Donald Trump seizes Stacey Abrams’ sister is judge in Georgia electoral fraud case

President Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to insert U.S. District Judge Leslie A. Gardner, sister of Georgian voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, as part of his latest desperate effort to take over the electoral process of the state.

Over the past week, Trump has baselessly accused Abrams’ siblings and Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of somehow influencing the state’s electoral process in favor of the President-elect Joe Biden and Democratic Senate second-round candidates. Trump on Saturday blamed Judge Gardner, Abrams’ sister, for helping to prevent signature verification in several Georgia counties and for the justice system’s continued refusal to hear unsubstantiated allegations of “large-scale electoral fraud. scale ”presented by its own legal team.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that Raffensperger’s brother is “working for China” in his latest smear attempt to discredit the Republican election official. And on Saturday, the president sued Gardner, baselessly claiming that she was protecting the “utter disaster” of an electoral process in Georgia. Fact-checks of Trump’s claim have revealed Raffensperger has a brother, but not one who works for a Chinese tech company, and his name is not Ron, according to family records.

“Only a small portion of those votes give the United States a significant and definitive victory in Georgia. Did they illegally destroy ballots in Fulton County? After many weeks, we don’t even have a judge yet to hear this large-scale electoral fraud case. only judge seems to be Stacey’s sister! the president tweeted on Saturday.

Gardner, a U.S. District Judge in the Middle District of Georgia, on Thursday denied a motion by the Muscogee County Electoral Board calling on him to recuse himself from a voting rights case aimed at blocking or disqualifying thousands of people. Georgian voters. Gardner said recusing himself would be a dereliction of duty and violate his oath as a federal judge, but Trump – and Raffensperger – have suggested that Abrams would have “funded” a political action committee linked to the case.

“One can only assume that the argument is something to the effect that if my sister is actively engaged in a cause, I cannot be impartial. This argument is mere speculation, not supported by any facts that might support a finding of bias, “Gardner said The Chronicle of Augusta.

National Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias touted Gardner’s legal action as a “blow to the GOP voter suppression tactics.” Even though Gardner’s only offense appears to have been his demand to see actual evidence of electoral fraud, Trump’s sycophants immediately clung to the sibling bond as they tried anything to take control of the election. in Georgia.

“Judge blocks voter purge in 2 Georgia counties. Don’t think these things are faked? JUDGE IS STACY ABRAMS !!! WTF’S SISTER,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Tuesday. But the case he highlighted showed that GOP election officials were trying to remove more than 4,000 names from Muscogee County voting lists just days before the Jan.5 runoff. In response, Gardner reversed the decision.

Gardner upheld an injunction motion last week that requires Muscogee County to notify all voters whose eligibility has been contested because their names appear in the national change of address database maintained by the Postal Service American. A progressive PAC called Majority Forward helped lead the lawsuit that stalled the voter disqualification effort days before the second round of the US Senate.

Gardner simply asked Muscogee to present any evidence that the names used in the database do not match and are grounds for disqualifying their vote.

“Why haven’t they done signature verification in Fulton County, Georgia.” Why didn’t they deduct all the dead who “voted,” the illegals who voted, the non-residents of Georgia who voted, and tens of thousands of others who voted illegally? , of the final vote count? Trump continued to tweet on Saturday.

Gardner made headlines in 2018 when it emerged that she was engaged, and now married, to Jimmie Gardner, a man jailed for 26 years for a rape and robbery he did not commit.

Newsweek contacted Gardner’s office and the White House for further remarks on Saturday.