Trump's phone call to Brad Raffensperger: six key
points
Conversation between president and Georgia’s secretary
of state laid bare Trump’s determination to cling on to power
Helen
Sullivan
@helenrsullivan
Mon 4 Jan
2021 03.40 GMTLast modified on Mon 4 Jan 2021 05.44 GMT
Donald
Trump has been recorded pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn US
president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, in a tape obtained by the
Washington Post.
The conversation
is mainly between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary
of state, but Trump allies including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of
staff, and attorney Cleta Mitchell were also present, as was Ryan Germany,
Raffensperger’s general counsel. Here are the main points:
1. Trump
sought to change the election result
On the call
Trump pressed Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”.
“The people
of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump said. “And
there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.” He
later pleaded: “So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000
votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Joe Biden
won Georgia. The result has been certified and Biden’s electoral college
victory will be ratified by Congress on Wednesday.
2. Trump
tried to intimidate Raffensperger
Trump
insisted: “There’s no way I lost Georgia. There’s no way. We won by hundreds of
thousands of votes.” He went on to suggest that Raffensperger could face a
criminal investigation. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,”
Trump said. “You know, that’s a criminal offence. And you know, you can’t let
that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan [Germany], your lawyer. That’s
a big risk.”
3. Trump
applied pressure over Georgia runoffs
Trump told
Raffensperger that if he did not act by Tuesday he would be harming the chances
of Georgia Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in this week’s runoff
elections, which will determine whether the Democrats or the Republicans
control the Senate. Referring to the runoffs in the call, Trump said, “You
would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before
the election.”
4.
Raffensperger continued to stand up to Trump
Raffensperger
is a Republican who has pushed back against Trump and insisted Biden’s win in
Georgia was fair. Responding to Trump, he said: “Well, Mr President, the
challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
When Trump
claimed that over 5,000 ballots were cast in the state by dead people,
Raffensperger responded: “The actual number was two. Two. Two people that were
dead that voted.”
5. Trump
may have committed a crime
The
University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said Trump might be “in legal
jeopardy after Biden is inaugurated”. In an email to the Guardian, he wrote:
“For example, if the justice department or US attorneys believe that Trump
violated federal law, or if local prosecutors in states such as Arizona,
Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trump may have engaged in similar
behaviour with state or local election officials, believe that Trump violated
state election laws, the federal or state prosecutors could file suit against
Trump.”
Richard H
Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, told the
Washington Post: “The president is either knowingly attempting to coerce state
officials into corrupting the integrity of the election or is so deluded that
he believes what he’s saying.” Trump’s actions may have violated federal
statutes, he said.
Michael R
Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the
Southern District of New York, wrote: “Unless there are portions of the tape
that somehow negate criminal intent, ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’ and his
threats against Raffensperger and his counsel violate 52 U.S. Code 20511.”
6. Trump
refused to back down
On Sunday
Trump tweeted: “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday
about Fulton county and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to
answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction,
out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
Twitter
labelled the tweet with the disclaimer: “This claim about election fraud is
disputed” and Raffensperger responded to Trump’s claims with a tweet saying:
“Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.”
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