Donald Trump’s effort to threaten Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into illegally “finding” more votes to overturn the election was shocking, even by Trumpian standards. It may also have been a crime.
The single Democrat on Georgia’s elections board called on Raffensperger to investigate whether Trump had violated state elections law with the call. In a Good Morning America appearance Monday morning, Raffensperger said “there may be a conflict of interest” on him investigating threats made against himself. However, he continued, "I understand that the Fulton County District Attorney wants to look at it. Maybe that’s the appropriate venue for it to go.”
Some legal experts also said the call may be a violation of federal election laws, although even if Trump doesn’t pardon himself for everything he’s ever done, it would be up to a Biden Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute, and that doesn’t seem like President-elect Joe Biden’s style.
Congressional Democrats pointed to possible illegality. “In threatening these officials with vague ‘criminal’ consequences, and in encouraging them to ‘find’ additional votes and hire investigators who ‘want to find answers,’ the President may have also subjected himself to additional criminal liability,” according to Rep. Jerry Nadler.
Rep. Adam Schiff described the call as ”among the most despicable abuses of power of his long list, possibly criminal, morally repugnant, virulently undemocratic and dangerous to our democracy.”
And Rep. Hank Johnson tweeted a pledge to “introduce a resolution of Censure.”
Trump is extremely unlikely to face any criminal prosecution, let alone the five-year prison sentence a Texas woman received for voting when she did not know she was ineligible to vote while on supervised release from prison after a felony conviction. Because when you’re a powerful white man, using your power to try to bully elections officials into overturning a state’s entire presidential election by “finding” the precise number of votes you need is not something that carries any consequences, just as nothing Trump has ever done wrong has carried any negative consequences, which is why he keeps doing it. One system of justice and accountability for those at the top, a completely different—harsher and more punitive—one for those at the bottom.