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The
plan by David Worley has not been previously reported. The
proposal follows other calls for an investigation into a phone
call Trump made to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger to overturn the election results based on false
voter fraud claims.
The motion, which Worley plans to present on Feb. 10, would also
urge a criminal probe by Fulton County district attorney Fani
Willis, a Democrat who has said she would “enforce the law” in
relation to Trump’s call.
Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Willis, declined to comment on
the possibility of a criminal probe. The attorney general’s
office declined to comment on whether it would investigate but
said the election board has the authority to report violations
to the AG for prosecution.
In the Jan. 2 phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow
Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss.
Trump made another phone call in December to Georgia’s chief
elections investigator, Raffensperger’s office said.
Legal experts and attorneys said Trump’s calls may have violated
at least three state criminal laws: conspiracy to commit
election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud,
and intentional interference with performance of election
duties. The felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by
fines or imprisonment.
Worley, an Atlanta attorney, told Reuters he was shocked by the
transcript of the Jan. 2 call. “The more I read it, the more
disturbing I found it,” he said, calling it an unprecedented
attempt to toss out certified votes that had been audited and
recounted.
The transcript quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: “All I want
to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes," which is the
number Trump needed to win.
Trump advisor Jason Miller did not respond to requests for
comment.
On Jan. 6 - the day of the U.S. Capitol riots - Trump bragged
about the call in a speech to supporters: “People love that
conversation because it says what’s going on,” he said. “These
people are crooked.”
In addition to the calls for Georgia state investigations, two
Democratic members of the U.S. Congress - Kathleen Rice, of New
York, and Ted Lieu, of California - asked in a Jan. 4 letter to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a criminal probe into
Trump’s call to Raffensperger.
The calls for investigations are one illustration of the legal
perils facing Trump since he lost the constitutional protections
that shield sitting presidents from prosecution. Trump now faces
nearly a dozen legal battles, including a criminal probe by
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance into his business
dealings and several civil lawsuits.
PRESSURE ESCALATES IN GEORGIA
In Georgia, Fulton County’s newly elected district attorney,
Willis, has held internal discussions about launching a criminal
probe to investigate Trump’s alleged election interference,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Such an investigation could take several months before a grand
jury decides whether the evidence supports criminal charges.
Willis would likely assign a specialized team, possibly
including outside counsel, to focus exclusively on the
high-profile case, said Joshua Morrison, a former Fulton County
senior assistant district attorney who used to work with Willis.
“That team will do nothing but work this case,” he said.
Legal experts say Georgia prosecutors could have a strong enough
case to move forward with a criminal probe.
“If you just take the idea that it’s the president out of the
equation, it becomes a much simpler and clearer thing to
imagine,” said Michael Moore, the former U.S. attorney for the
Middle District of Georgia and a former Democratic state
senator. “Was this a threatening call? Was it an effort to
influence the election? Does it warrant an investigation?”
The election board’s Worley needs the support of at least two
Republicans on the five-member board to pass his motion calling
for investigations. One Republican member is Raffensperger,
whose office declined to comment on how he might vote - or
whether he would recuse himself because he was on the call with
Trump.
Another Republican board member, Matthew Mashburn, told Reuters
it would be “premature” to comment on how he would vote but that
it’s the board’s duty to “make sure the elections are as fair
and transparent and accurate as possible.”
The other two Republican board members, Anh Le and Rebecca
Sullivan, did not respond to requests for comment. If the motion
fails to reach a majority, Worley said he would send the matter
directly to Willis and Carr himself.
The board’s requests for investigations have no force of law,
but they carry weight with prosecutors. Mashburn said he has
never seen the attorney general or district attorney refuse to
investigate a case referred by the election board.
The board bases its motions seeking investigations on complaints
from the public and election officials about improprieties. The
complaint that prompted Worley’s motion came from John Banzhaf,
a George Washington University law professor with a long history
of public-interest legal work, which includes playing a role in
driving cigarette commercials off the air. Banzhaf, 80, said he
grabbed his laptop immediately after hearing reports of Trump’s
phone call to Raffensperger and started typing out the complaint
from his vacation home in Florida.
“I thought it was a good idea to force the issue,” he said in an
interview. “Bottom line: I think there’s a strong case against
Mr. Trump.”
(Reporting by Linda So; editing by Jason Szep and Brian Thevenot)
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