Yahoo Movies Michigan Election Official Alleges Trump Wanted Her 'Tried for Treason, Potentially Executed' for 2020 Results
Paul Sancya/AP Photo
Michigan's top election official, Sec. of State Jocelyn Benson, received numerous threats after she refused to overturn the election results in 2020 that showed Joe Biden won the state's 16 electoral votes.
A particularly chilling one allegedly came from Donald Trump.
"Even the president himself had called on me to be arrested and tried for treason, potentially executed," Benson, a Democrat who is running for reelection this year, tells NBC News in a new interview.
Benson said she learned of then-President Trump's suggestion from a source familiar with conversations in a White House meeting when he made it.
"It was surreal and I felt sad," she said of hearing about the meeting and what had been suggested.
When asked for a comment on the NBC News report, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told PEOPLE of Benson's claims, "This is an absurd statement, that NBC failed to source, but we have come to expect nothing less from lazy, Fake News reporters."
Budowch also told NBC News, "I have it on good authority that Secretary Benson knowingly lied throughout her interview."
In the race to keep her position as Michigan's secretary of state, Benson is up against Kristina Karamo, a Republican Trump is supporting.
kristinakaramo.com, votebenson.com
"She is strong on crime, including the massive crime of election fraud," Trump said in his endorsement of Karamo, who has repeated the false claim that the 2020 election was "rigged and stolen" and that "Secretary of State Benson should go to jail," according to NBC News.
"We should stop expecting that there is a bottom to the lengths that people will go to overturn legitimate election results and seize power in our country," Benson said in the interview.
"The Big Lie is not just spreading," she continued, referring to Trump's baseless claim that fraud was to blame for his loss in 2020 to Biden, "it's deepening its hold on the American people."
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Since leaving the White House, Trump has continued repeating falsehoods about his loss, despite officials in nearly every state, including both Democrats and Republicans, have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.
RELATED: Trump Tells Dr. Oz to Declare Victory in Pennsylvania's GOP Senate Primary That's Too Close to Call
Trump and his supporters' efforts to overturn the election results and the attack on the U.S. Capitol, which disrupted the electoral vote counting during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, are the focus of an ongoing investigation by a bipartisan House committee.
Voters in 24 states, including Michigan, will determine who will run elections. NBC News reports that in 14 of those states, 2020 election deniers are on the ballot.
Trump has not officially announced another run for the presidency in 2024 but has indicated his desire to return to the White House on numerous occasions.
