Republicans are the ones behind the latest evidence against Trump: columnist
Former conservative Jennifer Rubin noted in her Washington Post column Thursday that it seems like lately, it's Republicans who are providing the evidence against former President Donald Trump.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), for example, is trying to dodge testifying before the Fulton County DA as part of the ongoing probe into whether former President Donald Trump did anything illegal when he demanded that the government find 11,780 votes so he could win the state.
Graham has claimed that he simply didn't know how to vote on Jan. 6, so that's why he called Georgia to ask whether the conspiracy theories were true about the election there. He didn't call any other states, however, where Trump and his allies were arguing the election was fraudulent. Graham maintains that he did nothing untoward, he just doesn't want to testify under oath about it.
Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) is also trying to dodge the grand jury subpoena. He ultimately has appealed to the judge saying that if they could just put things on hold until after his election that would be super helpful. He's made it clear that he's willing to testify, but understandably he's trying to get Trump supporters to vote for him in November and videos of him walking out of the grand jury could make that difficult. Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said that Kemp isn't likely to make it happen.
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Rubin went on to quote the filing, which outlines what the grand jury wants to know from him. It makes it clear why this could make it difficult when factoring in his reelection. Courts, however, don't make decisions based on politics.
"Movant [Kemp] can testify inter alia about the existence of any evidence the Trump campaign or operatives provided to support their theory that Georgia’s election was 'rigged'; Movant can testify about the identity of the people who attempted to communicate with him and whether they identified as representatives of Mr. ‘Trump; he can testify to the number of times he received or made calls related to the Trump campaign’s allegations and demands that he take action; he can testify about the specific contents of his phone conversations; he can testify about the contents of his telephone conversation with Mr. Trump; he can testify about whether Mr. Trump told Movant that he “got Movant elected”; he can testify about ‘whether Mr. Trump specifically sought a “special election” or some other form of relief; he can testify about conversations about “election integrity”; he can testify about whether threats were made by Mr. Trump or others; he can testify about his responses to Mr. Trump," the court documents say.
The other Republican that Rubin cites is Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump told to "find" the 11,780 votes. The former president has gone after both Raffensperger and Kemp, but failed in trying to bring them down.
In the Trump-Mar-a-Lago-documents scandal, where the calls were coming from inside the house as well. His former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and deputy Patrick Philbin, spoke to the FBI long before the search warrant was issued for the Palm Beach golf club.
READ: Bill Barr accuses Trump of 'extorting' the GOP and squandering Republicans' chances in the midterms
Meanwhile, the director of the FBI was also a Trump appointee.
This week when Trump went "judge shopping" in an effort to stop the documents from being reviewed by the government until an impartial observer could discern whether they violated attorney/client privilege or executive privilege. Instead of going to US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who is overseeing the case, Trump lawyers went to one of his own appointees, Judge Aileen Cannon. It didn't work, however. She too highlighted the incompetence of the Trump legal team.
So, as Rubin explained, it appears as though Republicans are the ones who are behind the latest attempt to bring down Donald Trump, even if it's unwittingly.
Read her full column at the Washington Post.
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