A government-accountability watchdog has called for the Department of Justice to investigate former President Donald Trump's phone call urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
Common Cause filed a complaint on Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland — Biden's pick to lead the agency, who was confirmed by the Senate hours before the letter was sent — and acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine requesting a probe of whether Trump and other officials violated federal statutes by pressuring Georgia officials to subvert the state's election results.
"Georgians deserve to have confidence in elections and have a right under federal law to have their votes counted," the complaint read. "For months, the losing 2020 presidential election candidate Donald J. Trump and his supporters fraudulently and corruptly attempted and conspired to overturn presidential election results in Georgia. Common Cause calls on the DOJ to investigate this matter fully and to hold any and all lawbreakers accountable for their actions."
The watchdog group specifically cited Trump's January 2 telephone conversation with Raffensperger, during which Trump told the secretary of state: "All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes." A recording of the call was released by The Washington Post.
Trump was defeated by Biden by 11,779 votes out of the 5 million ballots cast, making him the first Republican to lose the Peach State in decades. Election officials counted the votes three times and certified the results on two occasions.
Last month, Raffensperger's office opened their own probe into Trump's phone call. The probe could lead to a criminal investigation by state and local authorities. His office said the inquiry was "fact-finding and administrative in nature."
But Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation "must be impartial and it must be conducted by law enforcement officials who did not play a role in the incidents outlined in the complaint."
"The reprehensible, undemocratic pressure applied by President Trump and his allies on Georgia elections officials was part of a much wider campaign by Trump officials to challenge results in predominantly Black and Brown communities in states where the election was closely contested," Flynn added.
Trump isn't the only figure Common Cause has called to be investigated. Their complaint also calls for inquiries into whether then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham or attorney Rudy Giuliani violated federal law in their conversations with Georgia officials and lawmakers.
It's been reported that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is already looking into the call Graham made to Raffensperger 10 days after the November election asking him whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties.
Newsweek reached out to the Office of the Former President for comment on the complaint but did not receive a response prior to publication.
