Trump Corruption

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department told federal prosecutors in an email early on Wednesday that the law allowed them to send armed federal officers to ballot-counting locations around the country to investigate potential voter fraud, according to three people who described the message. The email created the specter of the federal government intimidating local election officials or …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: The Georgia Republican Party and President Donald Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit late Wednesday alleging that Chatham County is improperly counting absentee ballots received after the state’s deadline. The petition, filed in Chatham County Superior Court, was the third filed by the Trump campaign, all in states with close races where ballots were still being counted …

Phoenix’s ABC News affiliate reports: Several hundred protesters gathered outside of the Maricopa County Elections Office on Wednesday night as the votes from the 2020 elections continued to be counted. The group had gathered around 7:30 p.m. and attempted to get inside the office, according to ABC15. Protesters could be heard chanting “count those votes” and chastising Fox News Channel …

The Hill reports: Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) said Wednesday that the Trump campaign does not have a “legal pathway” should it look to sue the state over its vote counting. “They don’t have a legal pathway to challenge. We are legally counting valid ballots, and there’s not a way to stop that,” Hobbs said on CNN. Arizona …

“They’re taking down the president of the United States. If the president of the United States does not call Bill Barr now, today, this moment — what is it? Section 232 of the Defense Act — and send U.S. marshals out to San Francisco and arrest Jack Dorsey today — I said it on Vice the other day and that …

The Independent reports: Rudy Giuliani says he is “en route” to Pennsylvania with a legal team to challenge election results in the key battleground state. On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s lawyer took to Twitter to allege “massive cheating” in the state, falsely claiming that Democrats are trying to “steal” the 2020 presidential election. Election officials in Pennsylvania — a state …

The Washington Post reports: A group of international election observers on Wednesday praised the U.S. vote as calm and orderly but condemned President Trump’s “baseless allegations” of fraudulent ballot counts and suggestion that the tally be stopped midstream, saying he had undermined public confidence in democratic institutions. “Nobody — no politician, no elected official, nobody — should limit the people’s …

CBS News reports: The Trump campaign says it’s suing to stop Pennsylvania’s vote count over lack of “transparency” and seeking to intervene in a Supreme Court case. Pennsylvania is still counting ballots. Voters turned out in large numbers for an election that produced few of the glitches some had feared. But the state’s decision to greatly expand mail-in voting means …

Politico reports: A federal judge thrashed the U.S. Postal Service Wednesday, and suggested he might seek testimony from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for declining to comply with a last-minute court order to deploy postal inspectors to sweep facilities for undelivered ballots. “Someone may have a price to pay for that,” said Judge Emmet Sulliivan of the U.S. District Court of …

“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be. “President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law. “We have filed suit today in the …

“Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be. There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately …

The Washington Post reports: Top Trump campaign officials told allies, surrogates and donors in a call Wednesday morning that they expected a slate of legal challenges and had already deployed lawyers to a range of states. “We are in recount territory in Wisconsin, in Michigan, the same way,” deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said, according to a recording of the …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump claimed Wednesday that “surprise ballot dumps” were killing his chances of winning reelection as Joe Biden edged ahead in key states. After prematurely claiming victory after midnight, Trump angrily accused Democrats of engineering a massive turnaround while he slept. Biden took the lead early Wednesday in states that would give him 270 …

TechCrunch reports: Twitter took action against the tweet quickly, placing it behind a warning and adding a misinformation label. The company explained its actions in a tweet, stating that the president’s message contained a “potentially misleading claim about an election.” As of 12AM PT the result of the presidential election remained far from clear, with both candidates holding potential paths …

CBS News reports: In a press conference early Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump falsely declared victory in several battleground states and called on the Supreme Court to stop legal mail-in ballots from being counted. The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, which will continue counting ballots over the next several days. Trump appeared …

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Postal Service turned down a federal judge’s order late Tuesday afternoon to sweep mail processing facilities serving 15 states, saying instead it would stick to its own inspection schedule. The judge’s order came after the agency disclosed that more than 300,000 ballots nationwide could not be traced. The agency cautioned that number was likely …

The Hill reports: Twitter applied labels to and restricted the spread of posts from some right-wing accounts in Pennsylvania making unfounded claims of election fraud on Tuesday. Mike Roman, the Trump campaign’s national Election Day operations director, claimed in several tweets that in Philadelphia, Republican poll watchers were being turned away from voting locations, that Democrats were handing out literature …

Media Matters has the transcript: RUDY GIULIANI (GUEST): I don’t think these early votes are going to be as bad as they think. We shouldn’t assume it. We should assume if he has a credible lead — a point or more — we’ll call the state and we should put it in his column and we start off from there …

Axios reports: The Trump campaign will run its election night war room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located steps from the West Wing, the campaign confirmed to Axios. The decision to move the main political operation from the campaign’s headquarters in Arlington, Va., to the White House complex is the latest example of the Trump administration blurring the lines …

Reuters reports: A judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep some mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed ballots and immediately dispatch them for delivery in election battlegrounds such Pennsylvania and Florida among other places. Affected by the order are central Pennsylvania, northern New England, greater South Carolina, south Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama and Wyoming as well as …