The Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Georgia has opened a criminal investigation against former U.S. President Donald Trump regarding his attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the recently elected Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis informed multiple officials in Georgia, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, about the investigation into Trump for his efforts to annul local voting results during the presidential election. The New York Times indicated that Willis has requested state authorities to preserve documents related to a call between Trump and Raffensperger concerning the election results, as part of a "criminal investigation" against the former president.
With this action, Georgia becomes the second U.S. state after New York to open a criminal investigation against Trump. The judicial authorities in Fulton are expected to take a firm stance against the former Republican president, given that this district clearly supported his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who won the race. According to the official election results announced on December 14, Trump suffered a clear defeat to Biden, who received 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for the former president, after more than a month following the election day on November 3.
Former President Donald Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat in the November elections and declared during a speech in front of thousands of his supporters outside the White House that he would not "let election fraud go unchecked" and would "never concede" while vowing to stop the "steal."
Trump urged his Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of Biden's victory in Congress, stating: "I hope that my Vice President Mike Pence will do his duty and send the election results back to the states for correction." At the time, the former president noted that Supreme Court justices were not loyal to him and had ruled against him. Trump accused what he termed "the misleading media" of being "the big problem and contributing to the election fraud."
All U.S. states certified that Democrat Biden won the election with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232, while Trump's efforts to challenge Biden's victory in courts across the country failed. This development coincides with Trump's trial in the U.S. Senate in the context of his impeachment, wherein he is accused of inciting insurrection during the Capitol storming on January 6.
