A criminal probe into accusations that former President Donald Trump deliberately acted to overturn the 2020 presidential election following his loss moves forward in Georgia.
Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Joe Biden but refused to accept the results, culminating in an hour-long conference call with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger refused to bow to Trump's pressure to change the vote totals based on unsubstantiated and incorrect reports.
Since then, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has worked diligently to spearhead an investigation into Trump. Yet, even in heavily Democratic Atlanta, pursuing such action is fraught with challenges. In particular, Willis runs the risk of failing to balance the needs of her constituents (especially with the rising crime rate) while pursuing her criminal probe into the former president.
“What I can tell you is that the Trump investigation is ongoing. As a district attorney, I do not have the right to look the other way on any crime that may have happened in my jurisdiction,” Willis told reporters this week. “We have a team of lawyers that is dedicated to that, but my No. 1 priority is to make sure that we keep violent offenders off the street.”
Investigators are plowing ahead as Trump continues to weigh his political future and wade into Peach State politics with a Georgia rally set for late September.
Trump — still burned by his 2020 defeat and feeling betrayed by local officials who refused to help him overturn the 2020 election results — has rolled out a number of endorsements in Georgia.
Among them: Rep. Jody Hice, who is trying to unseat Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and state Sen. Burt Jones, who is running for the open lieutenant governor seat. Both Raffensperger and outgoing Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan stood up to Trump's attempts to overturn the election. Both of Trump's picks to replace them are Republicans who have embraced Trump's false claims of election fraud.
