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A number of legal experts have suggested that Donald Trump may have illegally attempted bribery while trying to pressure two Michigan officials not to verify the 2020 election results.
According to audio of a November 2020 phone call obtained by The Detroit News, Trump and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel tried to convince Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, not to sign papers certifying the election results in favor of Joe Biden.
The former president is already facing two trials over his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump pleaded not guilty to four federal charges as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's election investigation and all charges he faces in Georgia after getting indicted in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election interference probe.
During the call, Trump is heard telling the canvassers they would look "terrible" if they signed the documents to certify the election results after having previously voted against such a move. "We've got to fight for our country," Trump said. "We can't let these people take our country away from us."
McDaniel later said in the call "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it...We will get you attorneys," to which Trump added: "We'll take care of that."
There are now suggestions that Trump could face another criminal investigation if Michigan prosecutors decide that the former president's apparent offer to pay the legal fees of Palmer and Hartmann was an attempted bribe of a public official.
Under Michigan state law, bribery of a public officer amounts to an "offer or promise" which could be any "gift, gratuity, money, property or other valuable thing, the intent or purpose of which is to influence the act, vote, opinion, decision or judgment" of such public officer.
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis suggested that Trump's "we'll take care of that" remarks could amount to an attempt at a bribe.
"The real issue is whether providing a lawyer is a 'valuable thing,'" Kreis wrote. "On the one hand, it isn't the kind of thing that we typically would consider as being offered as a bribe. On the other hand, it is a materially valuable thing offered in exchange for a corrupt official act.
"If we think of bribery [statutes] as criminalizing the offering/accepting of goods that are enriching or personally benefiting the public official, then dangling an attorney falls outside that prohibition," Kreis said. "But the terms of this statute aren't so limited. Be curious to see caselaw."
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote: "Offering an official something of value (services of a lawyer) in exchange for withholding official action (certifying the Wayne County vote) sounds like a classic case of bribery under Michigan State law."
Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy and a former associate White House counsel, posted on X: "My guess is the Michigan Attorney General is reviewing the statute of limitations on Michigan Code Section 750.118. If Trump offered Wayne County Board members a thing of value in exchange for them taking an official act for him, there's a word for that."
It is unclear if Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office is looking into the Trump bribery claims. Nessel's office previously charged 16 Republicans in connection to a fake elector scheme to wrongly declare Trump the winner of the state in 2020.
Newsweek reached out to Nessel's office via email for comment.
In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steve Cheung told Newsweek that the former president's actions were "taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election."
"President Trump and the American people have the Constitutional right to free and fair elections. Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are spinning their wheels in the face of devastating polling numbers and desperately leaking misleading information to interfere in the election," Cheung added.
Palmer and Hartmann originally voted against certifying the election before changing their mind and voting in favor of doing so during the same meeting of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers on November 17, 2020.
The pair then unsuccessfully tried to rescind their votes in favor of certification the following day after filing legal affidavits claiming they were pressured.
Palmer told The Detroit News that she couldn't remember exactly what was said in the phone call with Trump and McDaniel. Hartmann died in November 2021, aged 63, soon after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more