Timeline: What Georgia prosecutors are looking at as they investigate Trump’s efforts to overturn the election
Phase I
Trump loses Georgia
Georgians went to the polls after a bitter campaign. Trump held onto a narrow lead for three days until President Joe Biden pulled ahead, buoyed by mail-in ballots that took longer to count. After his loss, Trump started falsely claiming Biden only won because of rampant voter fraud. He also started to take aim at Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, two Republicans who oversee the state’s election process.
November 3
Election management
Election Day. Trump narrowly leads Biden in the first wave of results from Georgia.
November 5
Legal developments
State judge dismisses the Trump campaign’s lawsuit to stop some vote counting in Savannah.
November 6
Election management
Biden takes the lead in Georgia as more mail-in ballots are tallied.
Trump spreads conspiracy theories about the results being rigged.
November 9
Trump falsely claims he already won Georgia on Election Day.
November 11
Election management
Raffensperger announces that there will be a statewide hand audit of the presidential results because of the razor-thin margin. He also says there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
November 13
Election management
CNN and other outlets project that Biden will win Georgia.
Trump attacks Raffensperger and Kemp, and falsely claims “we won the state.”
Contact with Georgia officials
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and top Trump ally, privately calls Raffensperger, who leaves the call thinking Graham wants him to throw out some mail-in ballots, according to Raffensperger’s recollection of it. Graham denies that he asked for any legal votes to be discarded. (Fulton County prosecutors said in a court filing that Graham later had a second call with Raffensperger’s office, but they haven’t disclosed when it took place.)
Phase II
Certification crisis
After election officials initiated a hand audit of every ballot, it quickly became clear that the recount wouldn’t change the outcome. Trump started to falsely claim that officials were rigging the audit against him. After the audit confirmed Biden’s win, Raffensperger and Kemp certified the results and signed the paperwork to officially give the state’s 16 electoral votes to Biden.
November 14
Trump attacks Kemp and encourages election officials to “call off” the statewide audit after they say it will likely confirm Biden’s victory.
November 15
Trump falsely claims Kemp is allowing “fraudulent” ballots to be counted.
November 16
In a series of tweets, Trump urges Kemp to let his campaign examine mail-in ballots, which would have been illegal.
November 17
Election management
Raffensperger announces that a post-election review of voting machines confirmed there was no evidence of “foul play” or tampering.
Trump says Raffensperger is perpetuating a “scam.” Trump also says he hopes Kemp will “see the light before it is too late” and “take charge” regarding alleged fraud.
November 18
Trump says Kemp “must” change election rules and “call in the Legislature,” referring to a longshot effort to have state lawmakers appoint pro-Trump electors instead of following the statewide results.
November 19
Election management
Election officials finish the statewide hand audit, confirming Biden’s victory.
Legal developments
A federal judge dismisses a Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to block the certification of election results in Georgia.
Trump urges Kemp to “get tough” and improperly reject mail-in ballots – enough to “flip” the statewide results.
November 20
Election management
Raffensperger certifies the results with Biden as the winner. After staying mum about his plans, Kemp follows state law and signs the paperwork officially awarding Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Biden.
Trump criticizes Raffensperger and Kemp on Twitter.
Phase III
Ramped up rhetoric
Trump’s options to overturn the election dwindled. He ramped up the vitriol and repeatedly attacked Kemp and Raffensperger. Election officials said they received death threats from angry Trump supporters. Trump publicly and privately pressured Kemp to use the state Legislature to overturn Biden’s win. Trump also started attacking Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, after Duncan said there was no widespread fraud in the election.
November 21
Election management
The Trump campaign requests a machine recount, as permitted by state law, due to the narrow margin.
November 22
Election management
Raffensperger and his deputy, Gabriel Sterling, reveal that they have stepped up their personal security after receiving death threats from Trump supporters who are upset about the election.
November 25
Legal developments
Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell files a new lawsuit in Georgia alleging a massive anti-Trump conspiracy involving rigged voting machines.
November 26
Trump says Raffensperger is an “enemy of the people.”
November 27
Trump falsely claims he “won” Georgia and says the results will “hopefully” be overturned.
November 30
Trump publicly calls on Kemp to use emergency powers to “overrule” Raffensperger.
Election management
Kemp rebuffs Trump’s demands, saying he will “follow the law” and that he is legally prohibited from “interfering in elections.”
December 1
Election management
In an emotional news conference, Sterling says Trump’s rhetoric is going to lead to violence against election officials and begs Trump to stop lying about the election.
Trump responds by doubling down on his voter fraud conspiracies.
