The legal investigations against former President Donald Trump for his alleged attempt to interfere with the 2020 election results in Georgia are reportedly expanding to cover some actions in Washington, DC and other states under Georgia’s broad Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute.
The Georgia investigation is just one of three ongoing probes into Trump’s potentially criminal activities during his presidency. It focuses on the former president’s efforts to have Georgia officials dispute or alter the results of the state’s 2020 presidential vote, which narrowly favored President Joe Biden. The two other investigations, both overseen by federal special counsel Jack Smith, concern alleged mishandling of classified documents at the end of Trump’s presidency and efforts in other states to falsely certify the 2020 election results in his favor.
The Georgia investigation is lead by Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, a Democrat. Her office has been investigating allegations that Trump tried to convince Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, to deny that Biden won their state. In a 2021 phone call with Raffensperger, Trump urged him to “find” the campaign 11,780 more votes — one more vote than the 11,779 by which Biden won Georgia — “because we won the state.” Trump also told Raffensperger that he was taking “a big risk” if he did not overturn the state’s election results, and that Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the former general counsel for the secretary of state, could face unspecified criminal charges if they did not comply with Trump’s demands that they substantiate false claims of thousands of ballots being destroyed in Fulton County.
According to reporting from the Washington Post, Willis has been seeking information from two businesses, Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group, which Trump hired to investigate claims of voter fraud in other…
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