The indictment against former President Donald Trump charging him by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is photographed Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Pennsylvania’s connections to Georgia election indictments
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Scott LaMar
The indictment against former President Donald Trump charging him by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is photographed Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Airdate: August 18th, 2023
Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by a Grand Jury in Georgia this week for allegedly attempting to interfere and overturn 2020 election results in the state. Even though the alleged crimes were directed at Georgia’s election, there are several ties to Pennsylvania – another state that Trump and his allies contested after Joe Biden won in 2020.
Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis laid out charges under the state’s Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act otherwise known as RICO.
WITF’s Democracy Beat reporter Robby Broad was with us on The Spark Friday to talk about the Pennsylvania connections.
York County Congressman Republican Scott Perry is alleged to have introduced Jeffrey Clark, an Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division to Trump. Broad explained from there,”Perry introduced him through (Trump Chief-of-Staff) Mark Meadows through text messages. And he essentially talked to Mark Meadows a good amount leading up to the 2020 election and urged him to talk to Jeff Clark… Trump found Jeff Clark to be someone who would be sympathetic to his claims of election fraud and ultimately tried to install him as attorney general, which kind of caused a revolt in the DOJ. And a lot of senior leadership wanted to resign. But that ultimately didn’t happen. But text messages from Scott Perry found that Mark Meadows sent to him were used to as part of the indictment on Mark Meadows for his racketeering activity. But I just want to underscore that Scott Perry’s name was not mentioned in the indictment, and he has not been accused of any crime.”
Meadows allegedly also tried to get former Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler’s phone number from Perry and Broad explained,”Mark Meadows was looking for Brian Cutler’s phone number to be able to connect him with Trump so they could talk about essentially what the prosecutors say would be ways to criminally undermine the electorate in Pennsylvania. So that was actually another text message that he connected with Scott Perry to get Bryan Cutler’s number. And prosecutors say that that constituted racketeering in that although that doesn’t specifically involve Georgia, this was what they describe as a criminal act committed by what they say is a criminal enterprise.”
The Georgia indictments also referenced a State Senate committee hearing in Gettysburg in December, 2020 attended by Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani and attorney Jenna Ellis, that included Trump by phone where they falsely claimed Pennsylvania’s election was riddled with fraud and irregularities.
