Violent threats, racist messages: Bipartisan officials call the aftermath of the 2020 election 'terrifying'

WASHINGTON – Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir was at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Nov. 5, 2020, to help tally the votes of the recent presidential election.

But something else was brewing that day.

Sabir told USA TODAY that law enforcement officials were alerted that armed individuals from Virginia were going to drive to Philadelphia to allegedly "straighten" out the election.

When the men, supporters of former President Donald Trump Joshua Macias and Antonio LaMotta, arrived near the convention center in a vehicle with handguns, they were immediately apprehended.

"We basically kept going on... because we knew that there was a duty that had to be done, and so I wasn't going to be unwavered by that," Sabir said. "As I reflect back now, that's like kind of crazy that... some (weapons) were actually a stone's throw from where you were at just completing the job."

He recalled how his inbox was filled with a “constant barrage of threats," even ahead of the November 2020 election.

His office also received a chilling call in September 2020 from a man who threatened to use the "Second Amendment" against Democrats and other officials. In the days leading up to Nov. 3 election, Sabir said his behavior changed.

"I had to sleep in different places," Sabir said. "I couldn't come home. My home was under police protection. So it didn't just affect me or my family. My neighbors were concerned. It was life-transforming."

Trump has been indicted twice over his efforts to allegedly steal the 2020 election, on federal charges and state charges in Georgia. Both indictments accuse him and his allies of a pressure campaign against state officials across the country. Here's what you need to know.

'I will not play with laws': How officials reacted to Trump's calls

It was late November 2020 when then-Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers and his wife returned home from church meetings, according to testimony he gave to the U.S. House last year.

That was when he received a phone call from Trump and the former president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Bowers testified that he asked Giuliani “on multiple occasions” to provide evidence for his claims of widespread election fraud during the call, including false allegations of votes from noncitizens and dead people. He never received the proof.

When Giuliani allegedly asked Bowers to replace the electors who were supposed to support President Joe Biden in the race for the White House, Bowers said he wouldn’t violate Arizona law.

But his refusal to reject the 2020 election results earned him threats, Bowers testified. For instance, he described how various groups would come to his neighborhood to call him a pedophile.

"I do not want to be a winner by cheating," Bowers said. "I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to."

Bowers wasn't the only state official Trump and his allies called following Election Day 2020.

Just days before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other members of his office spoke with Trump, his campaign attorneys and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

In an hourlong call, Trump urged Raffensperger to find "11,780 votes" in Georgia, a state Biden won in the election. "What I knew is that we didn't have any votes to find," Raffensperger testified to the House last year.

Raffensperger said both he and his family received threats in the wake of the election, and intruders broke into his daughter-in-law's home.

"I think sometimes moments require you to stand up and just take the shots," Raffensperger said. "You're doing your job."

Michigan attorney general: 'I was certain that there was a plot afoot'

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who charged 16 of Trump's fake electors, told USA TODAY she also had concerns about false claims of election fraud in her state.

After the election, Trump met with former Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and former Michigan House of Representatives Speaker Lee Chatfield in the Oval Office. The federal 2020 election indictment against Trump alleges he falsely claimed in the meeting there was an illegitimate dump of votes in Detroit, which Shirkey debunked.

"At some point, I became very, very nervous, and I was certain that there was a plot afoot to overturn the results of the election in Michigan," Nessel said.

Nessel explained that she contacted Democratic attorneys generals in the U.S. and asked to speak to them so she could share what was happening in Michigan.

Along with the "massive amounts of litigation," that emerged in the state, Nessel said social media posts and other statements from supporters of the former president made it appear state and local officials were the target of a pressure campaign.

Both local and state officials were receiving threats, which she said was "unsettling" and "not really a part of our democracy."

What it was like inside the room with Giuliani

When Giuliani, Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis and other witnesses appeared before the Michigan House Oversight Committee in December 2020, then Michigan State Rep. Cynthia Johnson told USA TODAY she thought it was silly.

“I felt stupid actually because here I am. I'm 62 years old at the time… We shouldn't even be doing this. We are wasting tax-paying dollars,” Johnson said.

"I was just so disgusted…The world is watching this," she added.

Johnson explained that while she was asking the witnesses questions, she was receiving racist threats on her computer. “As I'm sitting there as (a Black woman) in the room, I'm feeling threatened…thank God for our sergeants that were there," Johnson said.

Then-Michigan State Rep. Beau Lafave told USA TODAY that he asked "probing questions" to each of the witnesses as they raised claims of election fraud.

"At the time of that meeting and up to the sixth of January and up until this moment, I cannot say and put my credibility on the line that Donald Trump won the state of Michigan," Lafave said. "I do not see the evidence of that."

The next day, Giuliani and Ellis appeared before the Georgia Senate with a similar plan in mind. Georgia State Sen. Elena Parent, who was present at the meeting, said in her closing remarks that it was "kind of like an Alice in Wonderland moment where you've gone down a rabbit hole."

Parent told USA TODAY that after the 2020 election, she became the subject of misogynist attacks and false claims from QAnon conspiracy theorists, including allegations that she would be tried for treason at Guantanamo Bay.

"It was terrifying and just...you have some guilt in having your family in the public eye and having their lives disrupted," Parent said.

'It has lingering effects on everything that I do'

Trump didn't publicly criticize Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley. But she still felt the effects of his and his allies' attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Philadelphia.

Deeley told USA TODAY she knew the city would be a target for Trump in the election when he falsely claimed during a September 2020 debate that poll watchers were being thrown out of its election centers.

The days after the election were "surreal" for Deeley. When she was alerted about a threat from a supporter of Trump from her office, Deeley had to have a physical security detail follow her around.

“It's important for people to know that this had a real effect on real people,” Deeley said. “It had a real effect on me. It had a real effect on my staff. It had residual effects on my family, on my social circle. Still, today going forward it has lingering effects on everything that I do."

She added that Trump not only called out the results of the election but also her personal integrity "because people that know you and know what your job is, they know that he's talking about you" and "that's a lot to take."

Seth Bluestein, her colleague, told USA TODAY he received an onslaught of threats and harassment after Pam Bondi, one of Trump's lawyers during his impeachment trial, named him during a press conference on ballot counting.

He said he looked into allegations about Philadelphia's election, but he did not find evidence of widespread fraud that would have impacted the 2020 election results.

"We're going to prepare for the 2024 election with the preparation required to make sure that... everyone, whether they're Democrat, Independent or Republican, should be committed to protecting election workers and accepting the legitimate results of the election," Bluestein said.

What does this mean for 2024?

If Trump loses the 2024 election, Matthew Gunning, a political science professor at Georgia Gwinnett College, said he fears Trump will double down on charges of fraud.

But one thing that would be different from the 2020 election is that Trump wouldn't have potential leverage he could exercise as the sitting president, Stefanie Lindquist, a political science and law professor at Arizona State University, told USA TODAY.

At the same time, experts are still seeing Trump make allegations of voter fraud, Anthony Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, told USA TODAY

Last week, Trump said on Truth Social that he planned to hold a news conference revealing a full report of alleged election irregularities in Georgia, though it was later canceled.

"That to me signals that at least Donald Trump and people in his orbit have not necessarily let go...of the 2020 election results," Kreis said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump 2020 indictment: Bipartisan officials reveal aftermath