Former prosecutor Michael Zeldin said text messages exchanged between members of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign team could give prosecutors “strong evidence” of an alleged crime in Georgia.
Trump is facing an investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis of Georgia over his alleged attempt to falsify the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state where President Joe Biden won a narrow victory. Willis’ investigation began with a focus on a call in which Trump allegedly pressured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to tilt the election in his favor and has since submitted false lists of voters. It was expanded to include an alleged plan to commit suicide. Electoral College.
CNN reported Friday that newly exposed text messages showed members of Trump’s staff debating whether he should use data obtained from voting machines to authenticate a key Senate race that could help decide Decides whether Democrats or Republicans will control the upper chamber of Congress.
“We only have until Saturday to decide whether we’re going to use this report to try to cancel the Senate run-off election,” said Jim Penrose, a former National Security Agency (NSA) official who worked there. Or if we do it for a big moment.” At the time, Trump reportedly texted Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas.
Former President Donald Trump speaks on July 26, 2022 in Washington, DC. Newly uncovered text of Trump’s 2020 operatives could provide prosecutors with “strong evidence” against the former president in their investigation into his alleged efforts to sway the results of the 2020 election, said former prosecutor Michael Zeldin.
Drew Anger/Getty Images
CNN legal analyst Zeldin said during a CNN appearance on Saturday that the text could provide prosecutors with new evidence against Trump. He said the message could provide prosecutors with “really stronger evidence” than the phone call to Raffensperger.
“It’s evidence that I think is more damning than that phone call because it purported to be a conspiracy, and they actually obtained data from voting machines in Georgia,” Zeldin said. “They attempted to do this in Arizona and Michigan. This is a comprehensive plan to interfere with the orderly transfer of power and undermine Biden’s victory.”
newsweek Trump’s campaign reached out to Zeldin for comment via email.
The text was reportedly in connection with the 2021 Georgia runoff election, in which Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated former Republican Senator David Perdue, helping Democrats take control of the Senate.
Trump has maintained his innocence in the Georgia case and charged prosecutors who have probed his conduct around the 2020 election, which he has repeatedly claimed will affect his stance in the 2024 presidential race. The rigging was done despite sufficient evidence to organize a witch hunt with the aim of debilitating. He defended his call to Raffensperger, calling it a “perfect” phone call.
“My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, and other calls that Marxists, Communists, Racists and Rhinos don’t even want to talk about, were ‘perfect’ calls,” Trump posted on Truth Social in January. “Many people were intentionally on the line, including lawyers on both sides. I was protesting a RIGGED & STOLEN election, which proves the evidence. I won Georgia by a lot, but only a small number of votes were needed from that total “
However, Zeldin warned that these new text messages could be problematic for Trump’s defense efforts, as it could indicate a number of potentially broken laws.
“We have unauthorized access to this privileged enumeration data here. There is a conspiracy to acquire and improperly distribute that data. There is probably a crime of interfering with the rights of the people of Georgia to free and fair elections,” Zeldin said.
He added that if prosecutors are able to prove Trump’s involvement in the text, it would be “very direct evidence of his criminal intent.” However, none of the reports indicated that Trump was aware of the specific message.
