Trump reportedly didn't directly pressure Michigan lawmakers in 'unprecedented meeting'

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last updated 21 November 2020

Michigan's Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) and House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), the two state GOP lawmakers who met with President Trump at the White House on Friday, issued a joint statement following the encounter that they "have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan" and, therefore, they will "follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors."

After several legal setbacks, Trump was seemingly attempting to discourage Shirkey and Chatfield from certifying the presidential results in Michigan — where President-elect Joe Biden holds a 150,000-vote advantage — and instead have the state's GOP legislators choose electors. Ben Ginsburg, a long-time GOP election lawyer who has criticized Trump's actions throughout the election process, said the meeting was "unprecedented," adding that "there's been nothing close to this situation" in terms of a sitting president trying to interfere with a state's certification process.

But Ginsburg would perhaps feel some sense of relief after a person familiar with the content of Friday's meeting told The Wall Street Journal that Trump didn't directly pressure the lawmakers to block the vote from certification. Read more at Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.