The Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney opened a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the state’s presidential election results, which he narrowly lost to Joe Biden.
Prosecutor Fani Willis sent letters on Wednesday morning to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Deputy Governor Geoff Duncan, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, writing that the investigation is a “subject matter” high priority “. Copies of the letters to the four employees were provided to CBS News.
Sources at Willis and Raffensperger’s offices confirmed that the prosecutor is requesting documents related to a recorded phone call on January 2 Mr. Trump did it for Raffensperger, among others, although the letters did not explicitly mention Mr. Trump’s name or refer to the call.
During the call, Mr. Trump asked, “What are we going to do here, guys? I just need 11,000 votes. Guys, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Willis wrote in his letter that his office “opened an investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the Georgia General Elections in 2020. This investigation includes, but is not limited to, possible violations of Georgia law that prohibits solicitation of electoral fraud. , the making of false statements to state and local government agencies, conspiracy, extortion, breach of oath and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election administration. “
The letter was first reported by The New York Times.
In a January 10 interview with CBS News’ “60 minutes, “Raffensperger discussed the call and said he believed the president and his team” were just trying to intimidate me and persuade me to do something “.
“He was asking us to recalibrate or recalculate, I think it was, recalculate – somehow get a different answer. But I’m an engineer. And anyone who’s good with numbers knows that you can calculate as much as you want, but the numbers are the numbers, “said Raffensperger.
A source familiar with the matter said in early January that Raffensperger’s office had received 18 calls from the White House since election day, November 3. The source said the January 2 call to Trump was the first to include Raffensperger himself.
Raffensperger’s office confirmed on Monday that it was conducting its own investigation into the call.
Willis, a Democrat who is the first black woman elected to be a district attorney for Fulton County, took office on January 1.
She requested that the posts of the top four state officials, all Republicans, preserve all documents related to the presidential election, “with special care to nullify and preserve those that may be evidence of attempts to influence the actions of people who were running that election. “
Asked about the investigation, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, criticized Willis’ decision to send the letter the day the arguments were set to begin at the former impeachment’s second impeachment trial.
“The timing here is not accidental, given today’s impeachment trial. This is simply the Democrats’ last attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everyone sees it,” said Miller.
In his letter, Willis referred to media reports that indicated that Trump and members of his team had contacted several state officials as part of their efforts to overturn the election. She wrote that her office “is the only agency with jurisdiction that is not a witness to the conduct that is the subject of the investigation”.
Willis wrote that subpoenas can be expected after Fulton County convenes its next grand jury in March.
“At this stage, we have no reason to believe that any Georgia employee is the target of this investigation,” added Willis.
Adam Brewster contributed reporting to this story.