President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged the Georgia state legislature “to stand up to the obligation the Constitution of the United States put on you to save our people from fraud” during a spirited testimony to a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
He asserted that the crucial problem surrounding the alleged fraud in the state is the “unlawful unconstitutional consent decree” that the secretary of state entered into.
The former mayor said that this decree usurps the powers bestowed on the state legislature by the Constitution, adding that the founding fathers had perhaps “miraculously envisioned” the occurrence of cheating in a future election. Thus, the Constitution extends the power to challenge the validity of an election to the last moment of the counting of the electoral votes in Congress.
“[Our Founding Fathers] made a choice of where to put the responsibility in a difficult situation like that. Article One, Section Two of the Constitution puts that responsibility right here in the legislatures of the several states. You are responsible for the selection of the electors, not the governor, not your secretary of state,” Giuliani said.
He said that the state secretary is stopping a forensic examination of Georgia’s ballots, which renders a recount of unverified ballots a “joke” and an “insult.”
“There are 10 ways to demonstrate that this election was stolen, that the votes were phony, that there were a lot of them: Dead people, felons, phony mail-in ballots,” he said. Giuliani proceeded to point out that 2,560 felons were counted in the voting, along with 10,315 dead people identified through obituaries, 15,700 people who changed their address before the election, plus 40,000 people who didn’t re-register before they voted.
Trump’s legal representative accused the secretary of state to be engaged in an “unlawful coverup.”
He added that the truth will ultimately become clear over time, and that it was in the legislature’s hands to save the reputation of the state of Georgia in the record of history.
“It’s ultimately a question of courage,” he said. “Do you have the courage to stand up to the obligation the Constitution of the United States put on you to save our people from fraud?”
He acknowledged that any legislators who step forward to challenge the certification will most likely be attacked and smeared. However, he added, public office is about “doing the right thing” instead of worrying about what people will say about you.
“Your decision will stand the test of history, because this is going to prove to be even worse than it is now. And it’s pretty bad. So I implore you, hold the session, take a vote, do the right thing, and forget the criticism. You know what the right thing to do is. You’ve seen the evidence, you know what the law is,” he said.
Giuliani emphasized that this is not only for his client’s sake but for the American people, warning that the situation could get a lot worse if questions surrounding the integrity of the 2020 election are allowed to go unanswered.
“It really had become much bigger than that for the American people. And so this stops right now. No more of this stuff in America. This is the stuff you do in a third world country. We let them get away with this and it'll get much worse. And I can’t say enough about your courage—you, Mr. Chairman, and the other members of your committee, in doing what a lot of others are afraid to do,” Giuliani said in conclusion.
