Trump had been unequivocally defeated by Joe Biden in the election, but refused to accept the outcome,[1] and made a months-long effort to overturn the results.

According to the publicly released recording of the call and reports made by multiple news agencies, Trump attempted to pressure Raffensperger into reinvestigating the election results, despite being repeatedly told that there was no electoral error.

Trump's repeated efforts to convince Raffensperger to find some basis to overturn the election results were perceived as pleading and threatening.

"[7] During the call, Trump falsely suggested that Raffensperger could have committed a criminal offense by refusing to overturn the state's election results.

In December he spoke by phone to the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and made public demands on the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans who had supported Trump in the election.

[29][30] On December 23, 2020, Trump called the chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state's office, who was then conducting a ballot audit in Cobb County.

[31] Secretary of State Raffensperger acknowledged Trump's December 23 phone call to the chief investigator during a Good Morning America interview on January 4.

[41][42] Jordan Fuchs, a Republican operative and chief of staff to Brad Raffensperger, while listening on mute, recorded the phone conversation, while visiting her grandparents in Florida.

[42][47] During the phone call, Trump maintained falsely that he had won Georgia by "hundreds of thousands of votes", insisting that the certified election results were wrong.

[49] During his attempts to pressure Raffensperger into changing the election results, Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes", the minimum number needed to overcome Biden's advantage in Georgia.

[52] Later that day, the recording of the conversation was released to the Washington Post and other media outlets; a local television station said they had obtained it from "government sources".

[63] In March 2022, a federal judge cited the phone call when ruling that Trump ally John Eastman's emails could be turned over to the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack.

[64] On January 4, 2021, Democratic congressional leaders, believing Trump "engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes", requested the FBI to investigate the incident.

"Lacking sufficient support from Republican senators to meet the two-thirds majority threshold, the impeachment trial acquitted Trump on February 13.

In early January 2021, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis said that she found the phone call with Trump and Raffensperger "disturbing" and said a Democratic appointee from the State Election Board had requested that the Secretary's Elections Division investigate the call, after which the Board would refer the case to the office and the state Attorney General.

[77] On November 6, reporting emerged that Willis was likely to impanel a special grand jury, which would allow her to proceed with the investigation more efficiently, as those jurors would be dedicated to the case.

[78] On January 20, 2022, Willis sent a letter to Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Christopher S. Brasher to request permission to convene a special grand jury, stating that there was a "reasonable probability" Georgia's election process in 2020 "was subject to possible criminal disruptions".

[82][74] Trump himself may have provided additional incriminating information when he publicly said at a September 25, 2021, rally in Perry, Georgia, that he had asked Governor Kemp to "help us out and call a special election".

[84] On July 5, 2022, the special grand jury issued subpoenas for Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis.

[85] On January 9, 2023, the grand jury completed its investigation giving District Attorney Fani Willis the decision to file any criminal charges.

A hearing was scheduled for January 24 to address if any portions of the report will be released to the public by an order dissolving the grand jury by Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney.

[89] U.S. Representative Hank Johnson has called it "a violation of state and federal law", while Senator Dick Durbin has said it "merits nothing less than a criminal investigation.

Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to open a criminal investigation of the incident, writing that they believed Trump had solicited, or conspired to commit, "a number of election crimes.

"[65] More than 90 House Democrats support a formal censure resolution, introduced by Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia, to "censure and condemn" Trump for having "misused the power of his office by threatening an elected official with vague criminal consequences if he failed to pursue the president's false claims" and for attempting "to willfully deprive the citizens of Georgia of a fair and impartial election process in direct contravention" of state and federal law.

[98] According to numerous reports, this would force the District Attorney to summon grand jurors from more conservative, rural counties as well as dilute the diversity of the members present.

[100] During the hand recount of all ballots of the state of Georgia between November 11 and 20, 2020, Republican Senator of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, privately called Raffensperger about the audit.

[101][102][103] The Washington Post reported in February 2021 that the Fulton County district attorney was examining Graham's phone call to Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into possible efforts to overturn the Georgia election results.