Georgia’s email has not been publicly disclosed to date. It was sent by Robert Sinners, Trump’s operations on election day in Georgia on December 13, 2020, 18 hours before the alternate voter group met at the Georgia State Capitol, according to various knowledgeable sources. .
“I have to ask for your full discretion in this process,” Sinners wrote. “Your homework is essential to ensure the end result, a victory for Georgia for President Trump, but it will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion.”
The office of the Fulton County District Attorney, Georgia, which has sat its own grand jury to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the Georgia election, and the select committee of the U.S. House of January also obtained copies of the email, according to known sources. with him.
The email highlights the role of the Trump campaign in creating fake election documents as a way to impersonate Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. CNN previously reported that Trump campaign officials oversaw efforts to present illegitimate voters in seven oscillating states that Trump lost.
In the email, Sinners also told Trump voters to misdirect security guards when they arrived at the state palace and to tell them they were attending a meeting with two state senators, Brandon Beach and Burt Jones.
“Please, at no point should you mention anything to do with presidential voters or talk to the media,” Sinners wrote.
The Washington Post also reported on Monday in an email.
A source familiar with the campaign said secrecy was needed because of restricted access to the state palace during the coronavirus pandemic and the post-election political turmoil. The need to meet at the state palace was paramount in making the list of fake voters potentially viable by law, if Biden’s victory was blocked, the source said.
The Trump campaign and the Georgia GOP did not respond to requests for comment this week.
Elie Honig, a senior CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, said the email could be part of a conspiracy investigation because it could show that the scheme went beyond idle talk and involved campaign giving specific direction to voters. He also stressed the importance of asking voters to hide their actions.
“A prosecutor would argue before a jury, ‘Why the secret? What were they hiding?'” Honig said.
Federal research is growing in gravity
In recent weeks, federal criminal investigation into voters in Georgia and at least one other state has risen in earnest.
A grand federal jury cited documents and the FBI interviewed witnesses about Trump voters and campaigns last month, looking for details on signing and sending official election documents and planning that gathered the blackboards. Witnesses have asked witnesses to communicate with Trump voters as well as with top Trump campaign officials.
The citations represent a burst of investigative activities by the Department of Justice in recent weeks to move the extensive investigation, the largest in the history of the Department of Justice, beyond the rioters who looted the Capitol on 6 January, and to scrutinize the role of people who worked in politics. organizing around Trump.
The escalation of the investigation comes as Justice Department officials look at the calendar, with midterm elections in less than six months. Senior justice officials are aware that by the end of this summer open investigative activity, such as issuing subpoenas, could be put on hold, according to people informed of internal discussions. Department guidelines traditionally call for prosecutors to avoid interfering in an upcoming election.
Finally, the meeting was not secret
It is unclear whether the people who received Sinners’ instructions even read the message or followed their secret calls, a familiar person told CNN.
The email was sent hours after the Trump campaign and state GOP agents discussed how some state legislatures would be difficult for GOP voters to access. In Wisconsin, another state where Trump introduced fake voters after his loss, voters also met in secret, CNN reported earlier. A Trump voter in Wisconsin said the secrecy was for security reasons, although the Wisconsin Republican Party argued that these voters should meet in secret.
Sinners told CNN this week that by the end of 2020 he was working under the direction of Trump’s campaign lawyers and Georgia GOP President David Shafer, who was a voter. “Lawyers informed me that this was necessary to preserve the longevity of the pending legal challenge,” Sinners said.
“Following the former president’s refusal to accept the election results and allow for a peaceful transition of power, my views on this issue have changed significantly since December 13,” Sinners added. He now works in the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted pressure from Trump after the election.
Shafer’s lawyer told CNN that his client did not try to keep things a secret.
“None of these communications, nor his testimony, suggests that Mr. Shafer requested or wished for confidentiality around the interim voters,” said attorney Robert Driscoll. “On the contrary, President Shafer invited the television news cameras to the proceedings and they both issued a statement and granted a television news interview immediately thereafter.”
Beach and Jones, whom voters were supposed to say met, also did not respond to requests for comment. Neither state official was supposed to be an alternate voter, but Jones intervened as a voter when one of Trump’s voters withdrew on the day of the meeting, according to Trump voter documentation released by the federal government.
The voter turnout finally did not take place under this veil of secrecy. At least one local news outlet captured a video of voters voting for Trump. Georgia Republican Party President David Shafer was also interviewed on camera at the time, explaining that the group wanted to offer an alternative list in case Trump was successful in any of his legal challenges.
He was not.
CNN’s Sara Murray and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.