Former President Donald Trump was recorded personally pressuring two Republican Michigan officials not to sign a certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to the Detroit News.
Trump on a Nov. 17., 2020, call that also included Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, that they would look “terrible” if they signed the document after previously voting against doing so and later voting to approve the certification in the same meeting, according to the report.
"We've got to fight for our country," Trump says in the recording made by a person present on the call. "We can't let these people take our country away from us."
McDaniel, a Michigan native, at another point on the call told the officials, “If you can go home tonight, do not sign it… we will get you attorneys.”
“We’ll take care of that,” Trump added.
During another point, McDaniel told the officials that if they certified the election without forcing an audit, the public would “never know what happened in Detroit.”
"How can anybody sign something when you have more votes than people?" Trump asked, repeating one of his many false claims about the election.
Palmer and Hartmann ultimately left the meeting without signing the certification and later unsuccessfully tried to rescind their votes in favor of the certification, claiming in filings that they were pressured.
Trump and McDaniel did not dispute the summary of the recordings. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the Detroit News that Trump’s actions "were taken in furtherance of his duty as president of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election."
But Jonathan Kinloch, a Democratic member of the Wayne Board of Canvassers, told the outlet that the call was “insane.”
“It’s just shocking that the president of the United States was at the most minute level trying to stop the election process from happening," he told the outlet.
Legal experts argued that the offer to provide legal representation for the two Republican officials may violate bribery laws.
“Offering a thing of value to a public official to violate oath of office = a crime,” tweeted former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller’s team.
“Offering an official something of value (services of a lawyer) in exchange for withholding official action (certifying the Wayne County vote) sounds like a classic case of bribery under Michigan State law,” agreed former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance.
Conservative attorney George Conway compared the call to Trump’s infamous phone call to George Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss.
"I mean, there is no factual basis given for the claim there was fraud, and there was intimidation involved," Conway told CNN. "And according to the Detroit News article, it's suggested by a former elections official there that in essence what was happening here, he suggests, is that they were being induced by the — by the promise of legal protection, by the promise of getting attorneys for them to violate their official duties, which potentially could be an additional crime under Michigan law."
Conway added that it is unclear whether special counsel Jack Smith would use the tape as evidence but “the real question is whether or not authorities in Michigan will seek to prosecute Ms. McDaniel or Mr. Trump."
But former prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo predicted the recording would be “front and center” at Trump’s D.C. trial.
"For a prosecutor, there's nothing better than a defendant's own words on tape doing and saying the exact thing you accused them of doing. So for Jack Smith, this is extremely powerful evidence of Donald Trump's corrupt intention, and his pressure campaign on the local level, which is part and parcel of what he's charged with in this sweeping Jack Smith indictment — the January 6 indictment — there's a whole section on there on the pressure campaign to the states, including Michigan,” she said, adding that the offer to pay for their lawyers is “evidence that he knows what he's asking them to do is illegal.”
New York University Law Prof. Ryan Goodman agreed that the call provides “very damaging” evidence against Trump.
“He's pressuring the individual to do something that is completely outside the bounds of their legal authority to throw the election,” he said. “I think that's the way in which Jack Smith will present it to the jury, and it's as Karen said, the fact that it's the defendant himself on audio, makes it incredibly credible for the jury."
Georgia State Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis predicted that the recording could also make its way into the Fulton County RICO trial.
“The news out of Michigan revealing a recording of Donald Trump pressuring county officials to not certify election results is potentially important for the Georgia case where fellow call participant Ronna McDaniel is on Fani Willis’ witness list,” he tweeted.
