佐治亚州富尔顿县的地方检察官办公室正式对前总统展开刑事调查唐纳德·特朗普特朗普在一次听证会上发言后，他试图扭转自己在该州的竞选失败一月份的电话恳求国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格帮助他“找到11780张选票”，这是他赢得格鲁吉亚所需的准确数字。
地方检察官法尼·威利斯(Fani Willis)给州官员的一封信透露了调查的启动，信中要求他们保存任何可能与2020年大选有关的文件选举“特别注意搁置和保存那些可能是试图影响管理人员行为的证据”，包括特朗普1月2日与国务卿的电话。这封信首先由《纽约时报》报道，并由美国广播公司新闻获得。
威利斯在信中写道:“这项调查包括但不限于潜在的违反格鲁吉亚法律的行为，这些法律禁止征集选举舞弊、向州和地方政府机构做出虚假陈述、共谋、敲诈勒索、违反就职宣誓以及参与任何与选举管理有关的暴力或威胁。”
威利斯调查的消息传出两天后，佐治亚州国务卿办公室已经启动了自己的调查调查特朗普打给州官员的电话，以及美国参议院正在进行的弹劾审判，因为民主党人试图对特朗普定罪，指控他努力挫败选举失败，帮助煽动1月6日在美国国会大厦的叛乱。
特朗普高级顾问杰森·米勒在回应调查时说:“鉴于今天的弹劾审判，这里的时机不是偶然的。”。“这只是民主党人通过继续对特朗普总统进行政治迫害来获得政治分数的最新尝试，每个人都看穿了这一点。"
威利斯办公室的发言人没有立即回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。拉芬伯格办公室的一名发言人也拒绝就此事发表评论。
威利斯的信特别指出，她的办公室目前“没有理由相信任何佐治亚州的官员是这次调查的目标。”
特朗普的第一个已知呼叫佐治亚州的选举官员是在12月举行的，当时该州正在亚特兰大郊外的科布县进行签名比赛审计。据一名知情人士透露，特朗普据称恳求拉芬伯格办公室的一名调查人员“找到欺诈行为”。
后来，当美国广播公司新闻获得他1月2日长达一小时的电话录音时，选举法专家称，特朗普在电话中恳求他找到推翻选举失败所需的确切票数认为特朗普可能违反了多达三项独立的州法律。
特朗普此前否认有任何不当行为，他的弹劾律师上周提交了一份简报，质疑特朗普“在那次电话中的任何不当行为”。
Fulton County DA opens criminal probe into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia election results
The district attorney's office in Fulton County, Georgia, has formally launched a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss in the state, after Trump was heard in a January phone call pleading with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him "find 11,780 votes," the exact number he needed to win Georgia.
The launching of the investigation was revealed in a letter from District Attorney Fani Willis to state officials asking them to preserve any documents potentially related to the 2020 general election, "with particular care given to set aside and preserve those that may be evidence of attempts to influence the actions of persons who were administering" it, which would include Trump's Jan. 2 phone call with the secretary. The letter was first reported by the New York Times and obtained by ABC News.
"This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration," Willis writes in the letter.
News of Willis' investigation comes just two days after it was revealed that the Georgia secretary of state's office had launched its own investigation into Trump's phone calls to state officials, and in the midst of the U.S. Senate's ongoing impeachment trial as Democrats seek to convict Trump on charges that his efforts to thwart his election loss helped to incite the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
"The timing here is not accidental given today's impeachment trial," said Trump senior adviser Jason Miller in response to the probe. "This is simply the Democrats' latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everybody sees through it."
A spokesperson for Willis' office did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. A spokesperson for Raffensperger's office also declined to comment on the development.
Willis' letter specifically notes that her office currently has "no reason to believe that any Georgia official is a target of this investigation."
Trump's first known call to Georgia state election officials took place in December as the state was conducting a signature match audit in Cobb County, outside Atlanta. Trump allegedly pleaded with an investigator in Raffensperger's office to "find the fraud," according to an individual familiar with the call.
Later, when ABC News obtained audio of his hour-long Jan. 2 call to Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with him to find the exact amount of votes needed to overturn his election loss, election law experts argued Trump could have violated as many as three separate state laws.
Trump has previously denied any wrongdoing, and his impeachment lawyers filed a brief last week disputing that Trump "acted improperly in that telephone call in any way."
