"Jaw-dropping": Experts stunned after report reveals new tape of Trump pressuring Georgia official

[marmar]

(Salon) AFulton County grand jury heard a previously unreported recording of former President Donald Trump pressuring a top Georgia Republican to help overturn his election loss in the state, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The special grand jury investigated Trump's efforts to overturn his election in the state after District Attorney Fani Willis launched a probe into the former president's infamous phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to reverse his loss. But five grand jurors who spoke with AJC revealed that investigators also have an audio recording of Trump pressuring then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to push for a special session to reverse President Joe Biden's win.

Ralston proved to be an "amazing politician" on the call, a juror told AJC.

The speaker "basically cut the president off. He said, 'I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.' … He just basically took the wind out of the sails," the juror said. "'Well, thank you,' you know, is all the president could say."

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti called the report "jaw-dropping."

The call "sounds incendiary," tweeted former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman. "How big does Willis want to go in her charges?" ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/16/jaw-dropping-experts-stunned-after-report-reveals-new-tape-of-pressuring-georgia-official/

[barbtries]

1. "experts stunned"?

come on!

i can still be shocked by thing he does. never surprised. but this doesn't even rate a wow. of course this is on tape. there could easily be more, from other states. who knows?

the hyperbole gets to me sometimes. it's uncalled for.

[Martin68]

3. Not shocked, but perhaps "overjoyed?" "Rapturous?" I agree nothing that Dump can do will be shocking

at this point. But I can be forgive a little hyperbole after the pain we've suffered watching him betray his country and get away with it. Give us a break, dude!

[Martin68]

2. Great news! Anything that will assist the prosecution of Donald dump for his crimes

and treason is good news.

[ZonkerHarris]

4. This is a good lesson for a lot of people on DU that AG's/DA's know more than you & you know nothing

about what they may have dug up during their investigations.

[Cha]

9. True. TY

[progree]

5. Same thing happened in Arizona. Rusty Bowers (R), Speaker of the Arizona House

who resisted an enormous amount of pressure to overturn the Arizona 2020 presidential election results or decertify the electors or any of the other ways MAGA-its including Trump personally and Rudy Guiliani personally tried to get him to do to keep Arizona's Electors from voting for Biden on Jan 6, including a phone call from Trump and Guiliani.
(Arizona went for Biden by 10,XXX votes)

I read about it in "The Last Word" in the Sept 9, 2022 issue of "The Week" (p.40-41), which came from The Guardian. Just a tiny exceprt:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/rusty-bowers-interview-trump-arizona-republicans

As January 6 approached, and the cries of stolen election reached fever pitch, the attacks on Bowers became personal. A “Trump train” of angry fanatics blaring their horns in pickup trucks festooned with Maga flags turned up at his home in Mesa, some bearing digital boards proclaiming him to be a pedophile.

To protect his family, he would step outside the house and confront the protesters. One man had three bars on his chest, signalling he was a member of the far-right militia group the Three Percenters. The man was screaming obscenities and carrying a pistol. “I had to get as close to him as I could to defend myself if he went for the gun.”

I never had the thought of giving up. No way. I don’t like bullies

The worst of it was that during several of these menacing protests, his daughter Kacey was inside the house mortally ill in bed with liver failure. “She would say, ‘What are they doing out there?’ She was emotional. She told me, ‘I’m going to die.’ I said, ‘Honey, you’re not going to die.’ So she had feelings, we were trying to keep her positive.”

Kacey Bowers did die, on 28 January, three weeks after the insurrection at the US Capitol.

And the situation today is scary (I wrote this in September 2022, before the November midterms election) :

Then on 2 August, Bowers was effectively turfed out of the Arizona legislature when he was defeated in the primary by the Satan-evoking Farnsworth. That same night, the slate of election deniers standing for statewide positions won a clean sweep.

Republican nominations for governor, a US Senate seat, state attorney general and secretary of state all went to enthusiastic backers of Trump and his 2020 attempted coup. They included Mark Finchem, who was present at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 and who continues to try to decertify Biden’s presidency to this day.

Finchem is now the Republican candidate for secretary of state. Should he win in November, he would be in charge of Arizona’s election administration through the 2024 presidential contest, in which Trump has indicated he is likely to be competing. ((update: he didn't win -Progree))

The ascent of election deniers across the board marks the final transformation of the Republican party in the state. Trump’s grip is now complete; the strain of constitutional conservatism epitomized by Bowers is in the wilderness.

... In February, a mega “election integrity” bill was introduced into the Arizona legislature that was the culmination of the anti-democratic drift of the party. House bill 2596 would have given the Republican-controlled legislature the power to reject any election result that the majority group didn’t like.

It's hard for me to understand how someone who votes for tax cuts for the wealthy and control of women and climate denialism and all the other awful things Republicans stand for could also be a Profiles In Courage person in standing for democracy and rule of law.

[Carlitos Brigante]

6. Is it really? This would make sense of these "experts" just woke up from their cryogenic sleep after

8 years.

[gratuitous]

7. The curious incident of the former guy in the night

First, keep in mind that the former guy has never mentioned calling David Ralston. My surmise is that he didn't know a tape of the call existed; he thought he'd gotten away with it.

But now the existence of the tape has been made public. And you know what we haven't heard? Yup, a post from the former guy feigning indignance and banging on about another "perfect" phone call. Why not? Again, a surmise: The former guy doesn't remember quite what he said on the call, and anything he says could be contradicted by the tape.

He's more trapped than a little bit with this latest development.

[Cha]

8. Thank Goodness David Ralston

Recorded the Call.. what a Legacy he left for a Repub

[Boomerproud]

10. The replies are so spot on.

If the "experts" really feel the way they are saying it's no wonder justice has been so slow, if non-existent. It's past time to right the wrongs.