That effort was largely led by lawyers close to Mr. Trump, such as Rudolph W. Giuliani and John Eastman, who sometimes communicated directly with local points of contact in the state or by lawyers working in the states themselves and dealing with Mr. Giuliani. , Mr. Eastman or with Mr. Trump’s campaign aides. Their reasoning was that Mr. Biden’s victories in those states would be overturned when they could substantiate their claims of widespread voter fraud and other irregularities, and that it was prudent to have the “alternative” voter lists in place just in case. . But as Mr. Trump was told by his campaign aides and eventually even his attorney general, there were no legitimate allegations of fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the race, and all seven states ratified Biden’s victory in the Electoral College on Dec. 14, 2020. But Mr. Trump and his allies pressed ahead with the electorate’s plan, with increasing focus on using the ceremonial congressional confirmation process on Jan. 6 to derail the transfer of power. Ultimately, several dozen of Mr. Trump’s allies in the states signed false voter rolls, and most were unequivocal in their claim that Mr. Trump had won. But in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, local officials who drafted the documents included a caveat, saying they would be considered only if Mr. Trump prevailed in the many lawsuits he and his allies had filed to challenge the election. and he was legally the winner. Once the false pro-Trump slates were created, Mr. Trump and his allies turned to the second part of the plan: to strong-arm Mr. Pence into examining them during a joint session of Congress on January 6. The point was to get Mr. Pence to say that the election was somehow flawed or dubious.
