Mr. Trump's Pressure on State Officials

¶One of Mr. Trump's efforts to change the results of the election involved targeting the electoral process at the state level through politically aligned state officials. Mr. Trump contacted state legislators and executives, pressured them with false claims of election fraud in their states, and urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results.²²²² See ECF No. 252 at I 6-35; see, e.g., SCO- I 2733339 at 3-6, I 3- I 5 (Int. Rep.); SCO-00767550 at I 0-18 (HSC Tr.); SCO- I 29983 94 (Tr. of Georgia Secretary of State Call O1/02/2021); SCO-0082936 I at 8- I I, I 5-24 (HSC Tr.). Significantly, he made election claims only to state legislators and executives who shared his political affiliation and were his political supporters, and only in states that he had lost.²³²³ See ECF No. 252 at 16; SCO-12733339 at 3-5 (Int. Rep.); SCO-02296394 at 6 (Presidential Daily Diary I 1/09/2020); SCO-00829361 at 9-10 (HSC Tr.); SCO-00767550 at 9-12, 18 (HSC Tr.); SCO-02295943 at 3 (Presidential Daily Diary 11/22/2020); SCO-02301680 at 3 (Presidential Daily Diary 12/08/2020); SCO-11509251 at 38-39, 43 (Int. Tr.); SCO-12998394 (Tr. of Georgia Secretary of State Call O1/02/2021).

¶For instance, Mr. Trump and Co-Conspirator 1 called the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives on November 22 and used false fraud claims to try to convince the Speaker to call the state legislature into session and replace Arizona's legitimate electors with Mr. Trump's illegitimate ones.²⁴²⁴ See ECF No. 252 at 19 & nn.77-79; SCO-02295943 at 3 (Presidential Daily Diary 11/22/2020); SCO-00767550 at 9-12, 18 (HSC Tr.). Co-Conspirator 1 tried to coerce the Arizona Speaker, including by telling him, "we're all kind of Republicans and we need to be working together."²⁵²⁵ See ECF No. 252 at 19 & n.80; SCO-00767550 at 15-16 (HSC Tr.). The Arizona Speaker refused to do what he was asked and requested that Co-Conspirator 1 provide evidence to support his fraud claims.²⁶²⁶ See ECF No. 252 at 19 & n.81; SCO-00767550 at 10-12, 15-16 (HSC Tr.); SCO-00715584 (Arizona House Speaker News Release 12/04/2020) ("I and my fellow legislators swore an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and the constitution and laws of the state of Arizona. It would violate that oath, the basic principles of republican government, and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people's vote based on unsupported theories of fraud."). (HSC Tr.). Co-Conspirator 1 not only failed to ever provide such evidence, but he conceded to the Arizona Speaker at an in-person meeting a week later that "[w]e don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories."²⁷²⁷ See ECF No. 252 at 19 & nn.82, 84; SCO-00767550 at 12-13, 35-36 (HSC Tr.). Despite this lack of fraud evidence, Mr. Trump and others continued to pressure the Arizona Speaker to overturn the election results.²⁸²⁸ See ECF No. 252 at 20-21 & nn.88-91; SCO-00455536, SCO-12987478 (Donald J. Trump Retweet 12/06/2020); SCO-00455538, SCO-12858634 (Donald J. Trump Tweet 12/06/2020); SCO-00767550 at 43-49 (HSC Tr.); SCO-11540788 at 51-53 (Int. Tr.).

¶Mr. Trump similarly leaned on other state officials-always those of the same political party. On January 2, 2021, just days before the election results were to be certified, he called Georgia's Secretary of State and pressed him to "find 11,780 votes"-Mr. Biden's margin of victory in the state.²⁹²⁹ See ECF No. 252 at 29 & nn.134, 137; SCO-00825967 at 105-107, 123-124 (HSC Tr.); SCO-12998394 at 12 (Tr. of Georgia Secretary of State Call 01/02/2021). When the Secretary of State refuted Mr. Trump's false fraud claims, Mr. Trump issued a threat, stating that because the Secretary of State knew "what they did and you're not reporting it ... that's a criminal offense. And you know, you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you ...."³⁰³⁰ See ECF No. 252 at 30 & n.144; SCO-12998394 at 12 (Tr. of Georgia Secretary of State Call 01/02/2021). Mr. Trump also pressed state legislators in Michigan by inviting them to the White House on November 20, raising false claims of election fraud, and bringing Co-Conspirator 1 into the meeting by phone.³¹³¹ See ECF No. 252 at 32 & nn.157-159; SCO-11532925 at 53-56 (Int. Tr.); SCO-00829361 at 15-24 (HSC Tr.). Michigan's Senate Majority Leader told Mr. Trump that he had lost the election not because of fraud, but because he had underperformed with educated females-an assessment that displeased Mr. Trump.³²³² See ECF No. 252 at 32-33 & nn.160-161; SCO-00829361 at 16-18 (HSC Tr.).

¶Mr. Trump engaged in these efforts even though trusted state and party officials had told him from the outset that there was no evidence of fraud in the election. In Arizona, Mr. Trump called the Governor on November 9-a week after election day, and after both Fox News and the Associated Press had projected that Mr. Trump had lost the state.³³³³ See ECF No. 252 at 17 & n.63; SCO-12733339 at 3-5 (Int. Rep.); SCO-02296394 at 6 (Presidential Daily Diary 11/09/2020); see also Democrats flip Arizona as Eiden, Kelly score key election wins, Fox NEWS (Nov. 3, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/video/6206934979001; Jonathan J. Cooper and Anita Snow, Eiden wins Arizona, flips longtime Republican stronghold, APNEWS.COM (Nov. 4, 2020), https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-legislature-218ad4d596e87c6b 1a223fl 9f8 l 7776e. Using a baseball metaphor, the Governor told Mr. Trump that "it was the ninth inning, two outs and he was several runs down."³⁴³⁴ See ECF No. 252 at 17 & n.66; SCO-12733339 at 14 (Int. Rep.). During the call, Mr. Trump raised false claims of election fraud; the Governor asked Mr. Trump to send evidence of the alleged fraud, and Mr. Trump suggested he would do so.³⁵³⁵ See ECF No. 252 at 17 & nn.67-68; SCO-12733339 at 4 (Int. Rep.). He never did.³⁶³⁶ See ECF No. 252 at 17 & n.68; SCO-12733339 at 4 (Int. Rep.). In Pennsylvania, just two days after the election, the Chairman of the state's Republican Party, who had represented Mr. Trump in previous election litigation, refuted Mr. Trump's claim that it was suspicious that his early lead was slipping away.³⁷³⁷ See ECF No. 252 at 37-38 & nn.187-190; SCO-00016926 at 10-11, 19-23; SCO-02300357 at 3-4 (Presidential Daily Diary 11/06/2020). The Chairman explained that there were still roughly 1,750,000 mail-in ballots being counted, which were expected to weigh heavily in Mr. Biden's favor.³⁸³⁸ See ECF No. 252 at 38 & n.190; SCO-00016926 at 21. In the course of conversations like these, state officials-better positioned than Mr. Trump to know the facts in their states-repeatedly told Mr. Trump that his fraud claims were unfounded and that there was no evidence of substantial election fraud in their states. And apart from Georgia's Secretary of State, Mr. Trump never contacted other election officials to determine whether there was merit to any specific allegation of election fraud in their states-even though they would have been the best sources to confirm or refute such claims.