Georgia’s top election official on Monday systematically dismissed and dismantled the inaccurate claims of President Trump and his allies about the election, calling them “anti-disinformation Monday.” Gabriel Sterling’s press conference came hours after two House Democrats asked the FBI to open a criminal investigation into President Trump’s explosive call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for possible violations of federal and state election laws.
“All of this is easily, probably false. However, the president persists,” Sterling said, as he went one by one through the various unfounded and false claims about Dominion’s voting systems and countless ballot boxes.
California Congressman Ted Lieu and New York MP Kathleen Rice made their request in a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray Monday after the audio of Trump’s one-hour call with Raffensperger was obtained and published Sunday by various media outlets, including CBS News. In the call, the president pressured the secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” to reverse his loss in Georgia’s presidential election.
“Evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight,” the two Democrats wrote. “The prima facie elements of the above offenses have been met.”
Lieu and Rice, both former prosecutors, believe the president “participated in the petition or conspiracy to commit various electoral crimes.” The couple cited two federal laws they believe violated Mr. Trump, as well as a Georgia state law on requesting election fraud.
In the course of his conversation, Trump told Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we have won the state.”
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” the president said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, hey, you’ve recalculated.”
President-elect Joe Biden defeated Mr. Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes, and ballots cast in the state have been counted a total of three times, with Mr. Biden’s victory claimed each time.
The president repeatedly stated in the call that he won the election in Peach State and suggested that ballots had been shredded in Fulton County. The president also claimed that Dominion Voting Systems, an electoral technology provider, was removing or manipulating machinery.
Raffensperger and his attorney general Ryan Germany, who was also on the rally, repeatedly backed down Trump’s claims, and the secretary of state said the state’s election results were “accurate.”
“Mr. President, the challenge you have is that the data you have is incorrect,” Raffensperger told the president.
Since Nov. 3, election day, Raffensperger’s office has received 18 attempts at White House calls. Saturday’s call, however, was the first the Secretary of State has made with Mr. Trump since election day.
Mr. Trump’s comments have raised questions about whether he could be subject to legal scrutiny.
Raffensperger told ABC “Good Morning America” Monday that his office would not open any investigation, as it could be a conflict of interest, but believes Fulton County District Attorney “wants to examine it.” .
“Maybe it’s the right place for me to go,” he said.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a statement that he found the call “disturbing” and cited news that the only Democrat on the state election board had asked the election division to investigate the call. after which the board may refer the case to Willis’ office. and the Attorney General of the State.
“As I promised voters in Fulton County last year, as a district attorney, I will enforce the law without fear or favor. Anyone who commits a violation of Georgia law in my jurisdiction will be liable,” he said. to say. “Once the investigation is completed, this matter, like all matters, will be handled by our office based on the facts and the law.”
Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said it is “very possible” that the president will violate federal law and probably violate Georgia state law.
“It’s mostly about what the president honestly believes right now and the only options aren’t fantastic,” he told CBS News. “So he understands the reality and knows that there are not 11,800 ballots sitting somewhere that are Trump votes and not counted in rewards and audits, in which case he committed a crime. If he really understands the true nature of the world, if he can distinguish facts from fiction, he probably committed a crime. “
But, “if it doesn’t, we have an executive who is still in power for 16.5 days and who can’t reliably distinguish between facts and fiction based on the information he receives,” Levitt continued.
“It’s not a great consolation prize,” he said, adding that there is “a lot” in Mr. Trump’s call to Raffensperger “that is alarmingly indicative that the president cannot say facts from fiction, which has bought the his own conspiracy theories. ” “
Levitt suggested that White House President and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was on the call, may also have violated an 1871 law on criminal conspiracies to subvert civil rights if they agreed that the goal of the call “was to see if we could convince him to make a false count.”
“If Meadows knows it, if he knows how to differentiate fact and fiction and has the same goal as the president, then that’s all the conspiracy requires,” he said.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who headed the Justice Department under President Obama’s presidency, tweeted Sunday that those listening to the audio of Trump’s call should “consider this federal criminal statute” and included an image of a law that states that anyone in a federal election who “deprives, defrauds or attempts to knowingly and intentionally deprive or defraud residents of a state of a fair and impartial electoral process, by … acquiring , the distribution or tabulation of votes known to the person to be materially false, fictitious or fraudulent under the laws of the State where the election is held “would be fined or imprisoned for up to five years.
Adam Brewster contributed to this report