AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack
- Audio captured Donald Trump pressuring election workers in Michigan, The Detroit News reported.
- Trump and Ronna McDaniel told the election workers they'd help them get lawyers, the report said.
- A Trump spokesperson said he was doing his duty as president to "ensure election integrity."
Former President Donald Trump was captured on audio pressuring election workers in Michigan not to sign papers certifying the election results, The Detroit News reported.
The phone call obtained by the publication, which took place on November 17, 2020, included Trump; the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel; and two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the report said.
Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, is the largest in Michigan, a swing state Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump told the canvassers they would look "terrible" if they signed the papers to certify the election after having previously voted against certification, The Detroit News reported.
"We've got to fight for our country," Trump was quoted as saying in the report. "We can't let these people take our country away from us."
McDaniel told the pair not to sign the document and said, "We will get you attorneys," the outlet reported.
"We'll take care of that," Trump was quoted as saying.
Trump's office and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Palmer told The Detroit News she and Hartmann had taken the call, but she could not recall what had been said. Hartmann died in 2021.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, told The Detroit News Trump's behavior was "taken in furtherance of his duty as president of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election."
"What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit," McDaniel said in a statement to The Detroit News, referencing a letter she wrote to the Board of State Canvassers requesting an audit of the election in Michigan.
Palmer and Hartmann had initially voted against certifying the election, but they then voted in favor of it later during the same meeting, The Detroit News reported. They ended up not signing the certification statement and, the next day, tried to take back their vote in favor of certification.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections determined Palmer and Hartmann's signatures were not needed to advance the election certification, Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, told the outlet.
The call was reminiscent of Trump's infamous call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the president pressured him to "find" an additional 11,780 votes, or one more than what Biden had beaten him by in the state.
"The people of Georgia are angry — the people in the country are angry," Trump said on the call. "And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated."
Trump defended his call with Raffensperger, calling it "perfect" and saying he "didn't say anything wrong in the call."
The call helped fuel Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' criminal investigation into the efforts to overturn the election. The investigation ultimately resulted in Trump and 18 co-defendants being charged with racketeering for an alleged plot to subvert the 2020 election.