Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated with new information from fact-checker Lead Stories.
UPDATE: According to Lead Stories, the allegations about ballots full of suitcases are false. From their piece:
“Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, told Lead Stories during a phone call on December 3, 2020 that what can be seen on the video is normal procedure and nothing looks “bizarre or odd.””
If you look at the video tape, the work you see is the work you would expect, which is you take the sealed suitcase looking things in, you place the ballots on the scanner in manageable batches and you scan them.
Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, told Lead Stories during a phone call on December 3, 2020, that the ballots were in standard containers, and the work during the time in question had nothing to do with pulling ballots from under a table. She said:
There wasn’t a bin that had ballots in it under that table. It was an empty bin and the ballots from it were actually out on the table when the media were still there, and then it was placed back into the box when the media were still there and placed next to the table.
In what one local CBS affiliate in Georgia described as “jaw-dropping,” President Trump’s lawyers presented a dramatic video of what they claim is suspicious election activity involving suitcases of ballots to the Georgia state legislature Thursday.
“At about 10 there was one person working the polls who told everyone in the room to leave, on the basis that they were going to stop counting and return at 8:30 in the morning,” Jackie Pick, a lawyer volunteering with Trump’s team narrated.
She continues her presentation asserting that, to the contrary, “four people stay behind and continue counting and tabulating well into the night … unobserved, unsupervised.”
The President’s legal team alleges that the video in question then shows “four suitcases” pulled out from underneath a table after the room had been “cleared out with no witnesses.”
The footage was shown during a hearing of the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee.
WATCH: Video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled from under a table AFTER supervisors told poll workers to leave room and 4 people stayed behind to keep counting votes pic.twitter.com/AcbTI1pxn4
— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) December 3, 2020
RELATED: Witness At Michigan Hearing Levels Democrat Rep. For Calling Her A Liar
The Video Evidence Of Suitcases Full Of Ballots In Georgia Is Challenged
The tweet from team Trump showing the video has been labeled by Twitter with a warning which states “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
The media have long reported that any allegations of election fraud are simply a figment of the President’s imagination.
At least one state lawmaker at the hearing seemed to dismiss the video completely out of hand, although the video had never before been seen.
“The question is since this has been debunked repeatedly what evidence can you give to us that counters what our elections officials have presented us with only an hour ago?” the lawmaker asked.
Pick fired back, “You just saw it, your officials need to watch the video.”
“… what evidence can you give to us that counters what our elections officials have presented…,” the [GA] lawmaker asked.
Attorney Pick responded, “You just saw it, your officials need to watch the video.” https://t.co/aKfUhcxYLp
— Glued2TheScreen +mastodon.social/@GluedToTheScreen (@glued2thescreen) December 4, 2020
RELATED: In ‘Most Important Speech’ He’s Ever Made, Trump Claims ‘Bad Things Happened’ In The Election
Kemp Now Calling For Signature Audit of Ballots
Perhaps shamed into it by the evidence presented, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is now humbly claiming he’s requested a signature audit of the ballots in his state.
“I think it should be done. I think especially [given] what we saw today… it raises more questions,” he said in an interview with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham.
BREAKING: Gov. Brian Kemp calls for a ‘signature audit’ after new surveillance video shown today in Georgia.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 4, 2020
Jenna Ellis, one of the lawyers on the Trump campaign’s legal team, was quick to point out that they had requested such a signature audit five times already.
President Trump earlier this week urged a “hapless” Kemp to overrule Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on the matter of matching ballot signatures during the state’s recount effort.
“Why won’t Governor [Brian Kemp], the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes,” Trump tweeted.
Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a “goldmine” of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020
Did the latest video move Kemp to action on a ballot signature audit in Georgia?
Raffensperger, a Republican like Kemp, has insisted, “matching the signature on the outer envelope to the absentee ballot on the inside is impossible.”
Caught on candid camera…
Fulton County supervisors in Georgia tell poll workers, press and observers to leave the room…
And then pull out SUITCASES of ballots.
Say it with me… F R A U D.
WHERE IS THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE?”pic.twitter.com/1Nc8cZqGXA
— Rep. Jody Hice (@CongressmanHice) December 3, 2020
Meanwhile, CBS 46 in Atlanta is reporting that “it is believed” each of the four suitcases or boxes in the above video “consisted of about 6,000 ballots.”
“If accurate, that would amount to about 24,000 potential votes,” they explain.
CNN shows Trump lost Georgia by 12,670 votes.
The best way to insure a @KLoeffler and @sendavidperdue VICTORY is to allow signature checks in the Presidential race, which will insure a Georgia Presidential win (very few votes are needed, many will be found). Spirits will soar and everyone will rush out and VOTE! @BrianKempGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2020
“I think in the next 24 hours, we will see a lot more from the hearings that the legislature had today and we will be able to look and see what the next steps are,” Kemp told Ingraham.
“That’s where we are now.”
