Georgia probes Trump effort to overturn election

A state prosecutor sent letters to officials requesting they preserve records as part of a criminal probe into efforts to sway the results of the Georgia's election.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

Prosecutors in Georgia have launched a criminal probe into Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential results.

The Fulton County prosecutor, Democrat Feni Willis, whose district covers the state capital, Atlanta, sent letters to Georgia's governor Brian Kemp, the Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state's attorney general and other officials that her office was looking into a number of possible crimes including solicitation of election fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering.

The prosecutor asked the officials to preserve records that may be "evidence of attempts to influence the actions of persons who were administering that election." The investigation by Willis is the most serious probe facing Trump in Georgia connected to a Jan.

2 phone call pressuring Raffensperger to overturn the state's election results based on unfounded voter fraud claims. Trump told Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes”, adding, “there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.” The Fulton County prosecutor's probe comes two days after Raffensperger's office opened its own investigation into Trump’s phone call.

Representatives for the county prosecutor and for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

Donald Trump had refused to accept Democratic President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia and other swing states, falsely alleging that Georgia's election results were tainted by fraud - claims forcefully refuted by that state's Republican leaders.