Georgia prosecutor opens probe
Records sought regarding interference with election
Local prosecutors in Georgia requested that state election officials preserve records as part of a criminal investigation into attempts to interfere in the state election after former President Donald Trump’s efforts to tilt the state vote count in his favor.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office confirmed Wednesday that it had received the notifications from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
In a Jan. 2 telephone call, Trump pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss.
“So look, all I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger according to audio of that call.
Trump also urged a Georgia election investigator to “find the fraud” in a December phone call.
Trump called the state’s lead election investigator shortly before Christmas as officials were looking into allegations of fraud in Cobb County. The call was first reported by The Washington Post, which did not identify the name of the investigator.
A Georgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters confirmed the details of the call to USA TODAY. The action by the Fulton County district attorney was first reported by The New York Times. Fulton County officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Disclosure of the Georgia investigation came on the second day of Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. He is accused of inciting a deadly riot at the Capitol where Trump supporters sought to halt the certification of the election of President Joe Biden after months of Trump saying without evidence that there was widespread election fraud. Trump made reference to Raffensperger during the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack and defended his telephone call with the secretary of state.
“In Georgia, your secretary of state ... I can’t believe this guy’s a Republican,” Trump told the crowd. “He loves recording telephone conversations. You know ... I thought it was a great conversation personally. So did a lot of other. People love that conversation because it says what’s going on.”
In the same speech, when he urged the crowd to move to the Capitol, he also referred to Raffensperger as corrupt. Jason Miller, a spokesman for the former president, said the action in Georgia appeared timed to coincide with the ongoing impeachment trial.
“This is simply the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everybody sees through it,” Miller said in a tweet Wednesday.