<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654192000450,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654192000450,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54191994", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"818341"} }); ","_id":"00000181-2586-df81-a381-67b6345c0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedGeorgia’s top elections official appeared Thursday before a special grand jury investigating allegations that former President Donald Trump and others in his circle illegally attempted to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was called to the Fulton County courthouse where a special grand jury has been convening, according to court documents. Five others in Raffensperger’s office have also been subpoenaed to testify in the district attorney’s investigation into the 2020 election.
Speaking to reporters outside the building, Raffensperger said he hoped his time on the stand would be “short.”
A TALE OF 2 STATES: GEORGIA, PENNSYLVANIA, AND THE CASE FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY LAWS
Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican who recently won his party’s nomination for a second term, is the key witness in the 16-month investigation that is centered on the telephone call Trump made to him on Jan. 2, 2021, during which the one-term president urged Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to put him ahead of Biden.
Trump has maintained that his call with the secretary of state was “perfect” and has denied accusations of wrongdoing.
The former president has repeatedly peddled the false narrative that the Georgia elections were rigged against him and that he was the true victor.
The investigation into Trump’s alleged tactics has expanded in recent months to include other alleged attempts to influence the results of Georgia’s presidential contest, including false documents filed by 16 Georgia Republicans who claimed to be alternative Electoral College electors, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Raffensperger’s office was also asked to provide evidence “that memorializes the events” surrounding the telephone call, as well as a copy of a forensic audit of Georgia’s Dominion voting equipment and other documents.
In his memoir, Integrity Counts, Raffensperger wrote that he felt threatened by Trump during the hourlong telephone call, especially when Trump said: “All of this stuff is very dangerous stuff when you talk about no criminality. I think it’s very dangerous for you to say that.”
Raffensperger reiterated, “I felt then — and still believe today — that this was a threat. Others obviously thought so, too, because some of Trump’s more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out this threat.”
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Following his loss in Georgia, Trump vowed to remove Raffensperger and GOP Gov. Brian Kemp from their office. On May 24, both Kemp and Raffensperger easily won their primaries against Trump-backed candidates.
