Photos: YouTube\Wikimedia Commons\Gage Skidmore
The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced last night that it is opening an investigation into former President Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call to the secretary about “finding” 11,780 ballots, broadly understood to be an invitation to manipulate vote tallies in a manner which would have overturned the state’s election results.
The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, acting president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“For months, former President Trump tried to ignore the will of Georgia’s racially and ethnically diverse voters, attempting to improperly influence the democratic process with relentless and remorseless attacks on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. We are pleased to see that the secretary is acting to hold Trump accountable for his egregious actions.
“In November, the people of Georgia went to the polls in record numbers to cast their ballots and have their voices heard. Nobody, not even a president, should be able to falsely undermine the validity of an election and attempt to overturn the will of the people without facing consequences.”
The opening of this investigation was initiated by Georgetown University Law school professor John Banzhaf III.
In a Jan 4th statement, Banzhaff told the Georgia Secretary’s office “that this matter be fully investigated, and action be taken to the extent appropriate.” Banzhaff stated that Trump likely committed several Georgia crimes including “conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with the performance of election duties.”
Walter Jones, a spokesman for the officer of the Georgia Secretary of state said: “The secretary of state’s office investigates complaints it receives. The investigations are fact-finding and administrative in nature. Any further legal efforts will be left to the attorney general.”
Other legal experts have agreed Trump conduct on the Raffensperger’s call may have violated as many as four Georgia laws.
The Dean of Mercer University’s law school, Cathy Cox, a former Georgia Secretary of State, said of Trump’s comments: “I would not have believed if I read this in a fiction novel that anybody would ever try anything this brazen. It is that stunningly improper.”
Cox also said: “There were certainly comments, threats, statements made by the president that a prosecutor could arguably find violated state or federal law. That would not be a stretch.”
This criminal complaint could lead to the imprisonment of Donald Trump.
