Since the case against the phony electors and their enablers is straightforward and seemingly easy to prove—they signed their names to the phony documents and submitted them to Congress and the National Archives—any investigation is likely to focus heavily on anticipated defenses. Several of the culprits have already made it clear that they intend to pass off the signing and submission of the documents as offering a mere “alternative,” a kind of backup plan to have a slate of Trump electors lined up and ready to go in the event that Congress or the courts might invalidate the certification of the true Biden electors.

But that was never the plan.

The plan was to affirmatively use the phony certifications, not to file them away for a rainy day. The fake documents were to be the cause of rejecting the real documents, not the effect. The plan was set out in the clearest possible language in the infamous Eastman memo…