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The Devil Went Down To Georgia: The Boss Was Busy [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-27
Second of two parts looking at the criminal indictment in Fulton County, Ga.
Up to his neck.
That’s how far Donald Trump was involved in the alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to the indictment filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Trump and 18 other people are charged. Specifically, Trump faces the following charges:
*Violation of the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act
*Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer (3 counts)
*Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree (2 counts)
*Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings (2 counts)
*False Statements and Writings (2 counts)
*Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents
*Filing False Documents
*Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer
The indictment includes allegations of a series of actions by Trump that were “overt act(s) to further the conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump, his cult, and his supporters in government and the Right-wing media will be proclaiming his innocence up to and past his trial, no matter the outcome. So, let’s see just how dirty he got his own hands during this historically corrupt conspiracy to overthrow our democracy.
As you read the allegations it’s important to remember what Trump is accused of trying to accomplish. He constantly lied about election fraud that never existed as he pressured legislators and officials in GOP-controlled swing states that Biden won to reject that result and declare him the winner.
He also pushed for the creation of false slates of electors in those states that would be sent to Washington and used by Vice President Mike Pence as a reason to not certify Biden’s victory. Trump hoped that this would lead to either him being declared the winner, the matter being returned to the states, or the issue being decided by House of Representatives, where he had the advantage in votes.
Sounds like a coup to me.
The following is a list of various alleged acts by Trump that are included in the indictment. It’s pretty long, and that shouldn’t be lost on anyone. As you can see, he’s accused of being a very active participant in a very corrupt process.
*On Nov 4, Trump gave a nationally televised speech falsely declaring victory in the election. About four days earlier, he discussed a draft speech with an unindicted co-conspirator that falsely claimed victory and falsely claimed voter fraud.
*On Nov. 20, Trump and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows met with the majority leader of the Michigan Senate, the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, and other Michigan legislators in the Oval Office where Trump made false statements regarding fraud in the presidential election.
*On Nov. 22, Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani called the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Russell “Rusty” Bowers. During the call Giuliani made false statements concerning fraud in the election and asked Bowers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona. Bowers refused to do so. He told Trump, “I would not break my oath.”
*On Nov. 25, Giuliani and attorney Jenna Lynn Ellis appeared at a meeting of Pennsylvania legislators in Gettysburg. Giuliani made false statements concerning fraud in the election. Giuliani and Ellis asked the legislators to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from their state. Trump joined the meeting by telephone and made false statements concerning election fraud and solicited the legislators to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
Later that day, Trump, Meadows, Giuliani, Ellis, and others met with a group of Pennsylvania legislators at the White House and discussed holding a special session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
*On Nov. 27, Trump called President Pro Tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate Jake Corman to solicit him to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Pennsylvania.
*On Nov. 30, Giuliana and Ellis met with Arizona legislators in Phoenix. Giuliani made false statements concerning fraud in the presidential election in Arizona and asked the legislators to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from that state. Ellis also asked them to appoint the electors. Trump joined the meeting by telephone and made false statements concerning fraud in the election.
*In December, Trump and Meadows met with John McEntee, a member of the administration, and requested that he prepare a memorandum outlining a strategy for disrupting and delaying the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress where the votes would be counted and certified. The strategy including having Vice President Mike Pence count only half of the electoral votes from certain states and then return the remaining electoral votes to state legislatures.
*On Dec. 3, Trump met with Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Bryan Cutler in the Oval Office and discussed holding a special session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
That day he also Tweeted the following:
“Georgia hearings now on@OANN. Amazing!”
“Wow! Blockbuster testimony taking place right now in Georgia. Ballot stuffing by Dems when Republicans were forced to leave the large counting room. Plenty more coming, but this alone leads to an easy win of the State.”
“People in Georgia got caught cold bringing in massive numbers of ballots and putting them in ‘voting’ machines. Great job @BrianKempGA!”
*On Dec. 5, Trump called Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and asked him to call a special session of the George General Assembly.
*On Dec. 6, Trump Tweeted: “Gee, what a surprise. Has anyone informed the so-called (says he has no power to do anything) Governor @BrianKempGA & his puppet Lt. Governor @GeoffDuncanGA, that they could easily solve this mess, & WIN. Signature verification & call a Special Session. So easy! …”
*On Dec 7, Trump solicited the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives David Ralston to call a special session of the Georgia General Assembly for the purpose of unlawfully appointing presidential electors from Georgia.
*On Dec. 8, Trump called Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr for the purpose of making false statements about fraud in the presidential election in Georgia and elsewhere. Trump asked Carr not to discourage other state attorneys general from joining a federal lawsuit filed by the state of Texas contesting the administration of the election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The same day Trump and attorney John Eastman called Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to ask her assistance in gathering certain individuals to meet and cast electoral votes for Trump on Dec. 14 in certain states.
*On Dec. 14, Trump tweeted: “What a fool Governor @BrianKempGA of George is. Could have been so easy, but now we have to do it the hard way. Demand this clown call a Special Session and open up signature verification, NOW. Otherwise, could be a bad day for two GREAT Senators on January 5th.”
