Donald Trump’s legal team has been directly linked to a voting system breach in Coffee County, Georgia, that occurred after the 2020 presidential election, a new report by CNN claims.
Top Trump allies have been suspected of facilitating the breach since it first came to light last summer, and now — according to the outlet — prosecutors have obtained text messages and emails that draw a clear connection.
Coffee County was the site of a reported plan by Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who is accused of having a computer forensics team copy data and software from elections equipment on Jan. 7, 2021 — one day after the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.
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Sidney Powell, a former member of Donald Trump’s legal team.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
According to CNN, citing text messages, Trump allies began efforts to access voting machines in the conservative county in December 2020, amid pressure to produce evidence that could back up the former president’s claims that widespread voter fraud caused him to lose the 2020 election to now-president Joe Biden.
A former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 select committee last year that plans to access voting systems in the state were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, where Trump was present.
Text messages and other court documents reportedly show that Trump’s lawyers hired operatives sought to access Coffee County’s voting systems in early January 2021.
As the Associated Press reported earlier, security camera footage shows two Trump allies spending “days going in and out of the Coffee County elections office,” while Republican Party officials can allegedly be seen allowing them to access the election equipment.
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Rudy Giuliani, then an attorney for President Donald Trump, holds a media conference on Nov. 19, 2020, regarding lawsuits around the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
According to the text messages obtained by CNN, days before the Dominion voting systems were accessed, local elections official Misty Hampton allegedly sent a “written invitation” to attorneys working for Trump to examine voting systems in Coffee County.
Hampton claimed during a Georgia election board meeting shortly after the 2020 election that Dominion voting machines could be “very easily” manipulated to flip votes from one candidate to another. The claim has been repeatedly debunked.
The text messages also reportedly show that Katherine Friess — an attorney working with Rudy Giuliani, Powell and others in Trump’s sphere — shared the “written invitation” with a group of Trump allies on Jan. 1, 2021, according to CNN.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
David Walter Banks/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team are preparing to present their election interference case before a grand jury this week. Willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals, who could be indicted as early as Tuesday if the grand jury is convinced by her evidence.
Willis’ team has been investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia for more than two years, which reportedly includes examining the Coffee County breach and a phone call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state in which Trump suggested officials could “find” more than 11,000 votes to tip the 2020 election in his favor.
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Source: HIS Education