The Biden administration’s Justice Department interacted with Democrat state attorney general’s offices that prosecuted or considered prosecuting 2020 alternate electors, according to public record responses. 

These contingent electors were in place to back Donald Trump if any of his election challenges were sustained in states that Joe Biden won. 

In November, Trump pardoned the alternate electors among more than 70 people involved in challenging the 2020 election. However, Democrat state attorneys general from Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin vowed to continue their state prosecutions of the electors. 

Presidential pardons are generally for federal charges. However, defendants have argued the federal government effectively outsourced the prosecution regarding a federal election. Charges in each state against alternate electors involve forgery, impersonating a public official, and attempting to file false documents.

In December, former special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump with conspiracy in the election case, told the House Judiciary Committee in a closed-door deposition that he didn’t talk to state attorneys general, but his staff may have. 

What Documents Show

Documents obtained by The Daily Signal through public records requests show interaction between the federal and state prosecutors on these cases. 

On Jan. 7, 2022, Tim O’Shea of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin assured Wisconsin Deputy Attorney General Eric J. Wilson that federal prosecutors did not plan to pursue a case against the contingent Trump electors in Wisconsin. 

“The attorney I spoke with confirmed with his supervisor that no federal investigation existed into the persons who held themselves out as Wisconsin electors as described in the attached complaint,” O’Shea wrote Wilson in what appears to be a response to a question. 

The Wisconsin Department of Justice did not provide the attached complaint referenced in the email. A department spokesperson did not respond to inquiries for comment last week or early Monday.

Jim Troupis, a former state judge and Republican lawyer in Wisconsin who was charged for advising the alternate electors, said it’s “utterly inconceivable” that the state and federal government did not collaborate on the case.

“Jack Smith’s report shows his team came into Milwaukee and interviewed dozens of people and collected evidence,” Troupis told The Daily Signal. 

Troupis said his defense has sought multiple documents from both Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul’s office and Gov. Tony Evers’ office regarding the state’s coordination with the federal government. 

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez ultimately decided against bringing charges against contingent electors in his state.

However, Gregory Buhl, a special agent for the Special Investigations Division in the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General, wrote a letter to Smith on Sep. 7, 2023, seeking details.

“Our office requests certified copies of all documentation and evidence related to possible criminal acts committed in the state of New Mexico in regard to the attempt to overturn the Presidential Election conducted in 2020,” the Buhl letter to Smith said. 

A Torrez spokesperson did not respond to inquiries for this story last week or this week.

The office of Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford acknowledged the existence of the documents but declined to release the records.

The Daily Signal asked for, “correspondence to and from the Nevada Office of Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice and/or the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith” regarding the Nevada alternate electors.

“The OAG has identified records that may not be released because the requested records are part of an ongoing criminal proceeding,” the response said.

“Under these circumstances, the OAG must balance the interests of all affected individuals. Because the records are directly relevant to the anticipated criminal proceeding and many will be introduced as evidence, the OAG has concluded that release, at this time, will undermine the constitutional guarantees of a fair trial.”

A Ford spokesperson did not respond to inquiries for this story last week or early Monday.

Cleta Mitchell, chair of the Election Integrity Network, said the Trump Justice Department should file a statement of interest in the state cases against the Trump electors and “insist that the pardons be effectuated for the reason that they were brought in the first place at the behest of the Biden Department of Justice.”

“Obviously, the ‘state’ prosecutions were mere proxies for the Biden Department of Justice as part of the massive strategy to prosecute President Trump, his supporters, attorneys, and electors,” Mitchell told The Daily Signal in an email statement.

Jack Smith: ‘Can’t Say That Didn’t Happen’

During Smith’s Dec. 17 deposition, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Smith, “There’s an allegation made that your office was coordinating with state attorney general’s offices to have prosecutions go on … in the states. Would you say that that did not happen and that would be false if somebody made that allegation?”

“We were not trying to coordinate prosecutions with other offices, no,” Smith replied, according to the transcript. 

Jordan followed, “And you were not trying to encourage prosecutions at the state level? 

Smith replied, “I don’t recall anything like that.”

Upon further questioning about the Wisconsin attorney general, Smith said, “We may have got inquiries from their office, and it could be by phone or by a letter. I can’t say that didn’t happen.”

Smith later added in answers, “I don’t recall us sharing information,” and added, “the number of times an office may have reached out to us and how we replied to that, I really don’t have a recollection of those sort of subjects.”

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