March, 09 2021, 11:00pm EDT
WASHINGTON
A month after Common Cause Georgia called on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to refer to the federal DOJ his investigation of President Donald Trump's January 2nd phone call with Raffensperger, Common Cause has filed its own complaint with the DOJ.
The complaint, filed today, urges the DOJ to investigate whether Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham, Rudolph W. Giuliani and others violated multiple federal laws by attempting to overturn presidential election results in Georgia via the hour-long Jan. 2 phone call to Raffensperger and other events and communications with Georgia officials, including:
- repeated efforts by Trump and his allies to pressure Raffensperger to publicly endorse Trump's campaign;
- a November 13, 2020 phone call between Raffensperger and Sen. Lindsey Graham, during which Graham asked Raffensperger if he had the ability to "toss all mail ballots" in some counties;
- a December 2020 phone call between Trump and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, during which Trump warned Carr not to get involved in a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton;
- the December 2020 appearances by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his team of "experts and witnesses" -- during which Georgia state legislators were urged to ignore the election results and instead appoint Electoral College electors who would vote for Trump;
- a December 23, 2020 phone call from Trump to Georgia's lead elections investigator;
- a December 30, 2020 Trump tweet targeting Georgia's Governor, Brian Kemp; and
- a January 3, 2021 phone call to the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, which was followed almost immediately by the US Attorney's resignation.
"Our country deserves a thorough, independent federal investigation of Trump's efforts to overturn the will of Georgia's voters. That's why we called on Secretary Raffensperger to refer his investigation to the Department of Justice rather than pursuing it in-house" said Aunna Dennis, Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia. "Between Secretary Raffensperger's personal involvement and Attorney General Carr's links to a group that urged people to 'march to the Capitol building' on January 6th, any state-level investigation is going to be irrevocably tainted. But another month has passed, without any indication that Secretary Raffensperger has referred his investigation; so Common Cause and Common Cause Georgia are filing our own complaint today."
"This 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 or the insurrection that followed on January 6th at the United States Capitol," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. "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."
The complaint urges the DOJ to investigate former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senator Lindsey Graham, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Cleta Mitchell, Kurt Hilbert and others, in addition to President Trump.
Along with potential election fraud charges, the complaint contemplates conspiracy charges as well as violations of federal wire fraud statutes, particularly theft of "honest services."
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is currently investigating many of these same events as possible violations of state laws.
More than a month after Trump's phone call to Raffensperger was publicly disclosed, Raffensperger's office launched an investigation of the call. The following day, Common Cause Georgia publicly urged Raffensperger to refer his investigation to the DOJ, citing Raffensperger's public statements that he and his family voted for Trump and Carr's leadership of the Republican Attorney General's Association, which was linked to the January 6th rally that devolved into an attack on the US Capitol.
"Georgians deserve to have confidence in elections and have a right under federal law to have their votes counted. 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," according to today's complaint. "Common Cause calls on the DOJ to investigate this matter fully and to hold any and all lawbreakers accountable for their actions."
To read the full complaint filed today, click here.
To read the February 9, 2021 call for Raffensperger to refer his investigation to the DOJ, click here.
To view this release online, click here.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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"Reminder that Donald Trump Jr. sits on Polymarket's advisory board and his firm invested double-digit millions into the platform last year."
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Bloomberg reported that six accounts on Polymarket, all newly created this month, "made around $1 million in profit" by betting on the timing of the US attack on Iran. The accounts, according to Bloomberg, "had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur," and "some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran."
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Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) wrote that "prediction markets cannot be a vehicle for profiting off advance knowledge of military action" and demanded "answers, transparency, and oversight."
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During his early Saturday remarks announcing the attacks, President Donald Trump claimed that "imminent threats from the Iranian regime" against "the American people" drove him to act. But Kimball said that administration officials "provided absolutely no evidence" to back that assertion during the briefing.
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Following the start of Saturday's assault, which Trump explicitly characterized as a war aimed at overthrowing the Iranian government, unnamed administration officials began leaking the claim that Trump feared an Iranian attack on the massive US military buildup in the Middle East, prompting him to greenlight the bombing campaign in coordination with Israel and with a nudge from Saudi Arabia.
Kimball, in a social media post, took members of the US media to task for echoing the administration's narrative. "Reporters need to do more than stenography," he wrote in response to Punchbowl's Jake Sherman.
"The American people were lied to about Iraq. The American people are being lied to again today—and once again, it is ordinary people who will pay the price."
Trump and top administration officials also repeated the longstanding claim from US warhawks that Iran is bent on developing a nuclear weapon, something Iranian leaders have publicly denied—including during recent diplomatic talks. Neither US intelligence assessments nor international nuclear watchdogs have produced evidence indicating that Iran is moving rapidly in the direction of nukes, as claimed by the administration.
Rozen noted that some remarks from administration officials during Saturday's briefing "suggested Trump’s negotiators"—a team that included Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff—"may not have had the expertise or experience to understand the Iranian proposal to curb its nuclear program." Rozen reported that one administration official kept misstating the acronym for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
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Brian Finucane, a senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, noted in response that the Trump administration has "sidelined anyone who could articulate... a coherent argument, partly because expertise is deep state and woke and partly because they just don't care."
The result is another potentially catastrophic war that runs roughshod over US and international law, puts countless civilians at risk, and threatens to spark a region-wide conflict.
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The top Democrats in the US Congress, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, faced backlash on Saturday over what critics described as tepid, equivocal responses to President Donald Trump's illegal assault on Iran—and for slowwalking efforts to prevent the war before the bombing began.
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Schumer (D-NY)—who infamously worked to defeat the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned during his first White House term, setting the stage for the current crisis—said he "implored" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to "be straight with Congress and the American people about the objectives of these strikes and what comes next."
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The Democratic leaders' responses bolstered the view that their objections to Trump's attack on Iran are based on procedure, not opposition to war.
This is a disgusting and cowardly statement handwringing about process and the need for a briefing.
No you idiot. This war is a horror and a disaster and must be directly opposed. Any Democrat who can’t say that needs to resign and ESPECIALLY the ones in leadership. https://t.co/CdZoEyNkOy
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) February 28, 2026
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has been floated as a possible 2028 challenger to Schumer, said Saturday that "the American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions."
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was more blunt.
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