Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CRIMINAL ACT
Trump ‘breaks law’ trying to pressure officials to ‘find’ him 11,000 extra votes
We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President LETTER TO FBI FROM DEMOCRATS TED LIEU AND KATHLEEN RICE
DONALD Trump could face a criminal probe after he pressured officials to “find” votes to overturn Joe Biden’s election triumph.
Democrats have called on FBI director Christopher Wray to investigate after the President was heard pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to secure Trump’s victory.
Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice wrote to Wray, saying: “The evidence of election fraud is in broad daylight.” They allege Trump “engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit” election crimes and added: “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President.”
Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-cortez has also demanded that Trump be
“quickly” sanctioned. The New York congresswoman said: “I absolutely think it’s an impeachable offence. He is attacking our very election.”
In audio of Saturday’s hour-long call between Trump and Raffensperger, the
President bullies Georgia officials, cials, telling them: “So look. All I want to do is this – I just want to find 11,780 1,780 votes, which is one more than we have. “Because we won the state.
“There’s nothing wrong with
saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.” Raffensperger is heard replying that Georgia’s results were correct. Trump then makes baseless claims of voter and election fraud in Georgia. He threatens Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the Georgia Secretary of State’s legal counsel, for failing to report the alleged fraud.
Trump says: “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it. You know, that’s a criminal offence. And you know, y you can’t let that happen. “That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” lawye
Legal scholar scholars said Trump’s demand was a criminal c solicitation of electio election fraud. Anthony Mi Michael Kreis, a professor at the Georgia State Universi University College of Biden
CALL Mr Raffensperger
Law, said: “The President asked the Secretary of State to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only did he ask for that in terms of overturning the specific margin Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one additional vote to secure victory.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said the conversation with Raffensperger showed “the voice of desperation” and a “bald-faced, bold abuse of power”.
Some commentators compared the call to the Watergate scandal. Carl Bernstein, a reporter who helped bring down Richard Nixon’s presidency, called it “the ultimate smoking gun tape”.
Today, two crucial run-off elections are to be held in Georgia that will decide which party controls the Senate. Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.