Source: Drew Angerer / Getty
Two members of the House of Representatives are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into President Donald Trump after he asked to overturn Georgia’s election results in a leaked phone call on Saturday with Georgia officials including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) wrote in a joint letter to Wray on Monday. “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.”
Trump told Raffensperger “to find votes” that would give him a winning-margin and erase President-elect Biden’s victory in the state.
“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. To which Raffensperger responded by saying, “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong.”
The hour-long phone call between Trump, his attorneys and Georgia state officials featured a series of falsehoods as the president repeatedly pushed Raffensperger to admit fraud accusations; and even suggested if the secretary of state did not comply with Trump’s wishes, that he could be criminally liable.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday the president’s conduct was “impeachable,” while her congressional colleague, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said it “merits nothing less than a criminal investigation.”
The call for an investigation by the members of congress comes a day before two runoff Senate elections in Georgia. Trump and his campaign have spent the past two months seeking to overturn the election results in several states. An effort that has fallen short with legal challenges being rejected more than fifty times, not including personal pleas from Trump to the Supreme Court.
