Georgia secretary of state to testify to grand jury investigating Trump effort to overturn election

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving finish of an notorious Jan. 2, 2021, cellphone name by which then-President Donald Trump pleaded with him "to search out 11,780 votes," will testify below oath Thursday earlier than a particular grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Raffensperger, whose workplace oversees Georgia's elections, is amongst not less than half a dozen folks working in his workplace who've been subpoenaed to testify in June earlier than the particular grand jury in Fulton County. The subpoenas, which have been first obtained by the Atlanta-Journal Structure, present the earliest glimpses into an unprecedented felony probe of a president's interactions with state elections officers.

The secretary of state obtained a separate subpoena for paperwork, together with "writing or medium that memorializes the occasions surrounding the January 2, 2021 phone name with President Donald Trump," and "any writing or medium that explains" Trump's conduct throughout the name.

These requests may assist the particular grand jury get a greater sense of Trump's intent, in accordance with Melissa Redmon, a College of Georgia regulation professor and former Fulton County prosecutor. Redmon mentioned Raffensperger will probably be requested questions that "get into the intent of the president."

"What was his frame of mind? Did he simply not know the way elections work? Was he asking you to commit fraud?" mentioned Redmon, who was beforehand the director of the Fulton County District Lawyer's Public Integrity Unit. "If you walked away, did you consider you had been given a directive?"

Georgia Law Enforcement Appreciation Cookout
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks in Glennville, Georgia, on Thursday, April 14, 2022.  Invoice Clark

The particular grand jury additionally demanded Raffensperger's workplace flip over paperwork associated to a forensic audit of Georgia voting machines and knowledge associated to unbiased oversight of the election. Redmon mentioned that info could possibly be essential to prosecutors crafting a case towards Trump.

"If the try was to falsely declare that Donald Trump received Georgia, however actually he didn't, then a part of the overarching case is to point out he didn't," Redmon mentioned.

The particular grand jury investigating Trump consists of 23 Fulton County residents, plus three alternates, chosen on Could 2. Particular grand juries are uncommon. They're dedicated to only one investigation, which concludes after they produce a report for prosecutors, who finally determine whether or not to file costs. The decide overseeing the particular grand jury mentioned Could 2 that this one might find yourself serving for so long as a 12 months.

That period of time is required for an investigation by which the stakes are traditionally excessive, in accordance with Clinton Rucker, a former Fulton County prosecutor who has labored with District Lawyer Fani Willis on complicated, high-profile instances.

"What it's a must to recognize is rarely within the historical past of our nation has a president been investigated on this approach for interfering with an election. So it is a case of first impression in lots of respects," Rucker mentioned. "So for my part, from the very starting, all bets are off. There isn't any precedent."

Willis was voted into workplace the identical day Trump was voted out in 2020, and was inaugurated simply sooner or later earlier than the cellphone name that's central to her investigation. However she beforehand spent 17 years working for the Fulton County District Lawyer's Workplace, prosecuting a lot of its most important instances.

5 weeks after the Jan. 2 name, Willis notified a number of state officers of her investigation, together with Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

Kemp and his workplace haven't obtained subpoenas from the particular grand jury, in accordance with a information request, however in February 2021 he was instructed in a letter from Willis to protect paperwork and information associated to the investigation.

"Fani is a bulldog. She's at all times been a bulldog, from the primary day I met her. She is actually passionate," Rucker mentioned.

Willis is "meticulous" in her investigative work, mentioned Redmon.

"She knew her instances backwards and forwards and knew all the pieces about her instances, what every witness mentioned and after they mentioned it," Redmon mentioned. "So I think about that continues to be her technique, gathering the entire proof, analyzing the entire proof and deciding what, if any costs are applicable."

Trump mentioned in a Jan. 20 assertion that, "My cellphone name to the Secretary of State of Georgia was excellent."

A spokesperson for Trump claimed in a Could 2 textual content to CBS Information that an "unlawful poll trafficking ring" had influenced the end result of Georgia's election, referring to unproven claims typically made by Trump and his supporters.

"A grand jury ought to be opened for the large voter fraud in Georgia in 2020," mentioned Liz Harrington, the Trump spokesperson.

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