The Fulton County, Georgia district attorney has opened a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the outcome of the state’s presidential election. narrowly lost to Joe Biden.
The prosecutor, Fani Willis, sent letters Wednesday morning to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, writing that the investigation is a “high priority case.” Copies of letters to the four officials have been provided to CBS News.
Sources with the offices of Willis and Raffensperger have confirmed that the prosecutor is asking for documents regarding a recorded telephone conversation from January 2 Mr. Trump did, among other things, to Raffensperger, although the letters do not explicitly mention or refer to Mr. Trump on the telephone conversation.
During the conversation, Mr. Trump asked, “What are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Guys, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Willis wrote in her letter that her agency “has opened an investigation into attempts to influence the governance of the 2020 general election in Georgia. This investigation includes, but is not limited to, possible violations of Georgian law calling for electoral fraud. prohibits making false statements to state and local government authorities, conspiracy, extortion, violation of the oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to election administration. “
The letter was first reported by The New York Times.
In a Jan. 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 get me to do something. “
“He asked us to recalibrate or recalculate, I believe it was, recalculate – somehow get a different answer. But I’m an engineer. And anyone good with numbers knows you can calculate anything. whatever you want, but the numbers are the numbers, ‘said Raffensperger.
A source familiar with the case said in early January that Raffensperger’s office had received 18 attempted calls from the White House since election day on Nov. 3. The source said the January 2 phone call to Mr. Trump was the first in which Raffensperger himself was involved.
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 as a district attorney in Fulton County, took office on Jan. 1.
She requested the offices of the four most senior state officials, all of whom are Republicans, to keep all documents pertaining to the presidential of people. who ran that election. “
Asked for comment on the investigation, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, criticized Willis’s decision to send the letter on the day the arguments would begin in the second impeachment trial against the former president.
“The timing here is no coincidence, given today’s impeachment process. This is just the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everyone is seeing through it,” Miller said.
In her letter, Willis was referring to media reports indicating that Trump and members of his team had contacted multiple government officials as part of his efforts to reverse the election. She wrote that her office is “the only body with jurisdiction that does not witness the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.”
Willis wrote that subpoenas can be expected after Fulton County convenes the next grand jury in March.
“At this stage, we have no reason to believe that a Georgian official is the target of this investigation,” added Willis.
Adam Brewster contributed reporting for this story.