Galvin: Biden should initiate investigation into President Donald Trump

By Chris Van Buskirk

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON,…..President-elect Joe Biden should initiate an obstruction of justice investigation into President Donald Trump’s reported correspondence with election officials in other states, the top election official in Massachusetts said Thursday.

The call for a potential investigation from Secretary of State William Galvin follows a report that Trump called a Republican canvassing board member in Michigan and invited members of the state’s Legislature to meet with him on Friday afternoon in Washington.

The members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers met Tuesday where they voted to certify the results from the Nov. 3 election. One of the Republican members, Monica Palmer, told The Washington Post that the president called to “make sure I was safe after hearing the threats and doxing that had occurred.”

“I think when you have … the president of the United States reaching out to individual election administrators in Michigan suggesting they should rescind their vote, a vote that was taken and trying to put them under duress to rescind their vote, I think that’s obstruction of justice,” Galvin told reporters. “There should be an effort right now to investigate this. And I strongly suggest that if this continues, the incoming administration ought to initiate an investigation as to whether this constitutes obstruction of justice.”

Since several major media outlets declared former Vice President Joe Biden president-elect, President Trump has continued to allege voter fraud among mail-in ballots, accused several states of limiting observers’ access to ballot counting locations, and filed lawsuits in an attempt to block certification of election results or throw out specific ballots.

The president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and officials from the Trump campaign held a press conference Thursday where they claimed to have found nationwide voter fraud “specifically focused on big cities, and specifically focused on, as you would imagine, big cities controlled by Democrats,” Guiliani said.

“There’s not a singular voter fraud in one state, this pattern repeats itself in a number of states, almost exactly the same pattern, which to any experienced investigator, prosecutor would suggest that there was a plan from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud,” Giuliani said.

In Massachusetts, Galvin again praised the success of mail-in voting and said his office is completing final mathematical cross-checks ahead of a Governor’s Council meeting next week where the councilors will vote to officially certify the commonwealth’s election results.

Following the certification, the state’s eleven electors and two alternates will cast their votes on Dec. 14 at the State House, as required under Massachusetts law. Galvin said the vote will occur in-person with public health precautions in place such as mandatory mask-wearing and a restriction on guests.

“We have proceeded as every other state has to review our numbers and to make sure they’re accurate. Fortunately, in Massachusetts, we have not had or experienced some of the problems that other states have had,” Galvin said. “And when I say problems, the problems have not been with election administrators. The problems have been with the concerted effort by the Trump campaign to intimidate, threaten, and in some cases, I suggest, engage in obstruction of justice with the process.”

Late Thursday, Galvin’s office announced that more than 3.6 million ballots were cast in the Nov. 3 election, breaking the 2016 record by nearly 300,000 votes. The 3,657,972 voters who participated worked out to a turnout of 76 percent of registered voters, a record achieved in large part due to early and mail-in voting.

“I am thrilled that turnout in this election exceeded even my own high expectations, with a record number of voters participating,” Galvin said. “Even in the midst of a global pandemic, our voters showed up in the way that worked best for them, whether it was on Election Day, by mail, or during early voting.”