Rudy Giuliani accidentally texted details of fake elector plot to wrong number: Jack Smith

03 October 2024

The so-called "fake electors" plot didn't succeed after the 2020 election. And according to Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's recently unsealed dossier, one reason may have been the incompetence of former President Donald Trump's then-personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Following his loss in the 2020 election, Trump put Giuliani in charge of his campaign's legal team. The former New York City mayor and ex-U.S. attorney then sought to have Republican officials in swing states Trump narrowly lost to President Joe Biden submit alternate slates of presidential electors in an effort to overturn election results. This included the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In a Thursday article on Smith's dossier, the Guardian reported that Giuliani's plot to subvert election results was complicated by him apparently texting the details of the plot to the wrong number. While the identity of the intended recipient is unknown, Giuliani appeared to have intended to send instructions to a Republican lawmaker in Michigan on how to disrupt the awarding of the Mitten State's Electoral College votes to Biden.

“So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the legislature that states the election is in dispute, there’s an ongoing investigation by the legislature, and the Electors sent by Governor Whitmer are not the official electors of the state of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline under Michigan law,” Giuliani texted.

In his recounting of the event, Smith's team of prosecutors wrote in the 165-page dossier that Giuliani ultimately never got in touch with the presumed Michigan lawmaker because "he put the wrong number into his phone." While the former New York mayor's name is redacted in the dossier, context from the document reveals that the person Smith identified as "CC1" [co-conspirator one] is Giuliani. Earlier this year, Michigan investigators confirmed that Trump, Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were all "unindicted co-conspirators" in the fake elector probe.

Giuliani's role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election resulted in him being disbarred both in New York and more recently in Washington, D.C. While his D.C. bar status had been at least temporarily revoked since 2021, the 2001 TIME Person of the Year officially lost his law license after losing his final appeal in September. The D.C. bar specifically mentioned his work attempting to overturn the election — which resulted in felony charges in Arizona — as a primary reason to strip him of the ability to practice law.

The office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) officially served Giuliani with a felony indictment while he was celebrating his 80th birthday party. According to the New York Post, "partygoers started screaming" when one of the guests — who was revealed to be a process server who had tracked down Giuliani in Palm Beach, Florida — handed the former New York City mayor the indictment paperwork shortly after guests sang "happy birthday" to him.

Giuliani — along with more than a dozen other defendants — was charged with conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices and fraudulent schemes and practices. Each charge is a felony. Defendants were also charged with felony forgery for their alleged submission of fake elector paperwork. A trial date has not yet been scheduled for the Arizona case.

The details of Giuliani's involvement in the plot were revealed to the public after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed Smith's dossier on Wednesday night. Smith submitted the document in order to justify his continued prosecution of Trump despite the Supreme Court's Trump v. United States ruling in July. In that decision, the six conservative justices on the Court agreed that presidents have absolute broad immunity from criminal prosecution for "official acts."

However, the Court left it up to lower court judges like Chutkan to determine what actually constitutes an "official act." Smith is arguing that Trump acted in his personal capacity as a candidate — and not as the president — in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

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