Garland Favorito of the Georgia election integrity group VoterGA warned in a press conference on Tuesday that special prosecutor Jack Smith’s case against former President Donald Trump is an attempt to smear Republicans with “blatant lies” before voters head to the polls in 2024.
Favorito highlighted Smith’s claims that Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome determinative fraud in the election,” ordered a false set of Electoral College certifications that purported to be from legitimate electors, and urged former Vice President Mike Pence to fraudulently alter the Electoral College votes on January 6 as easily disprovable lies designed to taint Republicans in to potential voters, then offered counterarguments to Smith’s accusations.
“This has set a dangerous national precedent,” said Favorito, who claimed “those are three blatant lies that are being told” by Smith “on behalf of the Biden Justice Department, who has attempted to indict his political opponent for the 2024 election.” Favorito streamed the press conference to X, formerly Twitter.
October 24. 2023 VoterGA Press Conference https://t.co/RrzJJ9GDfv
— Garland Favorito (@VoterGa) October 24, 2023
Favorito began his rebuttal by asserting VoterGA has “documented 13 cases of outcome determinative fraud in the state of Georgia alone,” and still has pending court cases in an attempt to prove those cases’ authenticity.
“It was not that former President Donald Trump was spreading lies,” Favorito said. “It is that special counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice is spreading lies.”
He then pointed to the historical precedent of contingent Electoral College electors, which Favorito said dates “all the way back to 1876,” when Democrat Samuel Tilden lost to Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes. More recently, Favorito claimed, an “identical dispute” occurred “in Hawaii in 1960, between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.” Favorito noted Kennedy’s contingent electors “actually won their dispute,” and Kennedy carried the state.
Favorito then turned toward Smith’s claims about Trump’s requests for Pence on January 6. Contrary to Smith’s claims, Favorito argued Pence was only asked to return Electoral College vote certificates back to the states where allegations of fraud could be examined, while Smith maintains Pence was asked to wholly toss the Electoral College votes from states where fraud was claimed.
“The request was to send the electors back to the states to resolve the disputes, and the vice president chose not to do that,” said Favorito, adding the request “was no attempt to fraudulently alter the election results.”
Further, Smith claimed that Pence’s duty on January 6 was simply a “ceremonial role,” but Favorito noted that a 2022 change to the Electoral Count Act proves “it was not ceremonial at that time.”
“You can see how this judicial interference is threatening your attempt to choose your president in the next election,” Favorito said.
Some of the allegations made in Smith’s federal indictment mirror those created by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was accused of unnecessarily duplicating Smith’s work by Democrats. Like Smith, Willis also claims Trump knowingly spread lies about Georgia’s 2020 election, orchestrated a plot to pass off fake electors as public officials, and urged Pence to disregard the state’s Electoral College votes. The Georgia Star News contacted Favorito to ask about the implications to Willis’ case but did not receive an immediate response.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Garland Favorito” by Garland Favorito.
