ATLANTA -- Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn Georgia's election results, including a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pressured him to "find" enough votes to help him reverse his loss.
On Wednesday, Fani Willis, the recently elected Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County, sent a letter to numerous officials in state government, including Raffensperger, requesting that they preserve documents related to "an investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election."
While the letter does not mention Trump by name, it is related to his intervention in Georgia's election, according to a state official with knowledge of the matter.
"This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration," the letter states.
In addition to Raffensperger, the letter was sent to some of the state's other top Republican officeholders: Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Attorney General Chris Carr.
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The inquiry comes as Trump faces a second impeachment trial in Washington this week, on a charge of "incitement of insurrection" for his role in stirring up the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan 6. The violence that day followed weeks of false claims by the former president that election fraud deprived him of victory, including in Georgia, where he lost by about 12,000 votes.
For two months after Joe Biden was declared the election winner, Trump attacked election officials in Georgia, including Raffensperger and Kemp, claiming they were not doing enough to uncover instances of voting fraud that might change the outcome. In addition to the phone call to Raffensperger, he also called 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.
The inquiry makes Georgia the second state after New York where Trump faces a criminal investigation.
The Fulton County investigation comes on the heels of a decision Monday by Raffensperger's office to open an administrative inquiry.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a statement that "the timing here is not accidental given today's 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."
Willis has been weighing for several weeks whether to open an inquiry, after Trump's phone call to Raffensperger on Jan. 2 alarmed election experts who call it an extraordinary intervention into a state's electoral process.
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 misdemeanor; as a felony, it is punishable by at least a year in prison.