Trump tried to interfere in 2020 -- and he just got away with it

Trump tried to interfere in 2020 — and he just got away with it
Trump demanded "11,000 votes" to change Georgia's election results. To pretend otherwise whitewashes history

By Austin Sarat
Published November 27, 2025 6:30AM (EST)


(Salon) Donald Trump has a lot to be thankful for this week. On Wednesday, a Georgia prosecutor decided to drop criminal charges accusing the president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 defeat in the state. While good news for Trump, it was bad news for the rule of law and history itself.

Peter Skandalakis’ decision not only lets the president get away with his outrageous effort at election interference in a critical swing state, but his rendition of what Trump did and why he did it muddies the historical record. As the New York Times noted, Skandalakis, who is the executive director of the state’s nonpartisan prosecutor council, “shredded the case originally brought by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, taking it apart charge by charge in a 22-page filing.”

He did so in the face of a mountain of evidence that Trump’s conduct in the Peach State was particularly egregious. Not only did the president enlist a rogue’s gallery of co-conspirators to threaten state election officials, but early in January 2021, he also asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes that would reverse his defeat.

As Trump put it in an hour-long conference call to the secretary, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state… So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump added. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.” ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/11/27/trump-tried-to-interfere-in-2020-and-he-just-got-away-with-it/