A criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is set to intensify this week, as a grand jury convenes, offering the local district attorney her first shot at seeking subpoenas for records and interviews.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis made her investigative intentions clear with a round of letters to Georgia state officials in February, asking them to preserve documents relevant to election interference as she investigated potential state crimes including the solicitation of election fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering.
According to the letters, none of the Georgia officials are targets of the investigation.
"What I was doing, as a courtesy to people that I respect very much, is simply putting them on notice that when a grand jury convened, which would be in March, that they could expect to receive subpoenas," Willis told MSNBC in February.
Two grand juries are set to convene in Fulton County on Thursday, opening a path for Willis' next phase in her probe. A person familiar with the investigation said they are likely to rely heavily on subpoenas rather than voluntary requests for records and interviews, in part to establish a clear court record of their pursuit of evidence.
In the meantime, some officials in Georgia have already hired personal attorneys amid the fallout from Trump's efforts to upend the election results.
While Willis' investigation launched from the now-infamous call in which Trump pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" him enough votes to win the state, it's expected to stretch well beyond that single call.
"There may be nothing there," said a person familiar with the investigation, "or it may be more extensive that we thought."
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