Ga. election officials formally launch investigation into Trump phone calls
The Georgia Secretary of State's office has formally launched an investigation into former President Donald Trump's phone calls to state election officials in which he sought help to overturn the results of the election after President Joe Biden's narrow victory was certified twice.
The investigation, which follows a series of formal complaints filed by a law professor alleging that Trump violated the law during those calls, marks the first formal investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the election in the state.
Investigations by the secretary of state's office can take months to complete, but it marked a major development on the eve of Trump's second impeachment trial. The single article of impeachment against the president, which accuses him of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, briefly mentions the phone call with the secretary.
Trump's impeachment lawyers defended Trump's actions on the call in a brief submitted to the House the last week and "denied that President Trump acted improperly in that telephone call in any way."
In a statement sent to ABC News on Monday, Jason Miller, Trump's senior adviser, said, "There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr. Raffensperger didn't want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn't have run for Secretary of State. And the only reason the call became public was because Mr. Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points."
Trump also defended his call while speaking at a rally in D.C. on Jan. 6.
"I thought it was a great conversation," he said. "People loved that the conversation."
-ABC New's Quinn Scanlan, Devin Dwyer and Olivia Rubin
