Atlanta prosecutors working with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis have reportedly obtained text messages directly linking Donald Trump’s legal team to the breach of voting machine technology at a local elections office.
For the past year, the Coffee County Elections office has been a subject of recurring public intrigue due to an effort by pro-Trump actors to access the office’s voting software. The goal was to access the voting system and produce supposed evidence to back up the former president’s claims that the 2020 election was corrupted by mass fraud (even though Trump had already decisively won in the county).
From the timeline uncovered by CNN:
On January 1, 2021 – days ahead of the January 7 voting systems breach – Katherine Friess – an attorney working with [Rudy] Giuliani, Sidney Powell and other Trump allies shared a “written invitation” to examine voting systems in Coffee County with a group of Trump allies.That group included members of Sullivan Strickler, a firm hired by Trump’s attorneys to examine voting systems in the small, heavily Republican Georgia county, according to text messages obtained by CNN.That same day, Friess sent a “Letter of invitation to Coffee County, Georgia” to former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was working with Giuliani to find evidence that would back up their baseless claims of potential widespread voter fraud, according to court documents filed as part of an ongoing civil case.Friess then notified operatives who carried out the
Coffee County breach and others working directly with Giuliani that Trump’s team had secured written permission, the texts show.CNN has not reviewed the substance of the invitation letter itself, only communications that confirm it was provided to Friess, Kerik and Sullivan Strickler employees
CNN’s reporting especially takes note of the allegations surrounding Misty Hampton, a former Coffee County elections official who allegedly helped facilitate the breach, because she wrote a “written invitation” granting Trump operatives access to the voting systems. The Trump campaign also noticed Hampton pushing the claim that Dominion’s voting machines could be “very easily” manipulated.
Text messages and other documents obtained by CNN show Trump allies were seeking access to Coffee County’s voting system by mid-December amid increasing demands for proof of widespread election fraud.Coffee County was specifically cited in draft executive orders for seizing voting machines that were presented to Trump on December 18, 2020, during a chaotic Oval Office meeting, CNN has reported. During that same meeting, Giuliani alluded to a plan to gain “voluntary access” to machines in Georgia, according to testimony from him and others before the House January 6 committee.Days later, Hampton shared the written invitation to access the county’s election office with a Trump lawyer, text messages obtained by CNN show. She and another location elections official, Cathy Latham, allegedly helped Trump operatives gain access to the county’s voting systems, according to documents, testimony and surveillance video
produced as part of a long-running civil lawsuit focused on election security in Georgia.Latham, who also served as a fake elector from Georgia after the 2020 election, has come under scrutiny for her role in the Coffee County breach after surveillance video showed she allowed unauthorized outsiders to spend hours examining voting systems there.
The evidence comes as Willis is expected to indict Trump over his attempts to meddle with Georgia’s 2020 election results. This will follow Trump’s previous indictments for allegedly falsifying his business records, mishandling classified documents, and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election nationwide.
Watch above via CNN.