Trump urges Georgia election officials to ‘find’ votes

Source: Politico | January 3, 2021 | Allie Bice, Kyle Cheney and Anita Kumar

In audio from a Saturday phone call obtained by The Washington Post, the president is heard pressuring Georgia election officials to reverse his election loss.

President Donald Trump urged Georgia officials to reexamine the state’s election results and “find” enough votes to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, according to a recording of a Saturday phone call.

“We have won the election in Georgia based on all of this. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, Brad,” Trump told Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to audio of the call obtained by The Washington Post. “…And the people of Georgia are angry. The people in the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

The leaked audio comes just before Congress is set to certify the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. At least 12 incoming and current Republican senators, along with well over 100 Republican representatives, have said they are going to challenge the results based on unsupported allegations of voter fraud.

In the audio, the president asked that officials find that ballots were shredded in Fulton County and that Dominion election machinery was removed or tampered with, in an effort to skew results. Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, responded unequivocally in the phone call that machinery was not moved or altered.

The president also accused the officials of knowing about election interference but not reporting it.

“That’s a criminal offense,” Trump said. “And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk.”

Trump proceeded to ask the officials to find 11,780 votes, “which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”

“We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this,” he added. “And it’s going to be very costly in many ways. And I think you have to say that you’re going to reexamine it, and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people that don’t want to find answers.”

The content of the recording raised questions about whether Trump might have broken state law.

“It is the antithesis of what our democratic process is and sounds like it could be illegal,” Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who led Trump’s impeachment for abuse of power last year, described the phone call as “among the most despicable abuses of power of his long list, possibly criminal, morally repugnant, virulently undemocratic and dangerous to our democracy.”

Anthony Michael Kreis, a University of Georgia law professor, said: “The Georgia code says that anybody who solicits, requests or commands or otherwise attempts to encourage somebody to commit election fraud is guilty of solicitation of election fraud. ‘Soliciting or requesting’ is the key language. The president asked, in no uncertain terms, the secretary of state to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only did he ask for that in terms of just overturning the specific margin that Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one additional vote to secure victory in Georgia.”

“There’s just no way that if you read the code and the way the code is structured, and then you look at what the president of the United states requested, that he has not violated this law — the spirit of it for sure,” Kreis continued.

Kreis added that the phone call could not be divorced from recent episodes in which Trump amplified a false conspiracy theory about Raffensperger’s family and his vows to end the political careers of people like the secretary of state and Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, for upholding Biden’s victory in the election. He also said Trump’s request for a specific number of votes — just enough to prevail by one — undercut the notion that he was simply asking for the truth.

“If I’m the president of the United States and my pardon power is not — does not extend to state acts, I don’t think that in the last few days of my term that I would want to be engaging in activities that even remotely subject me to the possibility of state criminal prosecution,” Kreis said. “That’s what makes this even more bewildering to me, is because if he had sensible advisers they would just keep him off the phone.”

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  • Discussion
  • Consistent January 3, 2021 at 4:57 pm #45876

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:15 pm #45878

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:16 pm #45879

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:17 pm #45880

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:19 pm #45881

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:21 pm #45882

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:22 pm #45883

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:24 pm #45884

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:26 pm #45885

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:28 pm #45886

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:32 pm #45887

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:34 pm #45888

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:35 pm #45889

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:38 pm #45890

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:40 pm #45891

    Consistent January 3, 2021 at 5:41 pm #45892

    EVERYDAY January 3, 2021 at 7:24 pm #45896

    There is an element of Trump, the organized crime boss, making veiled threats, but much of the call sounds like a guy who is desperate, almost pleading for the SOS to commit voter fraud to help Trump overturn the election. The man is desperate. He knows despite the stunt to be done on Wednesday that he’s finished and the prospect of facing criminal charges after January 20 scares him. He knows he’s done.

    I give Mr. Raffensperger and his attorney kudos for not losing it during the call. They were cool about it all and held firm without being intimidated. What I’d like to hear is an audio of post-call discussions between Mr. Raffensperger and his attorney.

    Consistent January 4, 2021 at 8:33 pm #45928

    Consistent January 4, 2021 at 11:14 pm #45932

    Consistent January 4, 2021 at 11:16 pm #45933

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