Criminal Referral Made To The FBI In Trump Georgia Election Fraud

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Last updated on January 15th, 2021 at 04:55 am

Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Kathleen Rice (D-NY) have sent a criminal referral to the FBI related to Trump‘s Georgia election fraud.

Reps. Lieu and Rice wrote:

Under 52 U.S.C. § 20511, it is a crime for, “A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office … knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.” In this case, Mr. Trump, for purposes of a federal election, solicited Secretary of State Raffensperger to procure ballots that are known to be false by threatening him to “find 11,780 votes.”

Under 52 U.S.C. § 10307(a), “No person acting under color of law shall … willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person’s vote.” During the phone conversation, Mr. Trump, under color of law, solicited Secretary of State Raffensperger to re-tabulate or “recalculate” the votes, which would have deprived Georgia voters of the accurate count of their votes.

….

The evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight. The prima facie elements of the above crimes have been met. Given the more than ample factual predicate, we are making a criminal referral to you to open an investigation into Mr. Trump. Thank you for your attention to this urgent request.

There is enough evidence that Trump committed a crime during his call with the Georgia Secretary of State on Saturday for the FBI to move forward with an investigation. Without the presidency and the Department of Justice to hide behind any longer, Trump could be facing a series of criminal prosecutions as soon as he leaves office.

The common thread in each of these criminal investigations is fraud. Democrats in the White House and Congress are likely to be focused on the pandemic and the economy. It would be ideal for the Department of Justice to handle the one-person crime wave that is Donald Trump and hold him accountable for any potential crimes.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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