A former Trump campaign operative delivered lists of false electors on Jan. 6, 2021, to Capitol Hill in an effort to get them to former Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the Senate that day, two people familiar with the matter told Politico.
The sources told Politico Friday that Mike Roman, who served as Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, delivered fake election certificates to Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-Pa.) chief of staff at the time.
The two people told Politico that the chief of staff deputized a colleague to share copies of the lists around the Capitol after receiving them from Roman.
Roman did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Politico, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection previously revealed text messages that show Sean Riley, an aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), reached out to a Pence aide to arrange a handoff of fake election certificates for Michigan and Wisconsin.
Johnson told reporters after the committee revealed his aide’s involvement that he was “basically unaware” of the communication and that his office received the slate of electors from Kelly’s office.
He said his chief of staff did the “right thing” by contacting the vice president’s office about the list and that Pence’s team declined the electors.
“My chief of staff contacted the vice president’s staff and said, ‘Do you want this?’ They said ‘no’ and we didn’t deliver it, and that’s the end of story,” Johnson said at the time.
Kelly has denied involvement in the effort. He and Johnson did not immediately return requests for comment from The Hill.
A spokesperson for Johnson told Politico that Kelly’s office has changed its story from denying his involvement entirely to not denying that his then-chief of staff was involved.
Politico reported on Thursday that Kelly’s office conducted an internal investigation, determining his then-chief of staff was involved but emphasizing that Kelly was not aware of his top aide’s actions.
Kelly’s current chief of staff, Tim Butler, told Politico in an interview that the former chief of staff received the information, and another staff member physically walked it over. Butler said neither of them still work for Kelly’s office.
Before the certification of the 2020 election, Trump privately pressed Pence to overturn the results, according to testimony laid out by the House select committee.