Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also 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
The Department of Justice special counsel overseeing two criminal investigations of former President Donald Trump, Jack Smith, has issued a subpoena seeking documents from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Smith’s subpoena, which Raffensperger’s office confirmed to NBC News, is connected to the probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to President Joe Biden. Officials of four other battleground states — Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — previously received similar subpoenas.
A copy of the subpoena obtained by The Washington Post, directs Raffensperger’s office to produce all communications from June 1, 2020, through Jan. 20, 2021, from or involving Trump, his presidential campaign, or any employee or attorney for that campaign.
A source familiar 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 respond 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 of a handful of swing states that gave Biden his margin of victory in the Electoral College, which selects the president.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump told Raffensperger in that call.
“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 any other person illegally interfered in the the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election, or Congress’ certification of Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6, 2021.
The top prosecutor also is investigating Trump for his removal of government 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 thousands of government records, more than 100 of which were marked classified or highly classified.
A state grand jury in Atlanta separately is collecting testimony and other evidence as part of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s criminal probe into whether Trump and various allies broke the law in their bid to reverse Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Raffensperger testified before that grand jury in June.
