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Attempts to dismantle Democracy — can take many forms.
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Special Report: Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers
Reuters, Linda So — June 11, 2021
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Trump’s relentless false claims that the vote was “rigged” against him sparked a campaign to terrorize election officials nationwide – from senior officials such as Raffensperger to the lowest-level local election workers. The intimidation has been particularly severe in Georgia, where Raffensperger and other Republican election officials refuted Trump’s stolen-election claims. The ongoing harassment could have far-reaching implications for future elections by making the already difficult task of recruiting staff and poll workers much harder, election officials say.
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The intimidation in Georgia has gone well beyond Raffensperger and his family. Election workers - from local volunteers to senior administrators - continue enduring regular harassing phone calls and emails, according to interviews with election workers and the Reuters review of texts, emails and audio files provided by Georgia officials. [Examples are found in the linked Special Report.]
One email, sent on Jan. 2 to officials in nearly a dozen counties, threatened to bomb polling sites: “No one at these places will be spared unless and until Trump is guaranteed to be POTUS again.” The specific text of the threat has not been previously reported. The email, a state election official said, was forwarded to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which declined to comment for this story.
In Georgia, threatening violence against a poll officer is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000. Making death threats is a separate crime carrying up to five years in prison and a $1,000 fine.
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[Fulton County District Attorney Fani] Willis said in a Feb. 10 letter that her office would also investigate “any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”
That statement suggests Willis may be examining whether Trump, or others acting with him, solicited or encouraged death threats against election officials, said Clark Cunningham, a Georgia State University law professor. Such intimidation could fit into a possible racketeering probe into Trump if the threats were part of a coordinated effort to overturn the election, said Clint Rucker, an Atlanta criminal defense attorney and former Fulton County prosecutor.
RICO Expert Hired By Fulton County Prosecutor Investigating Trump Call
Associated Press — Mar 10, 2021
An expert on Georgia’s racketeering law was sworn in Wednesday to help the prosecutor who’s investigating potential efforts by former President Donald Trump and others to influence last year’s general election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has engaged John Floyd to serve as a special assistant district attorney to work with lawyers in her office on any cases involving allegations of racketeering, her spokesman Jeff DiSantis said. A Fulton County Superior Court judge swore him in Wednesday morning.
In letters sent to state officials last month asking them to preserve evidence for her investigation into potential attempts to influence last year’s election, Willis mentioned racketeering as one of the possible violations of Georgia law that she was examining.
[...] Common Cause, a government-accountability watchdog group, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether Trump and others broke federal laws by communicating with officials in Georgia “in an effort to fraudulently and corruptly overturn 2020 presidential election results in Georgia,” according to a letter sent to Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine in Atlanta and Merrick Garland, who was confirmed Wednesday by the Senate to serve as U.S. Attorney General.
The Fulton County District Attorney's office has launched a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn Georgia's election results, including a call pressuring Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes for him. The county includes Atlanta, Georgia's capital.
In a letter sent to state officials and obtained by Georgia Public Broadcasting, newly elected Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis said the investigation will look into several potential violations of state law, including "the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration."
Read the letter here.
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There were other calls made by Trump as well, including calls to Gov. Brian Kemp imploring him to call a special session for the legislature to select a Trump-aligned slate of electors and another to a lead investigator overseeing an audit of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County. The GOP-controlled state Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, held hearings into alleged voter fraud that featured the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. State Attorney General Christopher Carr's office defended the state in several failed lawsuits seeking to invalidate the state's votes.
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The Boston Globe — Editorial, June 2021
Saving American democracy for the long run requires a clear condemnation of the Trump presidency. That means making clear that no one is above the law.
Norms in a democracy are only as good as our willingness to enforce them.
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Trump’s presidency didn’t just expose glaring legal weaknesses: It also made clear that our institutions are incapable of holding presidents accountable for breaking even our existing laws. If Congress had played the role the Founders envisioned, by removing Trump from the presidency after his criminality became clear in the Ukraine affair, that might have been enough of a deterrent to scare future presidents straight. But lawmakers didn’t.
So now there is only one way left to restore deterrence and convey to future presidents that the rule of law applies to them. The Justice Department must abandon two centuries of tradition by indicting and prosecuting Donald Trump for his conduct in office.
That’s not a recommendation made lightly. [...]
In the case of Trump, prosecutors would have plenty of potential crimes from which to choose. While Trump may be prosecuted for financial crimes he potentially committed before he became president, what is most important to go after are his actions during his time in office, especially those after the 2020 election, which culminated in fomenting a full-on, violent assault on American democracy.
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History demands it. America’s future depends on it.
Lawlessness unconstrained, only foments more of the same.
Boston Globe Editorial Board Advocates Prosecuting Donald Trump. Here's Why They're Right
To summarize WHY — Trump must be prosecuted, according to Glenn Kirschner:
1) To hold 'criminal politicians' accountable for their crimes.
2) To deter tomorrow's aspiring 'criminal politicians'.
This is not rocket science. This is common sense.
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“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
— Winston Churchill, 1948
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"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office," [McConnell] said. "He didn't get away with anything yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation."
www.newsweek.com — 2-13-2021
Make it so, Merrick. Make it so.
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