Georgia Officials Review Trump Phone Call as
Scrutiny Intensifies
The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad
Raffensperger, has initiated a fact-finding inquiry into Donald Trump’s January
phone call to Mr. Raffensperger pressuring him to “find” votes.
By Richard
Fausset and Danny Hakim
Feb. 8,
2021
ATLANTA —
The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday
started an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to
overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Mr.
Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to
reverse his loss.
Such
inquiries are “fact-finding and administrative in nature,” the secretary’s
office said, and are a routine step when complaints are received about
electoral matters. Findings are typically brought before the
Republican-controlled state board of elections, which decides whether to refer
them for prosecution to the state attorney general or another agency.
The move
comes as Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney of Fulton County, which
encompasses much of Atlanta, is weighing whether to begin a criminal inquiry of
her own. A spokesman for Ms. Willis declined to comment on Monday.
The January
call was one of several attempts Mr. Trump made to try to persuade top
Republican officials in the state to uncover instances of voting fraud that
might change the outcome, despite the insistence of voting officials that there
was no widespread fraud to be found. He also called Gov. Brian Kemp in early
December and pressured him to call a special legislative session to overturn
his election loss. Later that month, Mr. Trump called a state investigator and
pressed the official to “find the fraud,” according to those with knowledge of
the call.
“The
Secretary of State’s office investigates complaints it receives,” Walter Jones,
a spokesman for the office, said in a statement on Monday. “The investigations
are fact-finding and administrative in nature. Any further legal efforts will
be left to the Attorney General.”
David
Worley, the sole Democrat on the state elections board, said Monday that
administrative inquiries by the secretary of state’s office could result in
criminal charges.
“Any
investigation of a statutory violation is a potential criminal investigation
depending on the statute involved,” he said, adding that in the case of Mr.
Trump, “The complaint that was received involved a criminal violation.”
Mr. Worley
said that now that an inquiry had been started by the secretary of state’s
office, he would not introduce a motion at Wednesday’s state board of election
meeting, as he had originally planned to do, in an effort to refer the case to
the Fulton County district attorney’s office.
Not long
after the call to Mr. Raffensperger became public, several complaints were
filed. One came from John F. Banzhaf
III, a George Washington University law professor.
Former
prosecutors said Mr. 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. There is also a related conspiracy charge, which can be
prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony. A third law, a misdemeanor
offense, bars “intentional interference” with another person’s “performance of
election duties.”
Jason
Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, said in a statement: “There was nothing
improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary
Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to
receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for secretary of
state.”
Mr. Biden’s
victory in Georgia was reaffirmed after election officials recertified the
state’s presidential election results in three separate counts of the ballots:
the initial election tally; a hand recount ordered by the state; and another
recount, which was requested by Mr. Trump’s campaign and completed by machines.
The results of the machine recount show Mr. Biden won with a lead of about
12,000 votes.
Mr. Biden
was the first Democrat to win the presidential election in Georgia since 1992.
Mr. Trump accused Mr. Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger, both Republicans, of not
doing enough to help him overturn the result in the weeks after the election.
Mr. Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger had each resisted numerous attacks from Mr.
Trump, who called the governor “hapless” and called on the secretary of state
to resign.
Maggie
Haberman contributed reporting.
Richard
Fausset is a correspondent based in Atlanta. He mainly writes about the
American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal
justice. He previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, including as a foreign
correspondent in Mexico City. @RichardFausset
Danny Hakim
is an investigative reporter for the business section. He has been a European
economics correspondent and bureau chief in Albany and Detroit. He was also a
lead reporter on the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. @dannyhakim
• Facebook
.jpg)
.jpg)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário