Judge Signals Trump Knowingly Signed Court Doc With False Election Fraud Claims

A federal judge indicated Wednesday that former U.S. President Donald Trump signed a legal document containing voter fraud claims about the 2020 presidential election that he knew were false.

That revelation came in U.S. District Judge David Carter’s ruling that ordered ex-Trump lawyer John Eastman—considered the architect of the plot to overturn the election—to share some emails with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Critics of the twice-impeached former president argue his “Big Lie” that the Democrats rigged the election provoked the 2021 attack, which resulted in at least seven deaths and briefly delayed the certification of the results. As the new ruling highlights, Trump’s bid to hold on to power despite losing reelection also featured legal battles over the outcomes in specific swing states.

“Four emails demonstrate an effort by President Trump and his attorneys to press false claims in federal court for the purpose of delaying the January 6 vote,” wrote Carter, a California-based judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton. “The evidence confirms that this effort was undertaken in at least one lawsuit filed in Georgia.”

Trump and his legal team claimed to a Georgia state court on December 4, 2020 that Fulton County improperly counted votes from 10,315 deceased people, 2,560 felons, and 2,423 unregistered voters. The battle then moved to federal court.

“On December 30, 2020, Dr. Eastman relayed ‘concerns’ from President Trump’s team ‘about including specific numbers in the paragraph dealing with felons, deceased, moved, etc.’ The attorneys continued to discuss the president’s resistance to signing ‘when specific numbers were included,” Carter explained.

According to the judge, Eastman wrote in an email on December 31, 2020: “Although the President signed a verification for [the state court filing] back on Dec. 1, he has since been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence that experts have proffered) has been inaccurate. For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate.”

Carter noted that “President Trump and his attorneys ultimately filed the complaint with the same inaccurate numbers without rectifying, clarifying, or otherwise changing them. President Trump, moreover, signed a verification swearing under oath that the incorporated, inaccurate numbers ‘are true and correct’ or ‘believed to be true and correct’ to the best of his knowledge and belief.”

“The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” the judge continued. “The court finds that these emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

Carter previously ruled in March that “it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021” and that he, Eastman, “and several others entered into an agreement to defraud the United States by interfering with the election certification process.”

The latest development comes on the heels of what could be the select committee’s final hearing; its only two Republicans are not returning to Congress next year and the panel’s work could be discontinued if the GOP wins control of the House during the November midterms.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that “a group of Justice Department prosecutors believe there is sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice, but the path to an actual indictment is far from clear.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org.