A Georgia Grand Jury Is Investigating Trump for the Same Election Interference to which Arizona Turns a Blind Eye

Business Insider has the most up-to-date report on the Georgia grand jury investigating Donald Trump for election interference, a crime in Georgia:

Pressuring officials to manipulate election results

What did Trump do?

On January 2, two months after Trump already lost the 2020 presidential election, including the electoral college votes in Georgia, Trump called Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official.

In the call, Trump falsely said he was the true winner of the election, that thousands of dead people voted, and spouted various other conspiracy theories about how the election was conducted. Trump told Raffensperger to “look very carefully” at shredded ballots, something that did not happen, said he wanted to “find 11,780 votes” and that Raffensperger should “work out on these numbers” and “come to a resolution.”

In a separate phone call in December with Frances Watson, the lead elections investigator in Raffensperger’s office, Trump also leveled false accusations about Georgia’s election process and told her that “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.”

What have prosecutors done so far?

Fanni Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, is examining whether Trump’s calls amounted to an illegal attempt to manipulate election results.

In a letter to state election officials, Willis said her investigation will assess “potential violations of Georgia election law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office, and any involvement in violence of threats related to the election’s administration.”

In April, a local Fox affiliate reported that Willis was seeking subpoenas for her investigation through a grand jury.

Raffensperger is also conducting a separate, administrative investigation into Trump’s attempts to influence the election results in his state.

It turns out, as you may have imagined, that Donald Trump engaged in the same election interference here in Arizona. The Associated Press reports, Records show pressure by Trump, allies on Arizona officials:

Newly released records show the top Republicans in Arizona’s largest county dodged calls from Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 election, as the then-president sought to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in key battleground states.

The records — including voicemails and text messages — shed light on another state where Trump, his attorneys and others mounted a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign on Republican officials overseeing elections. Days before Congress certified Biden’s win on Jan. 6, Trump pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn Biden’s win there.

Trump tried to reach Clint Hickman, then the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, on Jan. 3, shortly before midnight in Washington and only hours after news broke of Trump’s call with Raffensperger.

“Hello, sir. This is the White House operator I was calling to let you know that the president’s available to take your call if you’re free,” the White House operator said in a voicemail. “If you could please give us a call back, sir, that’d be great. You have a good evening.”

Hickman told The Arizona Republic, which first received the records from Maricopa County, that he did not return the phone call. He said he presumed Trump would try to pressure him to change election results or discuss election conspiracies as he had done with Raffensperger.

“I’m not going to tape a president, so I’m not going to talk to a president. … I didn’t want to have a very rough call to my home on a Sunday night,” Hickman told The Republic.

Hickman and the rest of the Board of Supervisors, which is controlled 4-1 by Republicans, have aggressively defended the vote count in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and 60% of Arizona’s voters. They have maintained the outcome was not affected by fraud or irregularities.

State Senate Republicans used their subpoena power to take control of all 2.1 million ballots and the machines that counted them. A firm led by a Trump supporter who has shared far-fetched conspiracy theories is overseeing an audit for the Senate GOP.

The most aggressive pressure came from Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli “Chemtrails” Ward. She tried to convince Hickman and Supervisors Steve Chucri and Bill Gates to call Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who filed lawsuits around the country alleging the election conspiracies. The lawsuits were all thrown out.

Early Nov. 20, when the board was scheduled to certify Maricopa County’s election results, Ward texted Gates, “Can we talk today now that the lawsuit is over? There are so many abnormalities that must be adjudicated. I know the Republican board doesn’t want to be remembered as the entity who led the charge to certify a fraudulent election.”

After sending information alleging fraud — and shortly before the board voted to accept the election results — she texted him, “Sounds like your fellow Repubs are throwing in the towel. Very sad. And unAmerican.”

She texted Chucri, “Seems you’re playing for the wrong team and people will remember. WRONG team.”

The records also include voicemails from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani trying to reach several of the GOP supervisors. Chucri met with Giuliani when he was in Phoenix to air Trump’s baseless fraud theories.

“If you get a chance, would you please give me a call,” Giuliani said in a message to Gates. “I have a few things I’d like to talk over with you. Maybe we can get this thing fixed up. You know, I really think it’s a shame that Republicans sort of are both in this kind of situation. And I think there may be a nice way to resolve this for everybody.”, who tried to convince Republicans on the board to question the election results, even as the officials tried to instill confidence in the them. At one point, she texted Hickman, “We need you to stop the counting.”

