52 US Code §20511
§20511. Criminal penalties
A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office-
(1) knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for-
(A) registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote;
(B) urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; or
(C) exercising any right under this chapter; or
(2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by-
(A) the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,
shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
President Trump knowingly and willfully attempted to deprive or defraud Georgia citizens of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by the procurement, casting or tabulation of ballots that are known to be materially false, fictitious or fraudulent.
The evidence is on his taped, one hour phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger. He asked the Secretary of State to find him the 12,000 votes necessary to defeat Joe Biden and threatened him if he failed to do so. The Georgia ballots were initially counted, then at Secretary of State Raffensberger’s request manually recounted, then recounted for a third time at the President’s request. Each time, the President lost. The President and his supporters have filed over 60 lawsuits over the election and lost every one of them.
He has just filed yet another lawsuit asking the federal district court in Georgia to reverse the election results. https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/trump-files-another-lawsuit-seeking-to-overturn-georgia-election/TTXWTXNQP5GTTASO3EBU2VE44E/ There is nothing wrong with filing lawsuits challenging an election.
It becomes a problem when you start making up facts. The BBC fact checked Trump’s phone call claims and found they were false. https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55529230
President Trump is relying on two “experts” to buttress his claims in court. It turns out that they are not election experts, nor are their conclusions supported by actual facts of voter fraud. See https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/georgia-rips-trumps-voter-fraud-claims-in-court/P6TI4J3CKVDQZMNVG66Q2GBQCE/ The Secretary of State, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI examined the claims and found them without merit. “I just finished listening to the one hour call between Trump and Raffensberger where Trump threatens, cajoles, and bullies Raffensberger to find him 12,000 votes and call Georgia for Trump; Raffensberger and his attorney reply we have investigated your claims, and they are not accurate. For example, Trump and his attorney Cleta Mitchell claim that over 5000 dead people voted; Raffensberger and his attorney, Ryan Germany, reply “we investigated that and found two dead people voted.” Trump and Cleta Mitchell claim 4500 out of staters voted in the Georgia election. Raffensberger and Germany reply “that’s not accurate, we investigated that and these are people who moved out of Georgia to another state and then moved back to Georgia — some many years ago.” Trump claims votes are being shredded in Cobb County; Germany replies “we investigated that and the shredding is old paper work from years ago.” Trump threatens Raffensberger and his attorney with criminal prosecution and the loss of Trump voters in the two Georgia Senate races unless he finds 12,000 votes and awards the state to Trump.” http://www.luciensblog.com/blog/2021/1/2/january-6-2021-racism-white-supremacists-and-donald-trumps-attempted-coup This was not some spur of the moment, hi, I’d like to shoot the breeze with my old pal Brad, there were 19 separate calls from the White House to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
If a case was brought against Trump under this statute (unlikely as that scenario is), the question before the judge and jury (in either Atlanta or DC) is whether Trump knew his false claims were fictitious, false and fraudulent. Trump is not known for his scrupulous adherence to the factual truth, which in this case might be helpful to his defense. The offense is also the sort of act that calls for impeachment, which ought to be considered by the new Congress after dealing with more pressing problems like our nation’s desperate health crisis and its faltering economy.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 1/4/21
PS: As an attorney witnessing and participating in this sort of behavior to change votes and electoral outcomes, you should either walk out taking no further part in this criminal enterprise and/or notify the appropriate authorities. Who are you? Are you John Dean or John Ehrlichman? John Mitchell or Elliot Richardson?