There’s One More Unnamed Accomplice in the Trump Indictment
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson makes a notable cameo in the 45-page document.
Senator Ron Johnson speaks during a Senate hearing on the proposed PGA Tour-LIV Golf partnership, Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
(Patrick Semansky / AP)Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s felony indictment of Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election makes specific reference to six known co-conspirators who aided the defeated former president’s lawless scheming to retain the presidency.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is not one of them.
Yet Johnson’s machinations on behalf of Trump feature prominently in the 45-page indictment that was issued Tuesday afternoon. And they are likely to feature just as prominently in what is all but certain to be the most serious of Trump’s many trials.
On pages 36 and 37 of the indictment, Smith provides details of how Trump and his lieutenants attempted to use fake electors as part of the scheme (emphasis mine):
On January 6, starting in the early morning hours, the Defendant again turned to knowingly false statements aimed at pressuring the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election outcome, and raised publicly the false expectation that the Vice President might do so:
a. At 1:00 a.m., the Defendant issued a Tweet that falsely claimed, “If Vice President Mike Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”
b. At 8:17 a.m., the Defendant issued a Tweet that falsely stated, “States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
On the morning of January 6, an agent of the Defendant contacted a United States Senator to ask him to hand-deliver documents to the Vice President. The agent then facilitated the receipt by the Senator’s staff of the fraudulent certificates signed by the Defendant’s fraudulent electors in Michigan and Wisconsin, which were believed not to have been delivered to the Vice President or Archivist by mail. When one of the Senator’s staffers contacted a staffer for the Vice President by text message to arrange for delivery of what the Senator’s staffer had been told were ‘[alternate slate[s] of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,’ the Vice President’s staffer rejected them.
The senator is not named. But Johnson has grudglingly acknowledged that he participated in conversations about delivering the lists of fake electors to Pence—in other words, the exact scenario featured in the indictment. Johnson has claimed that his involvement was brief and that he was ignorant about all of the schemes that were unfolding on the day when Trump was telling his allies to “fight like hell” to keep him in office. But former Wisconsin Republican Party chair Andrew Hitt told the House January 6th Committee that, after official election results confirmed Biden had won Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes, Johnson spoke to him about having Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature override the voters and name the state’s presidential electors.
According to documents released by the committee, Hitt turned over text messages he exchanged with Wisconsin Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson a week before Wisconsin’s electors were due to cast their votes for Democrat Joe Biden.
Referring to Johnson by his first name, Hitt wrote, “Ron called me right after and now is arguing for us to have the legislature choose the electors. OMG.”
Jefferson responded: “What is he doing?”
Hitt replied, “There is a huge amount of pressure building on them to find a way around the electoral college.”
On December 14, the duly-chosen electors voted for Biden. But a cabal of Republican fake electors gathered to vote for Trump.
Those Wisconsin Republicans are among the “fraudulent electors” referred to in Smith’s indictment when it talks about the instance where “an agent of the Defendant contacted a United States Senator to ask him to hand-deliver documents to the Vice President”–and about how “The agent then facilitated the receipt by the Senator’s staff of the fraudulent certificates signed by the Defendant’s fraudulent electors in Michigan and Wisconsin.”
And that senator is Ron Johnson.
Be part of 160 years of confronting power
Every day, The Nation exposes the administration’s unchecked and reckless abuses of power through clear-eyed, uncompromising independent journalism—the kind of journalism that holds the powerful to account and helps build alternatives to the world we live in now.
We have just the right people to confront this moment. Speaking on Democracy Now!, Nation DC Bureau chief Chris Lehmann translated the complex terms of the budget bill into the plain truth, describing it as “the single largest upward redistribution of wealth effectuated by any piece of legislation in our history.” In the pages of the June print issue and on The Nation Podcast, Jacob Silverman dove deep into how crypto has captured American campaign finance, revealing that it was the top donor in the 2024 elections as an industry and won nearly every race it supported.
This is all in addition to The Nation’s exceptional coverage of matters of war and peace, the courts, reproductive justice, climate, immigration, healthcare, and much more.
Our 160-year history of sounding the alarm on presidential overreach and the persecution of dissent has prepared us for this moment. 2025 marks a new chapter in this history, and we need you to be part of it.
We’re aiming to raise $20,000 during our June Fundraising Campaign to fund our change-making reporting and analysis. Stand for bold, independent journalism and donate to support The Nation today.
Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Publisher, The Nation
More from The Nation
Why Bernie Sanders Says It’s Critical to Elect Mamdani and Reject Cuomo Why Bernie Sanders Says It’s Critical to Elect Mamdani and Reject Cuomo
Speaking to The Nation, the senator hails the “grassroots movement supporting Zohran” as a vital alternative to “the billionaire establishment supporting Cuomo.”
Those Sometimes-Trump Neocons Are Returning to the Fold Over Iran Those Sometimes-Trump Neocons Are Returning to the Fold Over Iran
As the president backs Israel’s long-awaited war with Iran, his neoconservative critics find themselves in an awkward position.
Trump Is Delivering on Project 2025’s Promise to Gut the NLRB Trump Is Delivering on Project 2025’s Promise to Gut the NLRB
If there is a silver lining, it is that blue states and municipalities are doubling down on protecting workers.
Street Art in Newburgh, New York Street Art in Newburgh, New York
The widening gulf.
Bill Cassidy: A Profile in Cowardice Bill Cassidy: A Profile in Cowardice
The Louisiana Republican knew better than to vote for public health enemy RFK Jr. He did it anyway.
