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Of: TT
Published:
February 1 | Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP / TT
US President Donald Trump will board Air Force One on New Year’s Eve.
Donald Trump’s attempt to persuade Georgia’s prime minister to “find” enough votes to overturn the results of the presidential election quickly sparked strong reactions.
But experts disagree on whether the president of the United States violated any laws in the conversation.
In an hour-long recorded phone call, Trump is heard complimenting, appealing, and even threatening Brad Raffensperger with legal action, to present a new election result.
– There is nothing wrong with saying, you know, hm, that you have made a new bill, says Trump in the recording that The Washington Post published in its entirety.
During the conversation, Raffensperger confronts his president and party partner.
“Mr. President, your problem is that the data that you have is incorrect,” he told Trump, who also said:
– I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more vote than we have. Because we won the state.
“Blatant abuse of power”
The reactions of the democratic side did not wait.
In a campaign speech in Savannah, Georgia, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump a “shameless and unbridled abuse of power by the President of the United States.”
Adam Schiff, a member of the House of Representatives, wrote on Twitter that “Trump’s contempt for democracy is here on display. Once again. Recorded on tape.”
From the Republican side, the criticism was even softer and from the top of the party it calmed down. Several party members who are firmly on Trump’s side and do not believe the election went well instead accuse Raffensperger of committing a crime by publishing the recording.
Neither the White House nor Trump himself have publicly commented on the recording.
Up to the Ministry of Justice
But did Trump violate any laws, federal or state?
Yes, says Leigh Ann Webster, an Atlanta attorney, to The New York Times.
– It seems like you are clearly violating Georgia’s state laws on voter fraud, she says.
But other experts tell the newspaper that while Trump suggests that Raffensperger could get into trouble if he doesn’t comply, the president’s threats are indirect, and therefore could be said to be on the right side of the law.
Regardless, it is up to the Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute Trump.
“And even if Biden’s Justice Department thinks they are ready to be prosecuted, they have to wonder if this is how they want to start Biden’s term,” Trevor Potter, former chairman of the US Law Commission, told the newspaper. .
Trump and Biden to Georgia
Both Trump and Acting President Joe Biden will visit Georgia on Monday to cast votes in the second round of Tuesday’s state elections, which could determine what the Senate majority will look like in the next two years.
Then, on Wednesday, Trump will participate in some form in a demonstration in Washington DC, which will show his support for the president and the opinion that the elections did not go well.
Since the defeat in the presidential election, Trump has stubbornly claimed, but without presenting any proof, that the election was “rigged.”
Biden won the presidential election with 306 of the so-called electoral votes, while Trump had to settle for 232. The US Congress will formally approve the voters’ votes on January 6.
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