🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Mary Trump, the estranged niece of Donald Trump, revealed on Thursday what she believes is Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith's "smoking gun" against the former president.
The Detroit News reported on Thursday about a November 17, 2020, call involving the former president, Republican National Committee chair (RNC) Ronna McDaniel and GOP Wayne County canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann.
In the audio recording, Trump allegedly told Palmer and Hartmann not to certify Michigan's presidential election results after narrowly losing the state to then President-elect Joe Biden. Trump has claimed, without substantial evidence, the election in Michigan and other battleground states was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud.
The release of the audio comes as Trump faces charges in a federal case regarding his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results. The DOJ charged Trump in August on four counts—including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, maintains his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges and accusing federal prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.
In a Substack articled titled, "Donald Smoking Gun On Audio Recording," Mary Trump wrote Thursday that the audio call could bolster Smith's investigation.
"Why is this so bad for Donald? The recordings are proof of his direct involvement in pressuring election officials to undermine certification," Mary Trump wrote. "We all heard Donald's Georgia call, but this is a shocking development. The fact that Donald appears to be personally involved in pressuring officials down to the level of county canvassers shows the lengths he went to subvert the election."
In her article, she referred to Trump's January 2021 phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the former president asked him to "find" 11,780 votes so he could be declared the winner in Georgia, another swing state carried by Biden during the 2020 election.
The new audio recording provides "hope" that "truth is finally coming to light" and that "Donald Trump will face accountability before a judge," Mary Trump wrote.
"The hammer is about to DROP on my uncle and his accomplices. The celebration is at my place. Who's joining me?" she added.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email.
On the audio call from November 2020, Trump allegedly warned Palmer and Hartmann they would look "terrible" if they certified the presidential election results in Michigan, where Biden won by roughly 150,000 votes, equating to 2.8 percentage points.
"We've got to fight for our country. We can't let these people take our country away from us," he added.
Georgia State University College of Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday that the tape could also have implications for Trump's election interference case in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump in August with 13 counts related to alleged attempts to thwart the results in the state. The former president has also pleaded not guilty to all charges in that case.
"The news out of Michigan revealing a recording of Donald Trump pressuring county officials to not certify election results is potentially important for the Georgia case where fellow call participant Ronna McDaniel is on Fani Willis' witness list," Kreis wrote in his X post.
fairness meter
About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more