Donald Trump has again insisted his January 2021 phone call urging Georgia election officials to “find” him more votes - which is now under investigation by a grand jury - was “perfect”.
Fulton County began impanelling jurors on Monday to examine whether the former president and his allies tried to illegally influence the 2020 election after a request from District Attorney Fani Willis.
The District Attorney’s office is looking into a January 2021 phone call in which Mr Trump pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed for him to win the state.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Mr Trump said during the conversation on 2 January.
Responding on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote that the “Witch Hunt” against him was continuing in “one of the most corrupt areas anywhere in the country”.
“A ‘Special’ get Trump Grand Jury has been convened to discuss a ‘PERFECT’ phone call that was made by me, as president, directly from the White House and with many lawyers and other people knowingly on the call, and with my assumption that the call was being recorded.
“As President I am the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the U.S. The Election was rigged and stolen!”
Mr Trump and his political allies have repeatedly pushed false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and pressed election officials in six swing states where Joe Biden one to change their results.
Democratic activist Ron Filipkowski wrote Georgia was the state that Mr Trump “always worried about”.
“Because this time, the ‘perfect calls’ are on tape.”
Mr Filipkowski said Mr Trump calling himself the “Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the US” was “autocratic fantasy”.
Speaking on CNN on Monday night, District Attorney Willis said her investigation would examine “anything connected with interference with the 2020 election”.
That will include the slate of fake Electoral College certifications that Mr Trump’s supporters tried to put forward in Georgia.
“I’ve allowed that to be a broad scope, not just the (former) President’s phone call that you played there but other things that indicate that there may have been interference with that election, to include fake electorates.”
Investigators are also examining a November 2020 phone call between Senator Lindsey Graham and Mr Raffensperger, the abrupt resignation of the US Attorney in Atlanta on 4 January 2021, and comments made during December 2020 Georgia legislative committee hearings on the election.
Ms Willis has been investigating election interference in the state since early last year, and requested the grand jury in January to allow her to issue subpoenas to those who have refused to cooperate otherwise.
Ms Willis told CNN more than 50 potential witnesses have refused to voluntarily speak to her investigators.
