Georgia election official says Trump indictments making him ‘a martyr’

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling said Sunday former President Trump is “making himself a martyr” and a “victim” as he fights against three indictments and a possible fourth expected to come in Georgia.

“It’s [the indictments] driving him ahead because he’s becoming, make himself a victim,” Sterling said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “He’s making himself a martyr and a lot of the American people are going behind him because they do – [they] thought some of these things are a little bit of a stretch.”

Trump is widely expected to be indicted in Georgia for efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Sterling serves as the chief operating officer in the state’s Office of Secretary of State.

“I mean, this has been giving oxygen to his campaign,” Sterling told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “This is raising tons of money, and a lot of that money — I think it was pointed out earlier — is being used to pay for his lawyers and not for actual campaign.”

Trump has been consistently leading in national polls ahead all of his GOP primary opponents.

Sterling said he does not know exactly what will be included in the case in Fulton County but said the “one thing we can do is what we’ve been doing in our office, and [Georgia Secretary of State] Brad Raffensperger and I over three-and-a-half-years and since he got elected — tell the truth, do our jobs, follow the law, follow the constitution. That’s all our role is in this situation.”

“One of things that we’ve learned in public reporting on this is [Trump] requested there’d be two independent audits and verifications by outside groups and both — he’s paid $600,000 and both of them said there was no fraud, “Sterling said. “You lost the state. We’ve been saying this over and over again. We counted the ballots three times. He lost the state and he continues to say he didn’t lose it.

Sterling said Trump’s denial that he lost the election is “creating a lot of tension and a lot of chaos.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to begin presenting her case early this week, with two witnesses in the case saying Saturday that they were asked to appear before the grand jury Tuesday. The indictment would mark Trump’s fourth criminal indictment of 2023, following his most recent federal indictment from the Department of Justice over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his role on Jan. 6.

When asked if the state could see violence as a result of Willis’s potential indictment, Sterling said his biggest concern is “where you get professionals who run elections around this country, is somebody will be motivated by some of these kind of languages at some point and do something stupid.”

“It’s not going to mean organized things,” he continued. “It’s not going to be a bunch of conspirators together. It’s going to be one probably mentally unstable individual who’s going to be radicalized through this process. And that’s my biggest concern through this.”

Updated at 6:02 pm.

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