A Georgia county prosecutor formally called Thursday for the creation of a grand jury to collect evidence and investigate whether former President Donald Trump and others interfered in the 2020 presidential election process.
Fulton County Prosecutor Fani T. Willis requested this grand jury from the Chief Justice of Fulton County, in a letter complaining that her department has made numerous efforts to collect evidence and question witnesses, but it has met with numerous resistances.
Among them, he cites that of the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, known for the call that Donald Trump made to him to ask him, supposedly, to seek the necessary votes to win in that state and annul the victory of Joe Biden.
First, it explains that the Fulton Prosecutor’s Office has “information” about the “probable” involvement of several people in interference and “disruption” of the electoral process.
And he adds that these individuals have contacted various public bodies – such as the Secretary of State or the State Attorney’s Office – which have caused the Fulton Prosecutor’s Office to now be the only body that can investigate since the other instances are now ” potential witnesses”.
According to Willis, his team has made “multiple efforts” to collect evidence and interview witnesses, but many have “refused to cooperate. “
He gives the example of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, an “essential” witness who has refused to testify without a subpoena.
Last January, the Washington Post published a conversation in which then-president Donald Trump was heard asking Raffensperger, the highest electoral authority in the state, to “seek” the necessary votes to nullify the victory of Democrat Biden in Georgia.
In this conversation, Trump first praised the Secretary of State, and then asked him to act and, given his refusal, threatened to file criminal charges against him, at the same time that he warned him that he was taking a “great risk” by not accept your requests.
Given the difficulties in being able to take statements from Raffensperger and other witnesses that she considers essential, the Fulton County prosecutor asks that a special grand jury be the one to collect evidence and take statements from witnesses.
And he provides as evidence a television interview with Raffensperger in which he insists that if the prosecutor wants to question him there is a process to do so, and stresses that he will respond if he is summoned by a grand jury.
The objective, the letter to the judge emphasizes, is to investigate “the facts and circumstances related to possible attempts at interference” in the “legitimate” holding of the 2020 elections in the state of Georgia, including the presidential elections.
The prosecutor also demanded that said grand jury be constituted in May and have up to a year to investigate.