An audio recording obtained by Detroit News of Donald Trump and RNC chair Ronna McDaniel pressuring Michigan officials to not certify the results of the 2020 election, may not only result in more legal troubles for the former president but McDaniel as well.
Trump on a Nov. 17., 2020, call that also included McDaniel, told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, that they would look “terrible” of they certified the results of the election.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” Trump said. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.”
McDaniel told Palmer and Hartmann on the call to not sign the certification and promising to get them attorneys if they decided not to sign.
“If you can go home tonight, do not sign it…..We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel promised.
After the call Palmer and Hartmann did not sign the official votes and tried to rescind their votes in favor of certifying the results.
Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis said McDaniel may face legal troubles over the call.
Kreis explained that offering the canvassers attorneys in exchange for a corrupt official act could be considered a bribe under the Michigan Penal Code, which is a felony.
“It seems like Ronna McDaniel could be in some trouble in Michigan and Donald Trump may be facing a fifth set of charges,” Kreis wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “A promise was offered in exchange for an official act unlike in Georgia where the preferred method appears to have been limited to browbeating state officials.”
“The real issue is whether providing a lawyer is a ‘valuable thing,'” he added. “On the one hand, it isn’t the kind of thing that we typically would consider as being offered as a bribe. On the other hand, it is a materially valuable thing offered in exchange for an corrupt official act.”
“If we think of bribery statues as criminalizing the offering/accepting of goods that are enriching or personally benefiting the public official, then dangling an attorney falls outside that prohibition,” Kreis added. “But the terms of this statute aren’t so limited. Be curious to see caselaw…”
Kreis also pointed out that the call “is potentially important for the Georgia case where fellow call participant Ronna McDaniel is on Fani Willis’ witness list”.
McDaniel has defended her conduct on the call.
“What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit,” she said in a statement.
