The guardian
Democrats ask FBI to investigate Trump’s call in Georgia
Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice say: ‘We believe Donald Trump has committed a number of election crimes or committed a conspiracy to do so’ * US politics – live coverage Two Democrats have asked the FBI to launch a criminal investigation into Donald Trump open in which he puts pressure on Georgia’s government officials to block the presidential election in his favor. The U.S. president has complained and begged Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s leading election official, to “find” enough votes to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the state, according to an audio The poll released Sunday. The revelation sparked a heated debate over whether the call violates federal laws banning interference in elections. Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York, in the House of Representatives, demanded that a case be opened. “As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump has called for a number of elections or had a conspiracy to commit. crimes, ”they wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray. “We ask you to immediately open a criminal investigation into the president.” Under U.S. law, it is a crime to deprive voters “knowingly and willfully” of a free or fair election. Eric Holder, a former attorney general, tweeted: “While listening to the tape, you should consider this federal criminal law.” During the hour-long call on Saturday, Trump made undisputed allegations of fraud and raised the vague prospect of a ‘criminal offense’. if the Secretary of State of Georgia and other officials have not changed the certified score. “All I want to do is do this,” the president said. ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have. Because we won the state. Raffensperger, a Republican, pointed out that Georgia counted his votes three times before ratifying Biden’s victory by 11,779 votes. “President Trump, we have had several lawsuits, and we have had to respond to the lawsuits and the disputes in court,” he said. “We do not agree that you won.” Trump insisted: “I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes. I did not lose Georgia. He has pushed for conspiracy theories circulating in the right-wing media, including that hundreds of thousands of ballot papers have mysteriously appeared in Fulton County, including Atlanta. Officials said there was no evidence of this. Raffensperger asked on ABC: “It was pretty early on that we got rid of all these theories early on, but President Trump continues to believe.” Gabriel Sterling, the system manager for implementing the systems for the Secretary of State of Georgia, held a press conference during which he refuted Trump and his team’s claims during the phone call to Raffensperger, point by point. “It’s all easy, provably false,” Sterling said. “Yet the president maintains and undermines Georgians’ faith in the electoral system, especially the Republican Georgians in this case.” Sterling urged Georgians to vote in tomorrow’s run-off matches and urged them to ignore the president’s unfounded allegations. Over the past two months, House has reportedly made 18 attempts to call Raffensperger before returning. Raffensperger said he did it at his better judgment. “He talked the most, we listened the most,” he said. ‘But I want to remind myself that the information he has is just wrong. He had hundreds and hundreds of people he said were dead who voted. We found two. This is an example of his bad data. Asked if he considered Trump’s request legal, the secretary of state replied: ‘I’m not a lawyer. All I know is that we are going to follow the law and follow the process. The truth is important, and we’ve been fighting these rumors for the past two months. “Trump may have violated Georgia’s state laws by requesting election fraud. Raffensperger said: ‘I understand that the district attorney in Fulton County wants to look into this. Maybe this is the right place to go. Fani Willis, the Fulton DA, said on Monday that she found Trump’s call “disturbing” and said that if she referred the matter, “the law would be applied without fear or favor”. State law is not subject to the presidential pardon Trump recently used for allies and which some observers think he could try to apply to himself. As with so many transgressions in the past, Republicans have not condemned the president. Kevin McCarthy, the party’s leader in the House, told Fox News: “The president has always been concerned about the integrity of the election, and the president believes that things have happened in Georgia for which he wants to see responsibility.” reflects a call in 2019 in which Trump strongly tried to arm the President of Ukraine to investigate Biden by withholding military support. This led to accusations, but a repeat seems unlikely just two weeks before Trump leaves office. Vermont told MSNBC: “It’s unprecedented. This is the most important attack on American democracy in the history of our country … This is what the mafia is doing … This is excessive. It’s not just impeccable, it’s definitely a criminal offense. “The revelations have sparked fears that Trump will stop at nothing to hold on to power. All ten living former defense secretaries have published a joint article in the Washington Post warning that the military should not be used to change the outcome of the election. Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue supported Trump. Party fighting could lead to some voters being able to stay home in protest. The top federal prosecutor in Atlanta also left his position on Monday, a day after the audio recording of Trump’s Saturday call was announced, during which the president called him a “never-trumper.” Byung J “BJay” Pak, who by Trump was appointed, in a statement announcing his resignation as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, which does not say why Pak is leaving or what he plans to do next.