She tried to convince Hickman and Supervisors Steve Chucri and Bill Gates to call Trump “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell, who filed lawsuits around the country alleging the election conspiracies. The lawsuits were all thrown out.

Early Nov. 20, when the board was scheduled to certify Maricopa County’s election results, Ward texted Gates, “Can we talk today now that the lawsuit is over? There are so many abnormalities that must be adjudicated. I know the Republican board doesn’t want to be remembered as the entity who led the charge to certify a fraudulent election.”

After sending information alleging fraud — and shortly before the board voted to accept the election results — she texted him, “Sounds like your fellow Repubs are throwing in the towel. Very sad. And unAmerican.”

She texted Chucri, “Seems you’re playing for the wrong team and people will remember. WRONG team.”

The records also include voicemails from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani trying to reach several of the GOP supervisors. Chucri met with Giuliani when he was in Phoenix to air Trump’s baseless fraud theories.

“If you get a chance, would you please give me a call,” Giuliani said in a message to Gates. “I have a few things I’d like to talk over with you. Maybe we can get this thing fixed up. You know, I really think it’s a shame that Republicans sort of are both in this kind of situation. And I think there may be a nice way to resolve this for everybody.”

CNN adds Arizona Republic: Trump allies pressured Maricopa County election supervisors:

The attempted calls appear to be part of a pressure campaign led by his then-personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward to convince then-chair of the Board of Supervisors — Republican Clint Hickman — and other members of the elected body that supervises elections in Maricopa County to announce that there were voting irregularities in their county, as litigation related to the election continued in the state, according to records obtained by the Republic.

This CNN report includes audio of the voicemails Giuliani left Arizona officials after election. The Arizona Republic hides the recordings behind a subscription paywall.

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi shares reporting by the Arizona Republic of messages from Donald Trump and his allies attempting to pressure the Maricopa County, Arizona board of supervisors.

Hickman told The Republic that he allowed the calls to go to voice mail, where the White House’s switchboard operator asked Hickman to call the President back. He did not return the calls, he told the Republic. CNN has reached out to Hickman for comment.

“It’s not surprising,” Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on “Cuomo Prime Time” on Friday evening. “We suspected there were some attempts to undermine the election here, and now we have it clearly in tapes. And you know, Arizona law makes it clear that interfering in elections is against the law, and that is exactly what this appears to be.”

“There really is no reason that you would be calling the supervisors or other election officials because that’s not the proper channel at all if you have concerns about an election,” Hobbs, a Democrat who is running for governor, said on Friday.

Along with Trump, Giuliani — who in November met with GOP state lawmakers in Arizona — also tried to contact supervisors in Maricopa County, according to the Republic, and to Republican Bill Gates, who confirmed the Christmas Eve call to CNN’s Kyung Lah in June.

“I have a few things I’d like to talk over with you. Maybe we can get this thing fixed up. You know, I really think it’s a shame that Republicans sort of, we’re both in this, kind of, situation. And I think there may be a nice way to resolve this for everybody,” Giuliani said in a voice mail to Gates published by the Republic on Friday and also previously obtained by CNN.

Gates told Lah in June he never returned Giuliani’s call, adding that it would have been inappropriate to do so.

According to the Republic, Ward persistently contacted members of the Board of Supervisors, pleading with them to “do the right thing” and saying, “I know the Republican board doesn’t want to be remembered as the entity who led the charge to certify a fraudulent election.”

It appears Hickman, Gates and the board’s other Republican members rebuffed team Trump’s efforts to “fix” the election, and certified the results of the election. They have continuously and consistently said the election was fair.

At a minimum, our partisan Republican Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, who is a miserable failure at doing the job for which he was elected – he spends all of his time on politically motivated lawsuits often as a sidekick to the most corrupt state attorney general in the United States, Texas AG Ken Paxton – should already have opened an inquiry into Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli “Chemtrails” Ward.

Brnovich should also be looking into Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and “fixer” (his agent), and his conversations with Republican lawmakers Mark Finchem, Bret Roberts, Nancy Barto, Leo Biasiucci, David Cook, Kelly Townsend, David Gowan, Sonny Borrelli and Sylvia Allen who participated in Giuliani’s Big Lie road show in November (Republican congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs attended, sitting behind Giuliani). Arizona GOP lawmakers hold meeting on election outcome with Trump lawyer Rudy Giulian. If Donald Trump actually spoke to any of these individuals, he should also be under investigation.

Will our partisan hack attorney general actually do his damn job? Don’t hold your breath. The Republican culture of corruption runs deep in Arizona, ad is decades old.