“It’s merely a matter of arithmetic,” Northon mentioned on a special episode of Gruber’s podcast, in late November. “We’ve obtained a Ph.D., Dr. Zhang, Jennie Zhang from Hillsdale School, who simply did the maths. And once you do the maths, it exhibits not only a handful of improper votes, or a handful of unlawful votes, however tons of of 1000’s, properly over 500,000 within the normal election alone.” He was referring to Qianying Zhang, a finance and economics professor who goes by Jennie and was paid $5,000 as an knowledgeable witness by Amistad. Based mostly on a survey by a agency run by a former Trump marketing campaign aide, she estimated how many individuals had acquired absentee ballots that they had not requested. (In an e mail, Zhang mentioned that whereas Northon had supplied a “believable” account of her findings, calling the votes “improper” or “unlawful” went “past the direct scope of my evaluation.”)
In early December, Northon took half in a convention name with an previous buddy of Arnn’s from Claremont circles, the lawyer John Eastman. Northon, in his testimony to the Home Jan. 6 committee, mentioned this assembly, like the primary one, “was arrange by some Hillsdale individuals.” He particularly talked about Spalding, dean of the faculty’s Washington graduate college, one thing of a nexus within the capital for teachers on the fitting. Northon’s lawyer, Chip Chamberlain, mentioned in an e mail alternate that neither Arnn nor Spalding was on the Eastman name. Northon, he mentioned, merely “reviewed Dr. Spalding’s analysis on elections and constitutionalism earlier than numerous filings with the courts.” (Spalding, in an announcement by Hillsdale, mentioned he had by no means met Northon.)
Northon informed the Jan. 6 committee that the 2 Michigan lawmakers who attended the Giuliani assembly participated on this one too, together with a 3rd, Daire Rendon. (Rendon was charged final yr in a separate case involving voting-machine breaches orchestrated by Trump allies.) The lawmakers “had been individuals who wished their colleagues within the Home to do extra,” Northon testified, including, “That was the impetus of the Eastman name.”
Eastman was one of many authorized architects of the technique to deploy faux electors in states Trump misplaced, to be able to press Pence to forgo certifying Biden on Jan. 6. (He was indicted final yr on fees associated to this effort in Georgia, the place he has pleaded not responsible.) Now, on the convention name, he defined to the lawmakers that the State Legislature held the facility to take motion on elections. “If someone’s going to do one thing about it, it’s them,” Northon recalled Eastman saying.
Northon additionally ready a draft decision for the Legislature’s Republican leaders, hoping they’d declare that they had been investigating the election. As he composed the draft, he mentioned, he confirmed it to Norton and Emily Davis, Hillsdale’s communications chief. When Home investigators requested Northon about his working election-related paperwork by Hillsdale’s brass, he mentioned: “Effectively, my — I represented Hillsdale and all this — though this wasn’t one thing I used to be doing for them, I assumed they need to pay attention to it, that it was taking place. I assumed it was essential for them.”
