A prosecutor who worked on the Watergate case against Richard Nixon fifty years ago said Donald Trump’s election interference in Georgia is the most likely to send the former president to prison.
“I think thats enough. If you ask me which of the cases right now, which one is going to send Donald Trump to prison, that is the case,” Nick Akerman said Sunday, referring to a January 2021 call between Trump and the Georgia secretary of state. .
“If I had to put my money into a prosecution that would send Donald Trump to jail, I would put it in Georgia. There is no doubt about it”.
Fulton County, Georgia, has convened a Special Grand Jury to investigate Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state.
The case centers on the call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump had asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes to nullify President Biden’s victory in that state. And he has called his phone call “perfect”. “My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, with many other people, including numerous attorneys, was absolutely PERFECT and appropriate. YES, it was a PERFECT CALL,” the former president said in an emailed statement Sunday night.
The Fulton County investigation comes as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection is holding hearings into the events that led to pro-Trump mobs storming the Capitol.
Last week the Committee began to show evidence that many members of Trump’s inner circle repeatedly told him there was no evidence the election had been rigged. They also showcased their efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence into refusing to certify the election results. Trump knew they were illegal because his advisers had informed him.
In Georgia, the investigative panel began hearing from witnesses this month, including Raffensperger. The Special Grand Jury will determine whether county prosecutors should criminally prosecute Trump for election interference.
Akerman, whose work investigating an illegal break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 corroborated ties to Nixon’s re-election campaign and led to the former president’s resignation, said the Nixon case occurred in a very different political climate.
“All of Nixon’s aides were charged and convicted. The only person who didn’t go to prison was Nixon because he was pardoned.” Akerman said the real question was whether Trump will be criminally liable. While Republicans at the time initially defended Nixon, they changed their minds when the tapes and evidence made a strong case.
He said that since Georgia prosecutors have tape-recorded evidence of the phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, they also have an extremely strong case.
“Prosecutors love tape-recorded evidence because you can’t cross-examine it,” Akerman explained. “What is significant with those tapes is that, when you put it in the context of all the evidence that the January 6 committee has uncovered, Donald Trump has zero defense in Georgia,” he added.
