Georgia – Page 5 – Deep Left Field

Thanks to an interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee that was released this week, we now have a better idea exactly how former President Donald Trump and other members of his administration attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep Trump in office against the will of the American voters.

Specifically, the Washington Post notes, Trump did everything he could to remain in office:

The interim report by the Senate Judiciary Committee was issued Thursday. While Republicans on the panel offered their counter-findings, arguing that Trump did not subvert the justice system to remain in power, the majority report by the Democrats offers the most detailed account to date of the struggle inside the administration’s final, desperate days.
The report underscores the gaping political divide that has emerged in this country over one of the most basic functions of government — conducting free and fair elections. Democrats charge Trump nearly provoked a constitutional crisis, but for the steady hands of senior Justice Department officials; Republicans say Trump was “faithful” to his sworn duty as president in seeking assurances about voter integrity.

But according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Judiciary Committee, the focus is now on Georgia, where Trump desperately tried to have state officials overturn the results and name him the victor.

Whitehouse was a guest on “Meet the Press,” and was asked by host Chuck Todd:

“At the end of the report, there is some talk about criminal referrals. What would be criminal in this case?”

Though he wouldn’t get into specifics, Sen. Whitehouse made it clear that the Justice Department will be particularly interested in Georgia:

“I don’t want to get into criminal referrals, we’re still in the interim level. But I would point to just the geographic fact that much of what took place at the Department of Justice being focused on Georgia. Being focused on sending letters to the Georgia legislature saying that they could open up in special session and redo the election with a separate slate, and the extent to which that interconnects with the DA’s investigation into Trump’s personal efforts to threaten officials in Georgia on the same question is, I think, a very ripe area for at least Georgia’s investigation and we’ll see what the Department of Justice wants to do with it.”

Of course, there’s no way of knowing if the DOJ will file criminal charges in the matter of Trump’s attempts to rig the election in his favor after the votes had been counted. But the interim report from the Judiciary Committee certainly suggests there’s plenty of evidence to support a full investigation and criminal charges if a case can be made.

While it’s long been assumed Trump is under the greatest legal jeopardy in New York, it could be Georgia that has the best proof of his most recent crimes and the danger they posed to our democratic process.

The voter suppression bill that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed last week was supposedly (according to him and other Republican leaders in the Peach State) necessary to fight voter fraud.

On Tuesday, Kemp was still defending the legislation:

“I’ve always been passionate about making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. You know, the voters in Georgia are pretty smart and I trust them to take a hard look and figure out for themselves what is really in it and what’s not.”

But just a few hours later, Kemp flatly admitted that the bill had nothing at all to do with fraud or cheating by Georgia voters, telling WABE radio:

“A lot of this bill is dealing with the mechanics of the election. It has nothing to do with potential fraud or not.”

Kemp also suggested that since the GOP controls the Georgia General Assembly, they can pass any laws they want, no matter what anyone else thinks:

“I’ve heard a lot of the Democrats say this year the elections have consequences. And they certainly do.
“And the people that are still governing in the General Assembly wanted to do something about the problems that they saw with this election. And that’s exactly what they have done, which is how the process works.”

So there’s no fraud that needs to be fought against, but since Republicans are in charge, they can do as they please. That’s a hell of a way to look at things.

However, Kemp’s legislation is already causing major problems for Georgia economically, with a boycott being called for and the CEO’s of both Delta and Coca-Cola (both headquartered in the Peach State) saying the new law is unacceptable.

Several lawsuits have also been filed to void the Georgia voting law, any of which could succeed. But will they before the 2022 midterm?

Republicans can’t win elections unless they cheat. If you doubt that, keep in mind that even Gov. Brian Kemp admitted so.