Report: Trump Was Recorded Pressuring Michigan Officials

Two weeks after the 2020 election, then-President Trump pressured canvassers in Michigan's most populous county to not certify the results, according to recordings obtained by the Detroit News. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel was also on the Nov. 17 call with the two Republican canvassers in Wayne County, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, the News reports. "We've got to fight for our country," Trump allegedly said on the recording. "We can't let these people take our country away from us." He allegedly told the canvassers they would look "terrible" if they signed the documents after initially voting against certification and then voting for it later in the same meeting on the condition that audits were carried out in some precincts.

McDaniel—a Wayne County resident—allegedly told the canvassers, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it," adding, "We will get you attorneys." "We'll take care of that," Trump told them. Hartmann and Palmer went home that night without signing the documents and unsuccessfully tried to rescind their votes in favor of certification the next day, Politico reports. The county includes Detroit and its votes were key to President Biden's victory in the state. Trump told the canvassers that "everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell," per the News. The results were later certified without the signatures of Hartmann and Palmer. The News reports that McDaniel and Palmer did not dispute a summary of the call. Hartmann died in 2021.

Jonathan Kinloch, who was a Democratic member of the board of canvassers at the time, tells the News that it's "insane" and "shocking" that "the president of the United States was at the most minute level trying to stop the election process from happening." The News says the recordings were made by "someone present for the conversation," and were supplied to the newspaper by sources who asked to remain anonymous "for fear of retribution by the former president or his supporters."

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Trump's claims of election fraud in Michigan and his allies' efforts to overturn the election results are a major part of his federal election obstruction indictment, Axios notes. In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said all of Trump's actions were part of his duty as president to "faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election." (More Election 2020 stories.)