local officials testify to the pressures suffered

Published on : 22/06/2022 – 10:28

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The commission’s public hearings into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol are continuing. On Tuesday, June 21, the members of the commission focused on showing the pressures suffered at the local level to change the result of the 2020 presidential election.

From our correspondent in Washington,

After seeking to demonstrate that Donald Trump kept talking about a stolen election when he knew it was false, after pressure on Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the results of the he election on January 6, 2021, the members of the commission were interested in the pressures suffered at the level of local officials, in the federated states.

Bullying in Arizona

This hearing was marked by particularly strong testimonies. As usual, the nine members of the commission, seven Democrats and two Republicans, interviewed Republican officials. The first of them is called Rusty Bowers and he defines himself as a conservative Republican. In November 2020, he therefore wanted Donald Trump to win the presidential election. He is also Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. A state won by Joe Biden. Shortly after the election, he received a phone call from Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer. Phone call in which the president himself participated. The two men were telling Rusty Bowers that in his state, undocumented and dead people had voted by the thousands and therefore the result should not be certified.

Repeatedly, Rusty Bowers asked for evidence that never came. During a meeting, Rudy Giuliani finally told him that he had a lot of theories, but no proof. He was still asked not to validate the results. He refused, so as not to go against his oath, to defend the Constitution. He was then threatened, as was his family. In front of his home, a poster accused him of pedophilia. This is one of the favorite themes of conspiracy theorists. He even spotted armed men chatting with his neighbors.

Death threats in Georgia

In Georgia, the same scenario, or thereabouts. Donald Trump makes a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, still a Republican. He also testified this Tuesday, June 21. The president asked him to find a little less than 12,000 votes, just enough to tilt the result. Here again, there were threats that went as far as the agents who organized the ballot on the ground. This is where there were still strong testimonies.

►READ ALSO: Trump asks an election official in Georgia to find 11,780 ballots in his name

During this exchange, Donald Trump spoke 18 times about electoral agents who allegedly cheated in favor of Joe Biden during the count, an assertion once again false. The problem is that this phone call became public. A mother and her daughter who participated in the organization of the vote were then harassed on their social networks with death threats and racist insults. Someone told the girl she was lucky this all happened in 2020 and not 1920.

At that time, lynching was commonly practiced in Georgia. The mother had to leave her home for two months for security reasons at the request of the federal police. Even today, the two women don’t dare go out or tell anyone their names.

After the pressures on the vice-president, on local officials and electoral agents, the commission plans this Thursday, June 23 to talk about the pressures exerted by Donald Trump and his entourage on the Ministry of Justice.

► Read also: The storming of the Capitol was an “attempted coup” and “encouraged” by Trump, says the congressional inquiry

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