Atlanta prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia reportedly have text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County.
Text messages and other court documents show how Trump lawyers and a group of hired operatives sought to access Coffee County’s voting systems in the days before January 6, 2021, as the former president’s allies continued their desperate hunt for evidence to back up Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud so they could delay certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win and overturn the election.
Texts Link Rudy Giuliani to Coffee County Breach
The messages and documents obtained by CNN appear to link Rudy Giuliani to the Coffee County breach and show communications between pro-Trump attorneys and state operatives who collaborated to provide unauthorized access to voting equipment.
While Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 and producing fake slates of electors are considered vital areas of Willis’ criminal probe, the voting system breach in Coffee County became a focus of investigation about a year ago.
Trump’s Team Pushed for Access
Investigators have long suspected the breach was not merely the work of sympathetic Trump supporters in Coffee County, where Trump won with almost 70% of the vote, and have now allegedly obtained evidence indicating Trump’s team was pushing for access to sensitive voting software.
Several individuals tied to the voting systems breach in Coffee County may be charged when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team present their case before a grand jury next week.
Last year, a former Trump official testified to the House’s January 6 select committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings with Trump, at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020.
A ‘Written Invitation’
On January 1, 2021, six days before the breach, Katherine Friess shared a “written invitation” to examine voting systems in Coffee County with a group of Trump allies.
That same day, Friess also sent a ‘letter of invitation’ to former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was working with Giuliani to find evidence of voter fraud, according to court documents.
Friess also contacted the individuals who carried out the Coffee County breach and others in Trump’s camp that Trump’s team had secured written permission.
The letter of invitation was then shared with attorneys and an investigator working with Giuliani at the time, CNN reports.
Bean Counting in Coffee County
Misty Hampton, a former Coffee County elections official who authored the letter of invitation referenced in the text messages, was first contacted by the Trump team after she was allegedly warned during a state election board meeting that Dominion voting machines could “very easily” be manipulated to flip votes from one candidate to another, a claim that has been debunked repeatedly.
“I would like to obtain as much information as possible,” a Trump campaign staffer emailed Hampton at the time,
Hampton then delayed certification of Joe Biden’s win in Georgia in December by refusing to validate the recount results by a critical deadline. Coffee County was also the only county in the state that failed to certify election results due to issues raised by Hampton.
Executive Orders Drafted To Seize Voting Machines
Text messages and documents obtained by CNN show Trump allies were seeking access to Coffee County’s voting system by mid-December amid increasing demands for proof of widespread election fraud.
Coffee County was cited in draft executive orders for seizing voting machines presented to Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office on December 18, 2020. At the same meeting, Giuliani alluded to a plan to gain “voluntary access” to machines in Georgia, according to his testimony to the House January 6 committee.
The text messages obtained by CNN reveal that Hampton then shared the written invitation to access the county’s election office with a Trump lawyer. Hampton and another elections official, Cathy Latham, allegedly helped Trump’s team gain access to the county’s voting systems.