December 3
The Georgia state Senate holds a hearing about so-called “election integrity” where Trump lawyer John Eastman urges lawmakers to cast aside Biden’s victory in the statewide vote and appoint pro-Trump electors instead. Also during the hearing, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani spreads conspiracy theories about widespread fraud in the state. Among his many false claims, Giuliani accuses two Atlanta election workers of smuggling in fake Biden ballots in suitcases. Sterling publicly debunked this allegation around the same time, explaining that the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, did nothing wrong. They both later testified to the January 6 committee about the devastating personal impact of Trump’s and Giuliani’s lies.)
Trump posts several tweets promoting the disinformation that his team presented at the hearing.
Trump also says Kemp “must immediately allow” more scrutiny of mail-in ballots that would enable him to win the state.
December 5
Contact with Georgia officials
In a private phone call, Trump pressures Kemp to call a special legislative session to overturn Biden’s victory, and to order an audit of mail-in ballots. Kemp tells Trump he doesn’t have the power to order the audit, and rejects his request for a special session, CNN reported.
Trump publicly urges Kemp and Raffensperger to review mail-in ballots to find “discrepancies” that would allow him to “win.”
Legal developments
A federal appeals court upholds a ruling dismissing a Trump-backed lawsuit that sought to block certification.
December 6
Election management
Kemp and Duncan publicly reject calls for a special legislative session to appoint pro-Trump electors.
December 7
Election management
Raffensperger re-certifies the results after the statewide machine recount is completed. The recount affirms that Biden beat Trump by just 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast ballots.
Trump says Duncan is “dumb” and “corrupt.” He calls Raffensperger a “RINO,” short for “Republican in name only.” He also attacks Kemp for refusing to take actions that would “give us an easy win” in Georgia.
Legal developments
A federal judge rejects Powell’s lawsuit seeking to disqualify millions of votes in Georgia. The judge says Powell asked for “the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court” regarding elections.
After failing to convince top officials to overturn the results, Trump tried a roundabout strategy by going to the Supreme Court and suing to invalidate millions of votes in Georgia and three other states he lost. This gambit was quickly rejected by the Supreme Court, and members of the Electoral College met in Atlanta to formalize Biden’s win.
December 8
Trump tweets again about Kemp, Duncan and Raffensperger.
Legal developments
Trump allies file a lawsuit at the Supreme Court, known as Texas v. Pennsylvania, seeking to throw out millions of votes from Georgia and other battleground states that Biden carried. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, says the lawsuit is “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong,” in a statement from his office.
Contact with Georgia officials
Trump privately calls Carr and warns him against rallying other Republican officials to oppose the lawsuit. The call reportedly lasts about 15 minutes and Trump was upset that Carr criticized the lawsuit.
December 10
Legal developments
Carr files a response with the Supreme Court urging the justices to reject the Trump-backed lawsuit.
Contact with Georgia officials
Giuliani appears virtually before a Georgia House committee and discusses alleged election irregularities, a source told CNN.
December 11
Trump publicly presses Kemp, Duncan and Raffensperger to “move quickly” on his request for additional signature verification for mail-in ballots, which he says would overturn Biden’s victory.
Legal developments
The Supreme Court rejects the Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of ballots in Georgia.
December 12
Trump calls on his supporters to vote Kemp “out of office.”
December 13
Trump says Kemp and Raffensperger are “fools” and again demands further scrutiny of mail-in ballots.
Electoral College process
Trump campaign staffer Robert Sinners sends a coordinating email to a group of Georgia Republicans who were involved in the scheme to put forward an illegitimate slate of GOP electors, in hopes of somehow supplanting Biden’s real electors, which he was awarded by winning the popular vote in Georgia. Sinners told the group: “I must ask for your complete discretion in this process. Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result – a win in Georgia for President Trump – but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion.”
December 14
Trump calls Kemp a “clown.”
Electoral College process
Members of the Electoral College meet in Atlanta and formally award Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Biden.
Electoral College process
Around the same time that the electors met, a group of 16 Trump supporters meet at the Georgia State Capitol and sign fake certificates falsely proclaiming that they are the rightful electors from Georgia. They later send the fake certificates to the National Archives in Washington, DC, as part of their attempt to supplant Biden’s legitimate electors. (Fulton County prosecutors told all 16 fake GOP electors in July 2022 that they’re now targets of the ongoing criminal investigation.)
Phase V
Desperate measures
In shocking phone calls, Trump privately pressured Raffensperger and another official to “recalculate” the numbers and “find” enough votes to let him win. Frustrated by the lack of fraud investigations, Trump ousted the US attorney in Atlanta. On the day Congress was set to certify the Electoral College results, Trump held an incendiary rally and incited a mob of supporters to attack the Capitol, temporarily delaying the process. After the insurrection was quashed later that night, the electoral votes were counted and Biden officially became President-elect.
