Election Fraud
Conspiracy Theories
Trump has spent nine weeks making false conspiracy claims about his loss to Joe Biden. Biden won the election by more than 7 million votes. Biden earned 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. The Trump campaign repeatedly challenged the results in the courts. He lost for lack of evidence in 60 out of 61 cases, including two they tried to take to the Supreme Court.
The Washington Post published a recording of Trump’s call with Georgia Republican election officials. Brad Raffensperger is Georgia’s Republican secretary of state. The state’s top elections official. Trump threatened Mr. Raffensperger unless he “recalculate the vote count” and “find” votes so Trump would appear to win the state’s 16 electoral votes.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said.
Then, Trump threatened Raffensperger would be prosecuted if he didn’t go out and “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election results in Georgia. Raffensperger explained that the election was fair and the vote accurate. He flatly refused to help.
During the call, Trump recited a number of falsehoods that have circulated on social media involving dead voters, voting machines and shredded ballots. No evidence supports these false conspiracy theories.
Trump’s Election Fraud
The president again suggested on the call that Georgia officials would be prosecuted if they did not do his bidding. However, lawyers told The Times, Trump’s attempt at intimidation and coercion clearly violate the spirit and intent of election laws. UGA Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis informed Politico that it is against the law in Georgia for anyone to “solicit” or “request” election fraud.
“There’s just no way that… he has not violated this law,” Kreis said.
Trump is participating in the very election fraud that he is complaining about!
Trump said: “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.”
Give me a break indeed.
Michael R. Bromwichis a former inspector general of the Department of Justice. He tweeted that “unless there are portions of the tape that somehow negate criminal intent,” Trump’s “best defense would be insanity.”
Gabriel Sterling is a top Republican election official in Georgia. He delivered his most scathing rebuke yet of the president’s claims.
“This is all easily, provably false, yet the president persists, and by doing so undermines Georgians’ faith in the election system,” he said yesterday.