Demand FBI investigate Trump phone call to overturn election result
US President’s own party increasingly split over his efforts to ‘find’ votes and push Congress revolt against Biden win.
The Republican party is increasingly split over President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result by pressuring officials in Georgia to “find” votes and pushing for Congress to revolt against Joe Biden’s victory.
As Democrats called on the FBI to investigate Mr Trump’s leaked phone call to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, Liz Cheney, a senior Republican in the House of Representatives, described it as “deeply troubling”.
Mr Trump, 74, railed at Republican senators who are refusing to join a dozen colleagues in objecting during a joint session of Congress tomorrow (Wednesday) to election results in swing states. The president has made unproven claims of fraud. He was particularly angered when Tom Cotton, an Arkansas senator who has been loyal to him, announced that he would not go along with the rebellion.
All ten living former defence secretaries put thei names to a newspaper article insisting that the election was over and there was no call for the military to intervene. The article came after Michael Flynn, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, called for Mr Trump to declare martial law in swing states to re-run the election.
Tension is running high in Washington as Congress prepares to ratify the result. Mr Trump views it as his last chance to block Mr Biden’s victory after more than 50 failed court attempts, and has urged his supporters to flock to the capital for a huge “stop the steal” protest. The mayor of Washington has called up the National Guard to control crowds.
‘The truth will come out’
Mr Trump’s call to Mr Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, Georgia’s general counsel, was leaked to The Washington Post shortly after the president tweeted that the Georgia secretary of state “has no clue” about unproven allegations of election fraud. Mr Raffensperger replied in a tweet: “What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
The call on Saturday was the 19th attempt Mr Trump had made to be connected to Mr Raffensperger since the election, NBC News reported. Mr Trump went through a series of allegations, most of which were rebuffed by the official. Mr Trump said that an election worker had put thousands of Biden votes through the counting machine three times; Mr Raffensperger said an audit found this did not happen. Mr Trump claimed that election workers were shredding evidence; Mr Raffensperger said it was routine housekeeping.
“He did most of the talking. We did most of the listening,” Mr Raffensperger, 65, told ABC News. “But I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong. He had hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two.”
‘This is Trump media’
During the call Mr Trump insisted he was not listening to social media fantasy stories. “Oh this isn’t social media. This is Trump media .... I don’t care about social media. Social media is Big Tech. Big Tech is on your side,” he told the official, a lifelong Republican who voted for Mr Trump.
Amid calls from Democrats for a federal investigation into the call and one from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a standard-bearer of the left, for Mr Trump to be impeached, Mr Raffensperger said that his office would not take legal action. He added: “I understand that the Fulton county district attorney wants to look at it. Maybe that’s the appropriate venue.”
Fani Willis, district attorney for Fulton county, which covers Atlanta city, vowed to investigate if a case were referred to her office. “Like many Americans, I have found the reports about the president’s call disturbing,” Ms Willis, a Democrat, said. “I will enforce the law without fear or favour. Anyone who commits a violation in my jurisdiction will be held accountable.”
Two Democratic representatives, Ted Lieu from California and Kathleen Rice from New York, sent a letter asking Christopher Wray, the FBI director, to open a criminal investigation: “As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes.”
Many senior Republicans avoided giving any reaction. Kevin McCarthy, the party leader in the House, and Ted Cruz, a senator taking part in tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) revolt against election results, ignored questions put by reporters.
However, the divisions created by Mr Trump in the party occasionally burst into the open: Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, who is leading the legal challenges, tweeted: “Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona is just as bad as [Governor Brian] Kemp of Georgia. He is covering up major voter fraud. Sending an illegal vote count to Congress. Not calling a Special Session for a vote on who won the state. Ducey is a Democrat. We will all remember.”
Democrats close to Mr Biden were nervous of being drawn into a legal battle that could overshadow the next president’s term of office. Hakeem Jeffries, a congressman close to Mr Biden, said the pandemic and economic recovery were the priorities, adding: “We’re not looking backward, we’re looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20.”
Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said the next federal legal step would probably be up to the Justice Department in the Biden administration. Mr Biden has yet to name his candidate to lead the FBI.
Mr Potter told The Washington Post: “There is a good argument that Trump is seeking to procure a fraudulent vote count by stating that he needs exactly 11,780 votes and is threatening the secretary of state if he does not produce them. But even if the Biden justice department thinks they have a good case, is that how they want to start off the Biden presidency?”
The former defence secretaries wrote: “The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the constitution and statute, has arrived. Efforts to involve the armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”
Mr Trump has awarded the presidential medal of freedom to Devin Nunes, a California congressman who investigated the Obama administration over the origins of the inquiry into Russian election interference.
The White House said: “Devin Nunes’s courageous actions helped thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president. Congressman Nunes pursued the Russia Hoax at great personal risk . . . He had the fortitude to take on the media, the FBI, the Intelligence Community, the Democrat Party, foreign spies and the full power of the Deep State.”
Mr Cotton, 43, is seen as a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024 so it was significant that he declined to support the rebellion.
The revolt is led by Josh Hawley, 41, of Missouri, another who is thought to have presidential ambitions.
Rob Portman, 65, of Ohio, also risked Mr Trump’s wrath by announcing yesterday (Monday) he would not take part. Mr Portman said: “After two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed a result and, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election.”
The Times
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