Kelly concludes internal investigation into Michigan, Wisconsin electoral vote allegation
An internal investigation conducted by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly’s office found no staff members had prior knowledge of his former chief of staff’s reported conversation with the staff of a U.S. senator about providing fabricated electoral college votes from Michigan and Wisconsin for the 2020 election.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, claimed in a radio interview in June that Kelly’s office had provided his office with alternate slates of electors, which Johnson’s office sought on Jan. 6, 2021, to give to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Kelly has denied the accusation.
Later, Johnson's office gave news outlets a screenshot of a phone record showing that his chief of staff, Sean Riley, had held a 2-minute call with the phone number for Kelly’s former chief of staff, Matt Stroia, at 11:58 a.m. Jan. 6.
“The timing of our internal investigation began three weeks ago once we learned of Sen. Johnson’s accusations. To date, our current chief of staff has not found staff members to have had prior knowledge of Mr. Stroia’s reported actions,” said Matthew Knoedler, Kelly’s press secretary via email on Friday.
“Further, Mr. Kelly is unaware of Mr. Stroia’s reported actions. We have closed the internal review,” he continued.
He said the investigation concluded Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Rep. Bennie Thompson, the select committee's chairman, said Johnson’s efforts to give the false electors to Pence is not a high priority of the committee, and that Kelly's name "didn’t come up" in the committee's investigation despite Johnson's claim that the false electors came from his office.
Johnson’s radio comments came days after documents were publicized by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, showing that Johnson’s aide, Riley, had worked to have Pence recognize fabricated electoral votes.
“We found out, now, this came from Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly’s office. We couldn’t even remember who’d given this to us,” Johnson said in the radio interview. “We didn’t know what it was. We thought it was documents involved in the electors.”
The evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee revealed communication between Johnson aide Sean Riley and Pence staff member Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. Jan. 6, 2021.
“Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise,” Riley texted Hodgson.
“What is it?” Hodgson replied.
“Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Riley wrote back.
Hodgson responded, “Do not give that to him.”
If Pence had recognized the two false votes, former President Donald Trump would have received 258 electoral votes, which is 12 less than the 270 needed to win the election.
On Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress tallied the electoral votes, two U.S. Representatives objected to the electors from the states of Michigan and Wisconsin, but the objections were not debated after no senator objected. Challenges to states’ electoral slates are considered only if at least one representative and one senator object.
Michigan and Wisconsin were two of seven states in which illegitimate electors, who were not chosen by their states’ voters, sent electoral votes to the National Archives. The other states were Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania, all of which voted for President Joe Biden in the election.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
