On Thursday, The Detroit News reported that it had a recording from November 17, 2020 of Trump arm-twisting by phone Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two Republican “canvassers,” to get them not to certify the vote in Wayne County, Michigan.Biden won that county, where Detroit sits, by more than twice the votes he needed to turn the state his way.
Canvassers are ordinary citizens appointed by the parties to the small local boards that certify county elections. According to the Free Press, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel phoned the canvassers, and Trump joined. He and McDaniel persuaded the two not to sign the certification; it turned out their signatures weren’t needed.
Foreshadowing Trump’s Jan. 6 speech in Washington, Trump told the pair, “We can't let these people take our country away from us." He also said, “We’ll take care of” getting you lawyers.
There are at least three ways these new tapes can hurt Donald Trump.
01 Biden can wrap Trump’s mantra around his neck.
Expect Trump’s 2024 campaign battlecry to be “Election Interference!” whenever he talks about his prosecutions. That’s what Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesman, howled after Wednesday’s Colorado Supreme Court ruling removing him from the state’s primary ballot as an insurrectionist under the 14th Amendment.
Talk about chutzpah! Here’s Trump, someone who just got caught on tape arm-twisting two local Republicans to help him steal the 2020 election.
And for the umpteenth time! Who can forget Trump’s January 2 recorded call to Georgia Secretary of State trying to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the state’s election. Or former Arizona Senate Speaker Rusty Bower’s testimony about Trump’s and Rudy Giuliani’s November 22, 2020, call trying to get the Arizona Senate to flip its Biden certification?
Just imagine Biden’s stump speech:
My opponent says his four criminal prosecutions are all ‘election interference.’
As we used to say in Scranton, that’s the pot calling the kettle black. Here’s a guy caught red-handed interfering with Georgia’s and Michigan’s 2020 elections.
What d’ya think he’d do next time? Oops, I forgot. If, God forbid, he gets elected, he’s proclaimed himself dictator. There won’t be a next election.
02 The tapes undermine Trump’s claim of presidential immunity.
If you’re paying attention, you know that the hottest legal issue of the day is Jack Smith’s attempt to expedite Trump’s appeal from the denial of his motion asserting he’s immune from being prosecuted in DC. He’s indicted there for trying to overturn the 2020 election. (Or should we say, “interfere” with it?)
Trump claims that he can’t be tried because everything he did was part of his official presidential duties. Trump spokesman Cheung said on Thursday that Trump’s calls to the Wayne County officials were all part of his constitutional responsibility as then-president to “take care” that the laws were faithfully executed.
Good luck with that claim in court. The Constitution delegates to the states responsibility for running federal elections. Presidential duties on that front are at their nadir.
It’s especially preposterous to contend that a president has a duty to oversee his own election. Foxes don’t guard chicken coups, and presidential thieves don’t guard the bank vault where ballots are stored.
Don’t be surprised if you see the Detroit news story somewhere in the government’s appellate briefs contesting Trump’s claim to immunity.
03 Fani Willis and Jack Smith Can Use The Tape Against Him
Trump’s indictments in Fulton County, Georgia and Washington, DC, each describe Trump’s “fake elector” schemes in battleground states, part of his overall criminal conspiracy to ignore the voters’ will and hold on to power. Michigan is one of those states.
Consider these two ways that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special counsel Jack Smith can use the newly revealed tapes.
First, the pressure on the Wayne County canvassers was part and parcel of the alleged multi-prong conspiracy for Trump to stop the lawful transition of presidential power.
Second, if Trump was simply doing his job, why was it a secret that took three years for an enterprising reporter to unmask? Why did canvasser Palmer tell the House January 6 committee she just couldn’t recall what the phone conversation was about or whether the election was mentioned?
Right.
How often does a local Republican get a call from a president? Why wasn’t Trump boasting about how hard he worked contacting local officials to “Stop the Steal?”
Concealment is a hallmark of what jury instructions call “consciousness of guilt.” It’s among the best tools in prosecutors’ arsenal to prove criminal intent, which no defendant ever admits but which their post-crime conduct often betrays.
You may well see this tape find its way into courtrooms where Trump is sitting with his counsel at the defendant's table.
