Trump’s ‘Secretary of Retribution’ Unveils Plot to Nab North Carolina’s Electoral Votes

An influential attorney in Donald Trump’s campaign to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election has outlined a proposal for Trump to steal the 2024 electoral college votes in the state of North Carolina — the results in November be damned.

Ivan Raiklin is a former Green Beret and an attorney; he has raised alarms in Congress by positioning himself as a future “secretary of retribution” in a new Trump administration, reportedly compiling an enemies list of more than 300 members of the supposed “Deep State.”

Is Raiklin a troll? Sure. But MAGAworld is chockablock with such creatures, and this self-styled “Deep State Marauder” has juice with people close to Trump. He’s a close associate of Trump-pardoned felon Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. And Raiklin’s legal ideas influenced Trump efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

Now, Raiklin has a plan to overturn any election result in North Carolina that’s unfavorable to the former president. Raiklin unveiled his plot at the final stop of the far-right, Christian nationalist ReAwaken America Tour in Selma, North Carolina, this past weekend. He was introduced by Flynn, who characterized Raiklin as Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s “most feared Person of Interest.” Raiklin took ahold of the event’s red-white-and-blue mic, and spoke from the same stage where Eric Trump, the president’s son, would appear hours later.

Raiklin asserted that the impacts of Hurricane Helene could disproportionately impact GOP voters and affect the results of the 2024 election beyond the margin of a feared Democratic victory. So he called on attendees to exert pressure on the speaker of the North Carolina state House, Tim Moore, and the president of the North Carolina Senate, one scandal-beleaguered Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, to be willing to subvert any vote count that favors Kamala Harris, and to transform the state’s GOP legislative majorities into a rubber stamp, awarding North Carolina’s 16 Electoral College votes to Trump.

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Raiklin’s plan hinges, he said, on the legislature leaping into action in early 2025, just before the Electoral College certification in Congress. But only if Trump loses. “If it’s legit, we don’t have to worry, right?” Raiklin told the crowd of the November contest. “But who thinks it’s going to be legit? You think they’re just going to give it to you? No, there’s going to be a fight!” 

Noting that both the North Carolina state House and Senate have strong GOP majorities, Raiklin called on attendees to “apply the necessary motivation” if Trump loses to force them to overturn any Harris victory, by convincing the bodies’ leaders that “they have the political obligation to remedy an illegitimate election.” 

Railkin called for his imagined proceedings to be livestreamed on X and Rumble, with a preordained outcome. “How is the House body going to likely vote, with your motivation?” he asked: “For the Republican nominee!” He suggested the Senate would follow suit. “Is that a checkmate? Think about that.”

Raiklin said his proposal would be “the only way… we can address” the “calamity in western North Carolina” in a “legal, moral, ethical manner under our Constitution.” He relished that his proposal would cause the “radical left media” to “start to cry.” But he told the crowd that “everything I say is always legal, moral, ethical, peaceful, and patriotic.”

In reality, Raiklin’s proposal does not appear to have solid legal grounding — yet all’s fair in love and lawfare for today’s GOP. Raiklin began by citing how the U.S. Constitution delegates to the state legislatures the power to run presidential elections — or even select electors on their own. That’s true enough. But any changes to established process would have to be enacted before the election. 

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And according to the Constitution Center, Raiklin’s dream of an early 2025 emergency session by the North Carolina legislature would be far too late. The “safe harbor” date for all Electoral College disputes to be settled is Dec. 8, and federal law mandates that the results must be delivered to Congress by Dec. 25.

Such niceties didn’t seem to bother Raiklin, however. He called on the crowd to “do what is necessary to take back the state, and then take back the country,” and to make sure that North Carolina’s votes are “not stolen by the radical commies… and guaranteed, go to the Republican nominee.”