ATLANTA — Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump's attempts to keep hold of the presidency after the 2020 election requested security and other surveillance footage from Atlanta's State Farm Arena, according to a subpoena obtained by 11Alive.
In the May 31 grand jury subpoena, the Georgia Secretary of State's Office was asked to turn over "any and all security video or security footage, or any other video of any kind, depicting or taken at or near the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, on or about November 3, 2020" as well as "any associated data."
The subpoena comes as the U.S. Department of Justice and its special counsel Jack Smith zero in on the former president. Prosecutors sent Trump a "target" letter on Sunday. The request also shows an overlap between the widening federal investigation and the local Fulton County probe that could result in indictments of Trump and key allies.
Like the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, federal investigators are also interested in the plot to have 16 Trump supporters pose as Georgia's presidential electors as well as the pressure campaign put forth against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. This isn't the first time federal prosecutors reached out to Raffnesperger regarding the 2020 election.
Federal prosecutors requested that the Secretary of State's Office turn over documents in December, and investigators traveled to Atlanta last month to interview Raffensperger, who agreed to the interview following a request from Smith's office.
In an interview following a DeKalb Chamber of Commerce event Wednesday, Raffensperger told 11Alive that he spoke with investigators for "less than half a day," but he declined to disclose what questions he was asked.
"What they're looking into is something we've been talking about for over two and a half years now," he said of the State Farm video.
Both Raffensperger and the events at State Farm Arena were key elements in Trump's attempts to overturn Georgia's election results.
Raffensperger, the state's top election official, was pressed by Trump on an infamous Jan. 2, 2021 phone call to "find" the nearly 12,000 votes needed to overturn Joe Biden's victory here. Election deniers cited events at State Farm Arena as a key example of the fraud that handed the state's electoral votes to Biden.
Members of Trump's legal team such as Rudy Giuliani claimed "suitcases" of ballots were being illegally brought into the room and tabulated after late-night counting resumed. Raffensperger's office debunked the claims, but Trump's team continued to push the claims.
Giuliani and others seized on two Fulton County election workers — Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. Giuliani accused the pair of election fraud in television appearances and on his own podcast, and the women were subjected to pressure and death threats as a result of Giuliani's claims.
The Georgia State Election Board dismissed a case tied to alleged election fraud at State Farm Arena last month, clearing Freeman and Moss of wrongdoing. The pair filed a lawsuit against Giuliani and others in 2021 over the alleged lies. The lawsuit against Giuliani is ongoing.
The footage from State Farm Arena and other Georgia evidence could help Smith prove two different crimes — thwarting the lawful channels of government from operating and conspiring to oppress constitutional rights, said Georgia State University College of Law professor Anthony Kreis.
"In Georgia, I think there's a very strong case to be made that by attempting to overturn the election, Donald Trump conspired with a number of individuals ... and in doing so, violated and diluted the rights of voters here in Georgia by denying them equal protection under the law," he said.
"I think what we're seeing is Jack Smith building that conspiracy case potentially to show how Donald Trump was trying to inject confusion and sow doubt into the process," Kreis added.
Smith's target letter suggests a potential, second federal indictment of the former president. Trump was indicted in June on 37 federal charges in relation to his handling of classified documents at his Florida estate.
The former president's first indictment came in March when New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg announced Trump was facing 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
A potential Georgia indictment also looms. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis previously said charging decisions for Trump and his allies would come sometime before July 31 and Aug. 18.