Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who can be running for re-election on the Republican ticket, holds his first press briefing of Election Day in Atlanta, Georgia, November 8, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Jack Smith, the Department of Justice special counsel overseeing two criminal investigations of former President Donald Trump, has issued a subpoena in search of documents from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Smith’s subpoena, which Raffensperger’s office confirmed to NBC News, appears connected to the probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to President Joe Biden.
A source acquainted with the subpoena, which the secretary of state’s office received Monday, told NBC that Raffensperger’s lawyers are “weighing options” for a timeline to reply to the subpoena.
Trump on Jan. 2, 2021, unsuccessfully lobbied Raffensperger to “find” the ex-president enough votes in Georgia to reverse Biden’s win there.
Georgia was one in every of a handful of swing states that gave Biden his margin of victory within the Electoral College, which selects the president.
“All I need to do is that this. I just want to search out 11,780 votes, which is another than we now have,” Trump told Raffensperger in that decision.
“Because we won the state,” Trump said.
Raffensperger refused to comply with Trump’s request.
Smith issued the subpoena to Raffensperger three weeks after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him as special counsel.
Smith was tapped for that job days after Trump announced he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Smith is overseeing the investigation into whether Trump and every other person illegally interfered within the the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election, or Congress’ certification of Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6, 2021.
The highest prosecutor is also investigating Trump for his removal of presidency documents from the White House when he left office.
An FBI raid of Trump’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, in August found 1000’s of presidency records, greater than 100 of which were marked classified or highly classified.
A state grand jury in Atlanta individually is collecting testimony and other evidence as a part of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s criminal probe into whether Trump and various allies broke the law of their bid to reverse Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Raffensperger testified before that grand jury in June.
