Jonathan Turley Makes Ridiculous Claim That Trump Was Asking For a Recount When He Told Georgia Official To ‘Find’ Him Votes
George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley offered a reality-be-damned defense of Donald Trump shortly after the former president was booked at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Trump was indicted in Georgia on 13 counts stemming from his active attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state, which he lost. On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him to “find” the votes necessary to put Trump over the top.
“What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” said Trump, who also told Raffensperger that not overturning the results could result in criminal prosecution. The previous month, Raffensperger’s office completed a recount at Trump’s request. It was the third time officials counted Georgia’s votes, with Trump losing each time.
No matter, Turley appeared on Thursday’s edition of Hannity, where, along with Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, he rewrote history and offered a ludicrous interpretation of Trump’s phone call to Raffensperger.
“I think this is criminalizing the challenging of elections,” Turley said. “Basically, you have a Democratic prosecutor saying, ‘How dare you challenge a Democratic victory?'”
Turley went on to compare Trump’s efforts at pressuring public officials to congressional Democrats voting against certifying Trump’s 2016 election victory, adding:
But in Donald Trump’s case, he insists that he does believe that Georgia could have been flipped with a recount. And the way [District Attorney Fani Willis] portrayed that phone call to Raffensperger I think is really evidence of the bias and unfairness of aspects of this indictment.
You know, it makes perfect sense when you’re challenging an election to say, you know, “I only need around 11,000 votes.” So, if you do a statewide review, that’s not a lot in a state like Georgia. That’s not criminal. That’s making a case for a recount.
Again, by the time Trump unsuccessfully leaned on Raffensperger, Georgia had already conducted two recounts. Moreover, telling an elections official to “find” votes in one’s favor as Trump did is not “making a case for a recount.” That is asking the official to make one the winner of an election.
What’s even crazier is that Turley’s view of the phone call is much different now from when audio of the call was released.
“Telling Raffensperger to ‘find’ the votes on the Saturday before the certification is breathtaking,” he tweeted on Jan. 3, 2021. “I am as mystified by the request as I am the logic. Such an opportunistic move to secure the 16 electoral votes would not work to change the outcome.”
Turley’s present-day mischaracterization of the facts about Trump’s post-election actions is similar to those of other Fox News personalities and right-wing pundits. Earlier on Hannity, Jarrett said Trump was “demanding a recount and a review, which by the way, Brad Raffensperger has a duty to do. So, he’s asking him, ‘Do your duty.'”
Watch above via Fox News.
