HuffPost: Democrats Call On FBI To Open Criminal Probe Into Trump’s Georgia Election Shakedown
HuffPost: Democrats Call On FBI To Open Criminal Probe Into Trump’s Georgia Election Shakedown
The FBI should open a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump for solicitation of election fraud, House Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) said Monday.
The lawmakers sent a congressional letter to the FBI in response to an audio recording that showed Trump threatening Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) with criminal prosecution unless he could “find” 11,780 votes ― one more vote than President-elect Joe Biden’s margin of victory in the state.
“So look,” Trump said on the recording, first released to The Washington Post. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”
Later in the call, Trump reiterated his demand for Raffensperger to manufacture votes for him. “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.”
The letter alleges Trump violated two federal statutes and one Georgia statute forbidding the solicitation of election fraud when he pressed Raffensperger to alter the vote total in order to declare Trump the winner of the state’s 16 electoral votes. …
“There’s no question there is grounds for an investigation at the federal level and at the state level,” said Stephen Spaulding, special counsel for public policy at the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Cause. …
One reason to pursue a criminal investigation, regardless of whether Trump believes his own lies, is because the scope of the president’s effort to steal the election is not yet known.
“The question is we’ve got this one tape, but how many other people received this call?” Spaulding said. “How many state legislatures received this call? What other secretaries of states, election officials received this call? Who else in the White House was involved?”