*On Dec. 18, Trump met with Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and others at the White House. They discussed strategies and theories intended to influence the outcome of the election, including seizing voting equipment and appointing Powell as special counsel with broad authority to investigate allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere.
*On Dec. 23, Trump called the Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson, during which he falsely stated that he had won the presidential election in Georgia “by hundreds of thousands of votes” and said to Watson that “when the right answer comes, you’ll be praised.”
*On Dec. 25, Trump called Bowers and requested that he unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona. During the call, Bowers said to Trump: “I voted for you. I worked for you. I campaigned for you. I just won’t do anything illegal for you.”
*On Dec. 27, Trump solicited Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to make a false statement by stating “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
*On Dec. 30, Trump tweeted:
“Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast. Check it out. @OANN @newsmax and many more. @BrianKempGa should resign from office. He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won other Swing States.”
“Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast LIVE via @RSBNetwork! …”
“We now have far more votes than needed to flip Georgia in the Presidential race. Massive VOTER FRAUD took place. Thank you to the Georgia Legislature for today’s revealing meeting!”
*On Dec. 31, Trump and John Eastman filed paperwork in the case of Trump v. Kemp in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The document contained the following false statements:
--As many as 2,506 felons with uncompleted sentences voted illegally.
--At least 66,247 underage people voted illegally.
--At least 2,423 individuals who were not listed in the state’s records as having been registered to vote had voted illegally.
--At least 1,043 individuals who had illegally registered to vote using a post office box as their habitation voted illegally.
--As many as 10,315 or more dead people voted.
--That deliberate misinformation was used to instruct Republican poll watchers and members of the press to leave the premises for the night at about 10 p.m. on election night at State Farm Arena.
Earlier that same day, Eastman sent an email to attorneys associated with the Trump campaign admitting his knowledge that at least some of the allegations in the verified complaint were not accurate.
*On Jan 2, Trump and Meadows ask Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to unlawfully change the certified returns for the presidential election. Trump made these false statements to Raffensperger, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, and Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany about the presidential election:
--Anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls.
--Thousands of people attempted to vote and were told they could not because a ballot had already been cast in their name.
--4,502 people voted who were not on the voter registration list.
--904 people voted who were registered to an address that was a post office box.
--Ruby Freeman was a professional vote scammer and a known political operative.
--Freeman, her daughter, and others were responsible for fraudulently awarding at least 18,000 ballots to Joe Biden at State Farm Arena.
--Close to 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia.
--139 percent of people voted in Detroit.
--200,000 more votes were recorded than the number of people who voted in Pennsylvania.
--Thousands of dead people voted in Michigan.
--Ruby Freeman stuffed the ballot boxes.
--Hundreds of thousands of ballots had been “dumped” into Fulton County and another county adjacent to Fulton County.
--Trump won the election in Georgia by 400,000 votes.
*On Jan. 3, Trump tweeted: “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgie. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under the table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters,’ dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
*On Jan. 4, Trump and Eastman met with Pence and the vice president’s chief of staff and counsel in the Oval Office. Trump and Eastman argued that Pence could either reject electoral voted from certain states or delay the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 for the purpose of allowing certain state legislatures to unlawfully appoint presidential electors for Trump. Eastman admitted both options violated the Electoral Count Act.
On Jan. 5, Trump met with Pence in the Oval Office and told him he had the power to decertify the presidential election results, that people were cheated, and that Pence wanted to “play by Marquess of Queensberry rules.” When Pence said it was his duty to support and defend the constitution and that only Congress had the power to decide to reject slates of presidential electors Trump said Pence was naïve, implied that he lacked courage, and said Pence was doing a “great disservice.”
The same day Trump called Pence twice to try to convince him to reject the slates of presidential electors or return them to the state legislatures.
Trump issued a statement through his campaign that falsely stated “The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act. Our Vice President has several options under the U.S. Constitution. He can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification. He can also decertify the illegal and corrupt results and send them to the House of Representatives for the one vote for one state tabulation.”
Trump tweeted: “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”
On Jan. 6, Trump called to Pence and solicited him to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress. When Pence refused, Trump said Pence would “go down as a wimp” and that Pence was not protecting the United States.
Trump spoke at a rally at the Ellipse in Washington. During the rally, Trump made false statements concerning fraud in the president election in Georgia and elsewhere, solicited Pence to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress that day, and encouraged those in attendance at the rally to march to the U.S. Capitol.
Trump tweeted: “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will Win the Presidency. Many states want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”
“States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
You can read the full indictment here.
***
We all know what happened next. The fired-up mob stormed the Capitol, beat police officers, and temporarily halted the proceedings. Eventually, the building was cleared, Pence did his duty, and despite the efforts of more than 100 members of Congress who voted against accepting votes from certain states, Biden’s justified win was certified.
That was more than two years ago. Now Trump and his co-conspirators are facing their day in court. This is a watershed moment for our nation. We’re living through history right now.
We have the responsibility as citizens to understand the case and monitor the results with an open mind guided only by the truth.
The justice system faces the unprecedented challenge of dealing with a four-time indicted former president. I suspect it will be up to the task of meeting its awesome responsibilities.
We’ll see whether we are, too.
***
Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Also, please check out my video blog: The 3:13 on Politics.
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