The former chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party said he feared for his family’s safety when he signed paperwork as a false elector for former president Donald Trump.
Andrew Hitt appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and said he was scared of what Trump supporters would do to him and his family if courts later overturned President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin.
“If I didn’t do that, and the court did throw out those votes, it would have been solely my fault that Trump wouldn’t have won Wisconsin,” Hitt said. “Can you imagine the repercussions on myself, my family, if it was me, Andrew Hitt, who prevented Donald Trump from winning Wisconsin?
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“It was not a safe time. If my lawyer is right and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I would be scared to death,” he continued.
Hitt was one of 10 false electors who signed documents in 2020 saying that Trump won Wisconsin. The group admitted in a settlement late last year that their actions were used in efforts to overturn the election results.
The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing. The group met on Dec. 14, 2020 — the constitutionally mandated day for state electors to cast ballots for the winner in a presidential race — and signed official-looking documents for Trump.
The same day, the state Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden’s victory. Biden defeated Trump by 20,682 votes.
Hitt later said he was “tricked” into participating in the scheme and would not have done so if he knew it was part of a broader effort to change election results in key swing states.
He stood by that assertion in the 60 Minutes interview.
“Whenever anybody sees our text messages, our emails, our documents — they understand,” Hitt said. “Their conclusion is we were tricked. The January 6th committee saw it. Jack Smith, specifically in his indictment, refers to ‘some of the electors were tricked.’ That was us.”
The false electors also agreed they will not serve as presidential electors in future elections “featuring” Trump. Hitt told CBS he would not support Trump for president again.
“I would say that this country needs to move forward. That we need a leader who tackles serious problems and serious issues that this country faces. And we need faith in our institutions again. And the next president of the United States needs to do that,” he said.
Hitt previously testified before the U.S. House special committee investigating the events of Jan. 6.
Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who has been called an architect of a plot to subvert the 2020 election, is reportedly cooperating with a Wisconsin state investigation into the matter.
Last year, Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a Georgia elections interference case.
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