Donald Trump’s phone call to Brad Raffensperger on January 2 alarmed election experts.Credit:The New York Times
The inquiry makes Georgia the second state after New York where Trump faces a criminal investigation. And it comes in a jurisdiction where potential jurors are unlikely to be hospitable to the former president;Fulton County encompasses most of Atlanta and overwhelmingly supported President Joe Biden in the November election.
The Fulton County investigation comes on the heels of a decision on Monday by Raffensperger’s office to open an administrative inquiry.
Willis has been weighing for several weeks whether to open an inquiry,after Trump’s phone call to Raffensperger on January 2 alarmed election experts who call it an extraordinary intervention into a state’s electoral process.
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That call was one of several attempts that Trump made to persuade top Republican officials in the state to uncover instances of voting fraud that might change the outcome. He also called Governor Brian Kemp in early December and pressured him to call a special legislative session to overturn his election loss. Later that month,Trump called a state investigator and pressed the official to “find the fraud,” according to those with knowledge of the call.
Former prosecutors said Trump’s calls might run afoul of at least three state laws. One is criminal solicitation to commit election fraud,which can be either a felony or a misdemeanour;as a felony,it is punishable by at least a year in prison. There is also a related conspiracy charge,which can be prosecuted either as a misdemeanour or a felony. A third law,a misdemeanour offence,bars “intentional interference” with another person’s “performance of election duties”.
Biden’s victory in Georgia was reaffirmed after election officials recertified the state’s presidential election results in three separate counts of the ballots:the initial election tally;a hand recount ordered by the state;and another recount,which was requested by Trump’s campaign and completed by machines. The results of the machine recount show that Biden won with a lead of about 12,000 votes.