Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people and co-founder of the Oracle software company, was involved in a November 2020 call to develop plans to contest the results of the US presidential election, according to a report from The Washington Post. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Fox News host Sean Hannity, Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow, and True the Vote attorney James Bopp Jr., also participated in the call.
As reported by the Post, details of the call surfaced in a court filing associated with a legal battle between True the Vote, a nonprofit organization that promotes baseless claims about election fraud, and Fair Fight, a voting rights organization led by Georgia politician Stacey Abrams. Last year, Fair Fight filed a complaint against True the Vote, alleging the group attacked voter eligibility in Georgia.
Here is the November 2020 email mentioning that Larry Ellison was on a call with Trump allies about ways to challenge the election. pic.twitter.com/BU04BNoeVu
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) May 20, 2022
“Jim was on a call this evening with Jay Sekulow, Lindsey O. Graham, Sean Hannity, and Larry Ellison,” Catherine Engelbrecht, the co-founder of True the Vote, writes in an email viewed by the Post. “He explained the work we were doing and they asked for a preliminary report asap, to be used to rally their troops internally, so that’s what I’m working on now.” The email has been posted to Twitter by Puck reporter Teddy Schleifer as well.
An anonymous call participant also confirmed to the Post that Ellison was on the call, and indicated that Graham may have been the one to invite him. The source reportedly surmised that the tech executive was brought on to discuss unfounded allegations that the voting machines used during the election somehow interfered with results. When asked about why Graham may have invited Ellison to the call, Graham spokesperson Kevin Bishop told the Post “Probably because Ellison supported Trump.” The Verge reached out to Oracle with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
Although Ellison stepped down as Oracle’s CEO in 2014, he still serves as the company’s chief technology officer and remains an executive chairman. In February 2020, Ellison held a major fundraiser for Trump, and also worked closely with the former president to collect information about trial data associated with unproven anti-malarial drugs in the treatment of COVID-19. More recently, Ellison made a $15 million donation to a super PAC that supports Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who has expressed interest in being Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
Ellison is also the biggest backer of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, committing $1 billion to the cause. In the past, Ellison called Musk a “very close friend,” and even joined Tesla’s board of directors in 2018.