Donald Trump could reportedly face multiple criminal charges over his phone call to Georgia officials asking them to ‘find 11,780 votes’ to help him overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
A report by Brookings Institute think-tank claimed that ‘the Georgia electoral process and the vote count was subjected to sustained assault’ by Trump and his allies as they attempted to ‘change the lawful outcome of the election.’
The DC-based institute concluded that Trump and some of his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, could be charged with election fraud, intentional interference with an election official’s performance of election-related duties, and conspiracy.
The report also suggests that they could be charged with an array of election misconduct such as false statements in connections with official matters, attempts to influence government officials in improper ways, and solicitation of action violative of public officer oaths.
It also notes that Trump violated the Georgia Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which Fulton County’s District Attorney, Fani T. Willis, has been investigating since his January 2, phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Much of the 107-page report from the Brookings Institute revolves around the notorious call when Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to ‘find’ votes.
During the January 2 phone call, Trump repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results, an assertion the secretary of state firmly rejected.
Trump said “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. There’s no way I lost Georgia, there’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes”
Biden was ahead of Trump by 11,779 votes at the time and ultimately carried the state by that margin.
The former president’s senior advisor, Jason Miller, told DailyMail.com there was nothing unusual about the call, suggesting there is no need for an investigation.
Miller said “There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr Raffensperger didn’t want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for Secretary of State,’ he continued. ‘And the only reason they call became public was that Mr Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points.’
Georgia’s secretary of state office is currently in its seventh month of a criminal investigation into the notorious phone call. The report from the Brookings Institute also cited other instances when Trump contacted other Georgia officials to help him overturn his loss, including Governor Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr. Georgia was the last state to be called in the 2020 presidential election which elected Biden to be the 46th president of the United States.
The popular vote counted 2,473,633 votes for Biden and 2461,854 votes for Trump. Biden’s win was recertified in December 2020 following a recount.
‘We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged,’ Raffensperger said.
Biden’s win was the first time that Georgia voted Democratic since electing Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992.