Could Georgia criminal probe be case that brings Donald Trump down?
- A special grand jury in Georgia is investigating possible illegal attempts by Trump and others to influence the 2020 election in the state
- A potentially year-long process, the probe could end in Trump facing a raft of solicitation and conspiracy charges
Prime-time congressional hearings and an unprecedented FBI raid on his home have ramped up legal pressures on Donald Trump, but analysts say a slow-moving, lower key investigation in Georgia could be the case that finally brings him down.
Scrutiny of the former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election in the state he lost to Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes is intensifying as he eyes a third run for the White House in 2024.
The 76-year-old immediately cried foul after becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia in almost three decades.
But after three presidential ballot counts and the failure of numerous lawsuits, no evidence of significant voter fraud surfaced in the critical swing state.
Trump nevertheless meddled repeatedly in Georgia politics, pushing for secretary of state Brad Raffensperger in a now-infamous taped phone call to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory.
A group of Brookings Institution legal experts wrote in October last year that Trump’s post-election conduct in the state “leaves him at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes”.