Trump's Push To Overturn GA Election Sparks State Investigation

ATLANTA —Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger opened an investigation Monday into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results.

The investigation answers several formal complaints about Trump’s phone calls after the Nov. 3 election to Georgia officials, urging them to find ways for Trump to win the state.

“The investigations are fact-finding and administrative in nature,” Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, told The New York Times. Jones added that any legal response would be left to Georgia’s attorney general after review by the state board of elections.

Raffensperger and Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr are Republicans, as are all but one member of the board of elections.

“Any investigation of a statutory violation is a potential criminal investigation,” David Worley, the lone Democrat on the elections board, told the Times. “The complaint that was received involved a criminal violation.”

The formal complaints followed public disclosure of a call Trump made to Raffensperger in January pressuring him to “find” enough votes to take Georgia from President Joe Biden and hand it to Trump.

During the call, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post, Trump pivoted from berating Raffensperger to flattering him to threatening him with legal action should he refuse to pursue Trump's demands.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump said. “And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated.”

At another point, Trump also said, “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,” the Post reported.

“So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes,” Trump said later in the same call. “Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

Former prosecutors told The New York Times that Trump’s calls might violate three Georgia law:

• Criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, which can be tried either as a felony or misdemeanor. The felony charge can be punished with at least a year in prison.
• Conspiracy, which can be prosecuted either as a felony or a misdemeanor.
• “Intentional interference” with “performance of election duties,” a misdemeanor.

Trump senior advisor Jason Miller denied in a statement that the former president had done anything “improper” during his “scheduled” call to Trump. “If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for secretary of state,” Miller said.

In fact, the White House had attempted to call Georgia’s secretary of state 18 times before Raffensperger picked up the phone, according to The Washington Post.

Read more in The New York Times.

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