Federal prosecutors are investigating fake 2020 Electoral College certificates that declared Donald Trump the winner of states he lost.
The bogus certificates were sent by the defeated former president’s allies to the National Archives in December 2020 in a desperate attempt to keep him in the White House in defiance of American voters.
These included fake certificates from Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico, which were all states won by Joe Biden.
“We’ve received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can’t say anything more on ongoing investigations,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday.
Ms Monaco told the news network that the Justice Department was “going to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead, to address conduct of any kind and at any level that is part of an assault on our democracy”.
It is the first time that the DOJ has commented on the request from lawmakers and state officials to probe the fake certifications.
The situation has also come under scrutiny from the House panel investigating the January 6 pro-Trump deadly insurrection.
“We want to look at the fraudulent activity that was contained in the preparation of these fake Electoral College certificates, and then we want to look to see to what extent this was part of a comprehensive plan to overthrow the 2020 election,” Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, said last week.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul told CNN it was “critical that the federal government fully investigates and prosecutes any unlawful actions in furtherance of any seditious conspiracy”.
The Justice Department is also dealing with threats and harassment of state election officials in the wake of Mr Trump’s defeat, said Ms Monaco.
“I’m concerned about the really disturbing nature of the threats that we’ve seen. They’ve been disturbingly aggressive, and violent and personal,” she said.
A Texas man was indicted by federal prosecutors last week for threatening to kill Georgia election officials.
