Investigations of Trump for 'potential violations of Georgia law' are heating up: report

The aftermath of the United States' 2020 presidential election was unprecedented in U.S. history. Never before had a president lost by more than 7 million votes, falsely claimed that he won and tried to bully, coerce and intimidate election officials into helping him overturn democratic election results — including those in Georgia, where Trump continues to face a criminal investigation over his efforts to strongarm Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a conservative Republican who maintained that now-President Joe Biden legitimately won the state.

In an article published by The Guardian on October 5, journalist Peter Stone explains, "A criminal investigation into Trump's 2 January call prodding Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to 'just find him 11,780 votes' to block Joe Biden's win in the state is making headway. The Georgia district attorney running the inquiry is now also sharing information with the House committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, a Justice Department taskforce investigating threats to election officials nationwide has launched inquiries in Georgia, where election officers and workers received death threats or warnings of violence — including some after Trump singled out one official publicly for not backing his baseless fraud claims."

Eleven months after losing the election, Stone notes, Trump isn't backing down from his "bogus fraud claims in Georgia."

Stone reports, "Trump wrote to Raffensperger in September, asking him to decertify the election results — which is impossible — and with an eye on the 2022 elections, is trying to oust Raffensperger, as well as the state's governor, Brian Kemp, and other top Republicans who defied his demands to block Biden's win. Former Justice Department officials and voting rights advocates say Trump's conspiratorial attacks on Georgia's election results, and the threats to public officials, need to be investigated diligently and prosecuted if warranted by law enforcement to protect election integrity and public officials."

According to Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney for Georgia's Fulton County — which includes Atlanta — Trump is being investigated by her office for "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."

Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, who served in the George W. Bush Administration during the 2000s, told The Guardian, "Trump engaged in a pattern of repeated personal communications aimed at altering the vote count and making himself the winner in Georgia. He did so in the absence of any even arguable evidence of voting or counting irregularities. Unless there are other presently unknown facts that would explain it, this conduct appears to satisfy the requirements of a number of Georgia criminal statutes."