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The accusations of Russian interference in the November presidential election have provided a last-minute lifeline for the long-shot effort to head off Donald Trump at the Electoral College.
Ten electors, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi, demanded Monday an intelligence briefing on Russian interference by Monday, when the Electoral College makes the vote official.
Flipping the Electoral College seems to be the only hope left for Trump opponents. Recount efforts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have backfired.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee urged Trump opponents to participate in a protest scheduled for all 50 state capitols Monday aimed at persuading electors to cast their ballots for someone other than the Republican real estate mogul.
“The idea that a foreign government has interfered with our elections to undermine their credibility, much less support one of the candidates, indicates a Rubicon has been crossed for our nation, and we need to consider it carefully,” Chris Suprun, a Texas Republican elector, said at a Sunday press conference.
Even before Friday’s news reports, Mr. Suprun had vowed not to cast his ballot for Mr. Trump.
The report cited anonymous CIA sources who said Russian-backed hackers specifically tried to boost the Republican’s candidacy by tapping into Democratic email accounts.
Mr. Trump dismissed the reports as the product of a Democrat-fueled effort to delegitimize his presidency.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
With the Electoral College vote just days away, however, organizers of the small yet unprecedented drive to upend the results of the Nov. 8 presidential race seized upon the reports, saying they show foreign influence tainted the election.
The group Hamilton Electors, which is urging both Democratic and Republican electors to unite behind a third candidate, preferably a moderate Republican, said this “is the moment Alexander Hamilton warned us about.”
“We now know that the Russian Government actively worked to elect Donald Trump. The Electoral College is our defense against this attack on our sovereignty,” Hamilton Electors said in an online post. “The Electoral College must be our defense against Russia.”
The bid to upend Mr. Trump’s victory gained momentum the same day that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin certified their results of the Nov. 8 election.
The recount in Wisconsin, initiated and funded by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, showed Mr. Trump picking up 131 votes, which changed the outcome by 0.06 percent. He won the state by about 22,000 votes.