Georgia prosecutors investigate election fraud, conspiracy after Trump's pressure campaign as part of 'high-priority' criminal probe
Local prosecutors in Georgia have 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.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday that he intends to cooperate with the inquiry led by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.
According to the Feb. 10 letter alerting state authorities to the inquiry, prosecutors are investigating solicitation of election fraud, false statements, conspiracy, oath of office violations, racketeering and violence associated with threats to the election process.
"This matter is of high priority, and I am confident that as fellow law enforcement officers sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States and Georgia, our acquisition of information and evidence of potential crimes via interviews, documents, videos and electronic records will be cooperative," according to the notice signed by District Attorney Fani Willis.
"I always cooperate with authorities," Raffensperger said, adding that he was not aware of when the information was required to be provided to prosecutors.
Fulton County officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a phone call Jan. 2, Trump pressed 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.
Separately, Trump also urged a Georgia election investigator in a phone call in December to "find the fraud."
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.
Disclosure of the Georgia investigation comes 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 forcibly halt the certification of the election of President Joe Biden after months of Trump claiming there was widespread election fraud even though his own Justice Department found no evidence of such 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 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.
FACT CHECK: What's actually true (and what's not) about the 2020 election
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia prosecutors investigating election meddling after Trump calls
