The sky is darkening a little more for the former president of the United States, who is about to be the subject of a new investigation. A Georgia prosecutor on Wednesday (February 10) announced the opening of a preliminary investigation into “Attempts to influence electoral operations in Georgia”, a key state where Donald Trump stepped up pressure on election officials to challenge his presidential defeat.
“This survey will include [notamment] potential violations of Georgia’s electoral laws which prohibit asking local and state officials to commit fraud or give false testimony ”the Fulton County prosecutor wrote in a letter to several officials. Fani Willis, a recently elected African American Democrat, asks them to “Keep all documents relating to the elections” and especially those who “Attest to attempts to influence” election officials, according to a copy of his letter reproduced by several local media.
“No harm in saying that you have recalculated”
This letter was addressed to Georgia Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, among others, who has come under much pressure from Mr. Trump. The Republican billionaire asked him, in a phone call made public on January 3, to ” find “ nearly 12,000 ballots in his name, enough to catch up with Joe Biden in this state. “It’s okay to say you’ve recalculated”, he had declared.
Mr. Trump is currently on trial in the Senate for “Incitement to insurgency” in connection with the assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6. He is also the subject of investigations in New York which initially concerned sums paid to former mistresses alleged to buy their silence during the 2016 campaign, but now relate more broadly to possible banking or tax fraud.
