Two Democratic House of Representatives called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into President Donald Trump's conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where he asked him to "find" additional votes for him.
The two representatives Ted Lieu from California and Kathleen Rice from New York, in a letter dated Monday, called for a full criminal investigation.
"The President of the United States, in an approximately one-hour long phone call, threatened and berated Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn the President's defeat in the state. Mr. Trump also made a number of other statements soliciting election fraud, such as telling Mr. Raffensperger: 'And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated'," the letter read.
"The recording of that phone conversation has been publicly released. As Members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in the solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes. We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President," the letter added.
Rice and Lieu further stated that the evidence of election fraud by "Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight" adding that prima facie elements of the crimes have been met".
The Hill reported that an FBI spokesperson confirmed the bureau has received the letter but declined further comment.
Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries in a separate press briefing signaled that the party would not pursue impeachment.
"[At] this particular point in time, our focus as House Democrats will remain on addressing the public health crisis and the economic crisis that has resulted in more than 350,000 Americans dying and over 20 million Americans infected by the coronavirus," Jeffries told a news conference as quoted by Sputnik.
"The chaos, confusion, conflict and corruption that Donald Trump has inflicted upon this country is something to be evaluated by the historians," he added.
On Saturday, Trump spoke with Georgia Secretary of State where the President said that he won in Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes but did not need to prove the entire election fraud and asked Raffenserger to "find" 11,780 votes in order to affirm his victory.
"So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. And flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, cause you know, this is -- it's a testament that they can admit to a mistake or whatever you want to call it. If it was a mistake, I don't know," Trump said.
Biden was confirmed the winner of the November presidential election by the Electoral College on December 14 after all 50 states certified the voting results totaling 306 electoral votes for Biden and 232 electoral votes for Trump.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU