Nikki Fried seeks a DOJ probe after Donald Trump makes claims about his actions in 2018 election

Share
Donald Trump
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Tampa. By Seán Kinane / WMNF News (24 Aug. 2016).

Outgoing Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a claim by former President Donald Trump that he sent federal agents to South Florida to keep the 2018 election from being “stolen” from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Fried, who narrowly was elected to her Cabinet post in 2018, asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday to investigate Trump’s assertion that he eliminated “ballot theft” in Broward County by using the FBI and federal prosecutors.

“There was no broad allegation that the election was being stolen from Ron DeSantis in favor of Andrew Gillum. I know because I was on the ballot in 2018,” Fried wrote in a letter to Garland. “Although there was a recount for both the race for governor, as well as my own, there was no fraud, and no foul play. To my knowledge, there was no involvement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Office of the United States Attorney.”

Without offering evidence, Trump said in a social-media post Thursday that he helped DeSantis secure his 2018 gubernatorial victory.

“(After) the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s statement came amid a widening rift with DeSantis, who is widely viewed as a leading Republican candidate for president in 2024.

Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid Tuesday night.

DeSantis, who was re-elected last week, won his 2018 election over Gillum by about 32,000 votes. Scott won his U.S. Senate seat by about 10,000 votes over Democrat Bill Nelson.

Fried, the only statewide elected Democrat, will leave her Cabinet post in January after running unsuccessfully for governor this year.

via News Service of Florida

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Revenge of the Synth
Player position: