This Week: Trump’s Legal Battles Move Forward as MAGA Supporters Continue to Attack Election Integrity in the States
This week, in the Fulton County, Georgia, case against former President Donald Trump for allegedly leading a vast multistate criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 presidential election in seven states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, it was revealed that one of Trump’s former lawyers who pleaded guilty told prosecutors as part of her plea deal that Trump said he would not leave the White House “under any circumstances” after losing the 2020 presidential election.
In the federal case against Trump for allegedly leading a coup attempt after losing the election, prosecutors filed a brief opposing Trump’s effort to allow the case to be televised and Trump took advantage of a hold on a gag order to threaten the prosecutors in the case.
In the federal case against Trump stemming from allegations that he obstructed justice and willfully retained national security secrets, the former president acknowledged that many people at Mar-a-Lago saw “papers and boxes” that he took from the White House. The judge in this case rejected Trump’s effort to delay the start of the trial, but she indicated that she will revisit the matter next year.
In the New York civil fraud case in which the judge ruled that Trump and his businesses committed fraud by overvaluing their assets, the state rested its case. As Trump’s lawyers began their defense, his son Donald Trump Jr. testified “as something of a character witness” and “set the tone for a defense case that’s expected to last into mid-December.”
In Michigan, pro-MAGA legislators voted against a bill to create criminal penalties for intimidating or preventing election workers from doing their jobs, and the governor signed a bill that passed over the objection of MAGA supporters that makes it easier to vote by allowing “free or discounted rides to help voters get to the polls.”
Hostility towards nonpartisan election administrators continues to grow around the country. In five states, including Georgia and Nevada, suspicious letters containing white powder were sent to election offices, including ballot counting centers. Some of the white powder was fentanyl.
In Georgia, despite “no signs of…voting machine errors” or miscounted votes, “deep distrust of Georgia’s voting machines” in conservative parts of the state drove election officials to require hand recounts. Also in Georgia, a trial date was set to determine if the state’s voting machines violate the constitutional rights of voters because of cybersecurity concerns.
In Pennsylvania, MAGA supporters falsely claimed that a clerical error in last week’s elections was an attempt to rig elections by using voting machines to flip votes. In Arizona, a federal trial began over the constitutionality of laws to restrict access to voting by imposing onerous proof of residency and citizenship rules and making it easy to systemically purge voters from the rolls.
In Wisconsin, pro-MAGA legislators approved a proposed constitutional amendment to reduce sources of funding to administer elections that will go before the voters next year.
