Trump campaign disavows lawyer Sidney Powell: Transition updates

Barely twelve hours after television networks declared Donald Trump the next president of the United States four years ago, officials at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C., quietly launched a new operation – not to capture drug smugglers or human traffickers, but to capture the attention of the Trump appointees who would be taking control of government. 

“[W]e are moving fast and furious here at HQ to be prepared for the new Administration,” the agency’s head of law enforcement operations told colleagues in an email on Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the election.

The scramble that privately unfolded across government in the days immediately after the presidential election four years ago – and during almost every peaceful transition of power before then – has yet to materialize this year, as President Donald Trump continues to challenge Joe Biden’s election victory and Trump administration officials wait to officially declare Biden the winner.

"It's a study in contrasts," one current U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Hundreds of Border Patrol emails obtained by ABC News through a Freedom of Information Act request offer a rare glimpse into just how far government agencies usually go and how quickly they take action to prepare for a new administration – efforts that current officials say are on hold right now across the U.S. government.

“As we all know, one of President-elect Trump’s central campaign themes was ‘border security.’ With our mission a clear priority… [w]e must be ready to provide the best and most accurate information as quickly as possible in order to take advantage of every opportunity to describe who we are, what we do and what we need to get our mission accomplished," the Border Patrol’s acting deputy chief of operations in Washington, D.C, wrote to other senior officials on Nov. 10, 2016, two days after the election four years ago.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

Two days before the Michigan state board of canvassers is set to meet to weigh whether to certify the election in the state, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox submitted a letter to the four-member bipartisan body asking to delay certification for two weeks and first audit the results in Wayne County.

"This board faces a stark choice: it can either ignore numerical anomalies and credible reports of procedural irregularities, leaving the distrust and sense of procedural disenfranchisement felt by many Michigan voters to fester for years; or it can adjourn for fourteen days to allow for a full audit and investigation into those anomalies and irregularities before certifying the results of the 2020 General Election, allowing all Michiganders to have confidence in the results," the two GOP chairs write in the letter obtained by ABC News. 

McDaniel and Cox are asking the board, which is meeting on Monday, to grant the request made by Republican Senate candidate John James to allow for "a full, transparent audit" of Wayne County's results before certifying the election statewide.

James sought to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who was projected by ABC News to win reelection. 

"The procedural and accounting irregularities identified by the James Campaign’s request are credible, deeply concerning, and threaten to undermine Michigander’s faith in the integrity of the November 2020 General Election. To simply gloss over those irregularities now without a thorough audit would only foster feelings of distrust among Michigan’s electorate," they continue.

They point to the audit completed in Georgia before the results were certified, and they also quote Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as saying "with the margin being so close, it will require a full by-hand recount in each county."

But every state is different.

In Michigan, the secretary of state made clear on Friday that by state law, it is impossible to audit the results before the election is certified because "officials do not have legal access to the documents needed to complete audits until the certification."

Also, the margin in Michigan is nowhere near as close as Georgia's, with Joe Biden currently leading by more than 154,000 votes in Michigan, compared to just over 12,000 votes in Georgia.

"We implore you to listen to the pleas of your voters and order the audit," the letter from the GOP chairs reads.

The call for an audit in Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, a city where Black residents make up nearly 80% of the population, comes after a head-spinning reversal from two Republican members of the county board of canvassers earlier this week. The two GOP members of the board first voted against certification of the county’s results, citing precincts with “out-of-balance” reports, meaning that the number of votes cast and the number of voters signed in at the polling place were mismatched. Hours later, they backtracked and voted for certification, only to seek to rescind that vote the following day — a move that has been disputed by legal experts.  

The number of votes at issue in Wayne County is also too small to influence the outcome of the election. In Wayne County, Biden is ahead by over 300,000 votes with nearly 70% of the vote.

The letter is the latest move by Republicans to sow doubt over the election’s results in the battleground. In an extraordinary move on Friday, President Trump met with top state lawmakers from Michigan, part of a strategy that now appears to increasingly rely on pressuring GOP state leaders to try to overturn the results of the election.

After nearly two hours in the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield released a joint statement reiterating, "we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors." 

-ABC News’ Kendall Karson, Katherine Faulders, Will Steakin

After nearly two hours in the White House, a delegation from Michigan, including Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, released a joint statement following the meeting reiterating, "we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors."

"Michigan's certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation. Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan's electoral votes," they said in a statement.

The lawmakers also mentioned their ongoing oversight investigation in the state Senate and House into the elections process is to provide "greater transparency and accountability to our citizens" but added they weren't aware of any information that would flip the outcome."

"We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election," they said.

The invitation from Trump, ahead of the state certifying its votes on Monday, seemed squarely aimed as an attempt to influence lawmakers to override certification. This would set up the potential for the GOP-controlled legislature to choose its own slate of pro-Trump electors to vote for the president at the Electoral College's December meeting.

-ABC News' Kendall Karson

Gov. Brian Kemp has certified the slate of 16 electors in Georgia for Joe Biden, press secretary Cody Hall confirmed to ABC News, though in brief remarks Friday evening Kemp did not explicitly state that he had.

"Earlier today, Secretary Raffensperger presented -- presented the certified results of the 2020 General Election to my office. Following Judge Grimsberg's ruling yesterday, state law now requires the Governor's office to formalize the certification, which paves the way for the Trump campaign to pursue other legal options, and a separate recount if they choose," Kemp said. 

The deadline for the Trump team to request a recount is 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

"As governor I have a solemn responsibility to follow the law. And that is what I will continue to do,” Kemp said at the end of his remarks.

However, Kemp, who served as secretary of state before he was governor, was also critical of the state's election and the fact that during the audit, thousands of uncounted ballots were discovered, saying Georgians deserve better and will get it ahead of the state’s Senate runoffs in January. 

"It’s quite honestly hard to believe that, during the audit, thousands of uncounted ballots were found, weeks after a razor-thin outcome in a presidential election," he said. "This is simply unacceptable."

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan