After making history by becoming the first U.S. President to be arrested, Donald Trump flew from New York back to Mar-a-Lago to hold a speech.
During the speech, he spoke against the 34 felony criminal charges he faces in New York and also took a moment to address his criminal case in Georgia.
In true Trump fashion, the former president used low-brow language to take aim at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Trump made his legal issue about race by suggestion that Willis is only going after him because he is white.
“In the wings, they’ve got a local racist Democrat district attorney from Atlanta who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call,” Trump said. “This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election, and it should be dropped immediately.”
But in reality, the multiple phone calls that Trump made to Georgia officials during the 2020 election could be more disastrous for him than the 34 felony counts he’s facing in New York.
Members of the special grand jury in Fulton County, who remain anonymous, shared that they heard a new recording of Trump pressuring David Ralston who served as Georgia House Speaker at the time.
In December 2020, jurors said the recording revealed that Trump asked Ralston to summons a special grand jury to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Ralston, who passed in November, went against Trump’s request.
Trumps is also on record asking secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp to help overturn the election on separate occasions. He asked Raffensperger during a phone call to help him secure over 11,000 votes, the amount in which he trailed Joe Biden in Georgia. During a recorded call that took place on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump told Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
Trump also asked Kemp to convene a special session to overturn Biden’s victory. Both went against Trump’s requests. The report also revealed that jurors believed that several witnesses may have lied under oath.
Willis is examining if suspects in the case are guilty of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, making false statements to state and local governmental officials, involvement of violence or threats related to election administration and racketeering.
If Willis chooses to charge Trump with a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), he could face 20 years of imprisonment.
In Georgia, new grand jury panels begin in May. Willis could present her findings to a panel at that point and choose to indict the former president.
