Former US President Donald Trump appears to have personally pressured election auditors in Wayne County, Michigan, not to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. This is reported by the Detroit News, citing previously unknown audio recordings that the newspaper said it listened to. They were provided to the paper through an intermediary – on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from Trump or his supporters.
The four recordings are said to have been made on November 17, 2020, two weeks after the presidential election, by a person present at the conversation. At that time, Trump spoke on the phone with Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, with Monica Palmer and William Hartmann. The two members of the Wayne County Election Audit Committee had initially expressed their support for the certification during a meeting of the election board shortly before, but then refused to confirm the victory of the Democrats over the Republicans with their signature.
During the phone call, which according to the Detroit News took place half an hour after the end of the committee meeting, Trump reportedly said that Palmer and Hartmann would look “terrible” if they signed the confirmation after initially refusing to do so. to do that. “We have to fight for our country,” the newspaper quoted the then president as saying. “We cannot allow these people to take our land away from us.”
McDaniel, who comes from Michigan, assured Palmer and Hartmann elsewhere in the phone call: “If you can go home tonight, don’t sign. […] We will get you lawyers.”
Trump then added: “We’ll take care of it.”
A day after the call, both election auditors asked to “withdraw” their support for the certification because they had been pressured. However, their attempt was unsuccessful and Michigan ultimately affirmed Biden’s victory in the state’s largest county.
Palmer had already confirmed the phone call with Trump in 2020, but claimed to the Washington Post that the then-president called her to express his support and did not put pressure on her to act in his favor. “His concern was for my safety, and that was really touching,” she said. “It wasn’t pressure. It was a genuine concern for my safety.”
Neither Palmer nor McDaniel nor Trump denied a summary of the call when asked through their spokespeople, reports the Detroit News. Hartmann died in 2021. McDaniel explained that she had said “publicly and repeatedly” at the time “that there was ample evidence that warranted an examination.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told Politico: “All of President Trump’s actions were taken in fulfillment of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully uphold the law and ensure the integrity of the election, including the investigation into the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election. President Trump and the American people have the constitutional right to free and fair elections.”
The Detroit News report sheds further light on Trump’s attempts to remain in power despite his election defeat. The 77-year-old, who wants to run for the Republican presidential election again next year, is already facing two criminal charges in connection with his actions in the weeks and months after he was voted out of office.
Trump is indicted in the state of Georgia because he is said to have tried to overturn the election results there. The evidence includes the now infamous, also recorded, telephone conversation with Georgia’s elections director, Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked him to “find” the 11,780 electoral votes needed to win the southern state.
At the federal level, Trump faces federal charges related to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Special investigator Jack Smith accuses the ex-president, among other things, of a conspiracy intended to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election using knowingly false allegations of election fraud.”
Sources: Detroit Press, Washington Post, Politico
