Clarence Thomas was 'key' to delaying certification of 2020 election, Trump lawyers said in emails
(CNN) -- A lawyer for former President Donald Trump described Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "key" to Trump's plan to delay Congress' certification of President Joe Biden's victory through litigation after the 2020 election, according to emails recently turned over to the House select committee investigating January 6.
"We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue" a temporary order putting Georgia's results in doubt, Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote in a December 31, 2020, email, adding that a favorable order from Thomas was their "only chance" to hold up to hold up Congress counting electoral votes for Biden from Georgia.
John Eastman, another attorney for Trump, responded to that email saying he agreed with the plan. In the email exchanges with several other lawyers working on Trump's legal team, they were discussing filing a lawsuit that they hoped would result in an order that "TENTATIVELY" held that Biden electoral votes from Georgia were not valid because of election fraud.
Having a case pending in front of the Supreme Court, Chesebro wrote, would be enough to prevent the Senate from counting Biden's electors. Thomas would end up being "the key here," Chesebro wrote, noting that Thomas is the justice assigned to dealing with emergency matters coming from the southeastern part of the county.
The email referencing Thomas was first reported by Politico.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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