral votes during the joint session of Congress. Then vice president Mike Pence was to not open votes from Wisconsin and five other states, declare the electoral votes in dispute and allow the false electors to swing the election to Trump. Two Wisconsin Republicans, Congressman Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald, did object to counting the electoral votes from two other states, but not Wisconsin. A top aide for Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson tried to coordinate a meeting with vice president Pence to hand over Wisconsin’s slate of false electors, but Pence’s staff said no. The count was stopped during the insurrection, but ultimately the correct votes were counted and Joe Biden became president. Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”