An investigation into whether former President Donald Trump broke the law trying to overturn his 2020 presidential loss in Georgia has expanded to include activities in other states, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched an investigation into Trump in February 2021, one month after audio surfaced of a phone call between the then-president and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In the call, Trump urged officials to “find” enough votes to overturn his election loss to now-President Joe Biden.
A grand jury investigating Trump finished its work and issued a report that has yet to be made fully public in January. Willis has said that she plans to make a decision on whether to file charges against Trump in the summer.
Citing two unidentified sources with knowledge of the probe, the Post reported Friday that Willis has recently sought information about two firms hired to study whether there was electoral fraud in the 2020 election. The newspaper reported that the firms, Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group, found no evidence of fraud, prompting the Trump campaign to bury their findings.
Willis’ office has asked both firms for information about their studies of the election in Georgia and in other states, the Post reported. The newspaper noted that Trump challenged 2020 election results in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Experts believe that Willis is likely to present a grand jury with possible racketeering charges in connection with the investigation, WSB-TV reported. Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute is considered to be very broad and allows prosecutors to build cases based on violations of state and federal law, including activities in other states, according to the Post.
Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing, often framing his call with Raffensberger as “a perfect call.”
In addition to the Georgia probe, Trump also faces several other legal challenges. In March, a grand jury in New York indicted the former president on 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first president to face criminal charges. The charges came six months after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, accusing him of fraud.
Federal authorities are also investigating his efforts to block Biden’s 2020 election win and classified records found after his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trump announced last year that he is running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.
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