Georgia prosecutors are reportedly in possession of text messages and emails linking former President Donald Trump’s legal team to the voting system breach in Coffee County, according to CNN.
Trump is expected to be handed a fourth indictment in this upcoming week related to his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Investigators being overseen by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis have suspected that Trump and members of his legal team intended to access sensitive voting software, according to CNN.
The alleged text messages and court documents show how Trump’s lawyers and a group of operatives attemped to access Coffee County’s voting systems in the days leading up to January 6, 2021, according to CNN. Six days before the operatives received unauthorized access to the voting systems, an elections official allegedly sent a “written invitation” to Trump’s attorneys.
Elections official Misty Hampton allegedly wrote the letter, according to CNN.
The alleged “written invitation” was shared by attorney Katherine Friess to a group of Trump allies on January 1, 2021, according to CNN. The group included Sullivan Strickler, a firm hired by Trump’s attorneys to examine voting systems. (RELATED: ‘That’s What You Just Said’: Steve Doocy Presses Trump Lawyer Accusing Georgia DA Of Corruption)
That same day, Friess sent a letter to former New York Police Department Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who had collaborated with former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to find evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, CNN reported. She then reportedly contacted operatives to breach the voting systems in Coffee County.
CNN said it only reviewed text messages about the letter, but did not review the actual invitation letter itself.
“Just landed in DC with the Mayor [Giuliani] huge things starting to come together!” an employee from the Sullivan Strickler firm allegedly wrote via text message on January 1.
“Most immediate, we were just granted access—by written invitation!—to Coffee County’s system. Yay!” the text reportedly reads.
Hampton, the letter’s alleged author, allegedly said Dominion voting machines could be “easily manipulated” to flip the election results in favor of one candidate, CNN reported. The claim has been repeatedly discredited.
A Trump campaign staffer allegedly emailed Hampton requesting information, according to CNN. She delayed the certification of then-president-elect Joe Biden’s victory. During a mid-December meeting, Giuliani allegedly discussed plans to receive “voluntary access” to machines in Georgia.
Trump told reporters at the airport Friday that he “did nothing wrong” and would never “take a plea deal.”
“We did nothing wrong,” Trump said. “We don’t ever take a plea deal. We don’t take plea deals. It’s a wise guy question. We don’t take plea deals because we did nothing wrong. It’s called election interference.”
JUST NOW: Before leaving Iowa, Donald Trump tells reporters he will never take a plea deal, specifically in Georgia.
Reporter: “Is there any chance you take a plea deal in Georgia?”
Trump: “We did nothing wrong. We don’t ever take a plea deal. We don’t take plea deals. It’s a… pic.twitter.com/UkpUBoq9bm
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 12, 2023
Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes the former president would need to win the state during a January 2, 2021, phone call. Biden outperformed Trump in Fulton County by 243,904 votes.
The former president also reportedly attempted to incorporate an alternate slate of electors to meet and cast their votes for him in Georgia. Alternate electors voted in favor of former President John F. Kennedy in Hawaii during the election of 1960 after then-vice president Richard Nixon won the state. No one had been charged in the electors incident in 1960.