December 18
Trump tweets that Kemp “MUST ACT NOW” and call a special session to overturn Biden’s victory.
December 21
Trump calls Duncan a “puppet” for Kemp and says they are preventing him from winning Georgia.
December 22
Contact with Georgia officials
Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows flies to Georgia and observes an audit of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County, near Atlanta, according to contemporaneous news reports and witness testimony to the House select committee investigating January 6. During his visit, Meadows meets with Jordan Fuchs, who is one of Raffensperger’s deputies in the Secretary of State office.
December 23
Contact with Georgia officials
In a phone call to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, Trump urged their top investigator, Frances Watson, to find fraud in the 2020 presidential election, telling her that she would be “praised” for overturning the results. The six-minute call was recorded by Watson while she was looking into allegations of irregularities with signature-matching in Cobb County, in the Atlanta metropolitan area. (Later audits found no fraudulent ballots in the county.)
“But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you are going to find things that are going to be unbelievable… The dishonesty that we’ve heard from. But Fulton is the mother lode.”
In a tweet, Trump says, “They are slow-walking the signature verification in Georgia,” and again singles out Kemp by name.
December 28
Legal developments
A Trump loyalist inside the Justice Department, Jeffrey Clark, reportedly drafted a letter urging top Georgia officials to convene the state legislature for a special session to evaluate supposed “irregularities’ in the 2020 election. The letter said, falsely, that Justice Department had identified “significant concerns that may have impacted of the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.” Trump considered installing Clark as acting attorney general but decided against it after senior Justice Department officials threatened to resign. Clark’s draft letter was never sent.
December 29
Election management
Raffensperger announces that the audit in Cobb County found no evidence of fraudulent mail-in voting.
Trump says Kemp and Raffensperger are “stupid,” and calls on them to “allow us to find the crime, and turn the state Republican.” He complains about the signature-matching inquiries. Trump also promotes a conspiracy theory that Raffensperger’s brother works for the Chinese government.
December 30
Contact with Georgia officials
Giuliani speaks to a Georgia state Senate subcommittee about alleged election irregularities. Kemp rebukes Giuliani’s conduct during the hearing.
Trump says Kemp “should resign from office.”
January 2
Contact with Georgia officials
In an hour-long private phone call, Trump pressures Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes needed to overturn Biden’s victory. Trump also suggests to Raffensperger that he should publicly announce that he “recalculated” the election results. Raffensperger tells Trump that the election results were accurate. During the call, Trump also criticizes the US attorney in Atlanta, Byung Pak, calling him a “Never Trumper” without any evidence. CNN later reported that the call occurred after 18 previous attempts by the White House to call Raffensperger’s office. CNN obtained the audio below from a source who was on the call and had direct knowledge of the conversation. Read the full transcript here.
“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”
January 3
Trump tweets about the call, saying Raffensperger was “unwilling, or unable” to answer questions about alleged fraud in Georgia. In response, Raffensperger says Trump’s claims are “not true” and that “the truth will come out.” Later, The Washington Post publishes the full recording of the phone call.
January 4
On the eve of Georgia’s special Senate election, Trump holds a rally in Dalton, Georgia, where he pledges to campaign against Kemp and Raffensperger if they run for reelection in 2022. He also falsely claims the election was “rigged” against him.
Legal developments
Pak unexpectedly resigns from his post. Before his resignation, a top Justice Department official told Pak that Trump was upset that he didn’t do more to investigate allegations of voter fraud, according to The New York Times. The Trump White House pushed Pak to resign, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Election management
A former publicist to R. Kelly and Kanye West allegedly pressures a Fulton County elections worker, according to court documents and a police report. The publicist, Trevian Kutti, tried to get Freeman, the election worker, to falsely confess to committing massive voter fraud, or face dire consequences.
January 5
Legal developments
A federal judge rejects an attempt by Trump’s campaign to decertify the election results in Georgia.
January 6
Trump mentions “Georgia” 20 times at a rally near the White House. He cites conspiracy theories about alleged irregularities and says election officials “should find those votes” needed to overturn Biden’s victory. He falsely claims Raffensperger and Kemp are “corrupt” and “defrauded us out of a win.”
During the speech, Trump urges the crowd to “fight like hell” and march to the US Capitol to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers to block the Electoral College proceedings. Trump supporters storm the Capitol and violently disrupt the formal proceedings to certify Biden’s victory.
Electoral College process
After the insurrection is quelled, several House Republicans unsuccessfully try to challenge Georgia’s slate of electors, falsely alleging that the election was “fraudulent.” Georgia’s electoral votes are counted and Biden officially becomes the President-elect.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/08/politics/trump-georgia-2020-election/
