Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 33

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

25 

Opinion of the Court 

Trump’s communications with the Justice Department and
the  Vice  President,  these  remaining  allegations  involve 
Trump’s  interactions  with  persons  outside  the  Executive
Branch: state officials, private parties, and the general pub-
lic.  Many of the remaining allegations, for instance, cover
at great length events arising out of communications that
Trump and his co-conspirators initiated with state legisla-
tors  and  election  officials  in  Arizona,  Georgia,  Michigan, 
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin regarding those States’ certi-
fication  of  electors.  See  App.  192–207,  Indictment  ¶¶13–
52. 

Specifically,  the  indictment  alleges  that  Trump  and  his
co-conspirators  attempted  to  convince  those  officials  that
election fraud had tainted the popular vote count in their 
States,  and  thus  electoral  votes  for  Trump’s  opponent 
needed to be changed to electoral votes for Trump.  See id., 
at  185–186,  ¶10(a).    After  Trump  failed  to  convince  those
officials to alter their state processes, he and his co-conspirators 
allegedly  developed  a  plan  “to  marshal  individuals  who 
would  have  served  as  [Trump’s]  electors,  had  he  won  the 
popular vote” in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New 
Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, “and cause those in-
dividuals to make and send to the Vice President and Con-
gress false certifications that they were legitimate electors.” 
Id.,  at  208,  ¶53.    If  the  plan  worked,  “the  submission  of 
these fraudulent slates” would position the Vice President 
to “open and count the fraudulent votes” at the certification
proceeding and set up “a fake controversy that would derail
the proper certification of Biden as president-elect.”  Id., at 
208–209, ¶¶53, 54(b).  According to the indictment, Trump 
used his campaign staff to effectuate the plan.  See, e.g., id., 
at 210, 212–213, ¶¶55, 63.  On the same day that the legit-
imate electors met in their respective jurisdictions to cast
their  votes,  the  indictment  alleges  that  Trump’s  “fraudu-
lent electors convened sham proceedings in the seven tar-