Donald Trump issued a potentially revealing statement on Truth Social as news broke Tuesday that authorities in Fulton County, Georgia, are nearing a decision on charges for multiple members of his inner circle — including potentially Mr Trump himself.
The ex-president, out of nowhere, brought up his now-infamous 2 January 2021 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he instructed the state elections chief to “find” more than 11,000 votes he would have needed to surpass Joe Biden’s total in the state.
“My phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia, and a second call which the Marxists, Communists, Racists, and RINOS don’t even want to talk about, were “PERFECT” calls. Many people, including lawyers for both sides, were knowingly on the line. I was protesting a RIGGED & STOLEN Election, which evidence proves it was,” claimed the former president.
He went on to reassert a number of completely false claims about his vote total in Georgia: “I won Georgia by a lot, but only needed a small number of votes from that total number. They cheated in many ways including STUFFING Ballots, ALL CAUGHT LIVE ON TAPE.”
And then he questioned why Mr Raffensperger or others on the call declined to say at the time that his instruction to the elections chief had been inappropriate.
“[H]ow come not one person said, while on the call, that I acted inappropriately, or made a statement of protest at what I said, & then slammed down the phone[?]” asked the ex-president. “Not one, even with so many opposing people, lawyers, and others on the line. NO ADMONISHMENT at all.”
It appears to be a weak defence for his actions that coincidentally (or maybe not) comes just as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says that her office’s decision regarding criminal charges stemming from that phone call and other efforts by the Trump campaign to overturn the election results in the state is “imminent”.
She added in a statement picked up by news agencies that “multiple” defendants could be charged in the investigation. Numerous members of Mr Trump’s former legal team, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, were known to be potential targets of the probe.
The House of Representatives’s select committee investigating January 6 previously recommended that the former president be indicted on several criminal charges stemming from the attack on Congress, but the Justice Department’s investigation has not yet led to any charges against Mr Trump or his inner circle.
