Trump officially announces he is running for president in 2024 for the third time

Donald Trump has officially announced he is running for president for the third time in 2024 in a speech attacking President Biden, the ‘radical left’ Democrats and their record on the economy and the world stage in the two years since he left office.

The former president ignored Republican critics and those who blamed him for the GOP‘s disappointing midterms to go full steam on stating his intent to be back in the Oval Office to ‘drain the swamp’ with the country ‘being destroyed before our very lives’. 

‘In order to make America great and glorious again, I am today announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,’ he confirmed to huge cheers before laying into the FBI raid, the ‘fake’ dossier’, the ‘deep state’ and lobbyists.

Despite not formally making his announcement until later in the speech, Trump made his intentions clear from the outset by telling his audience: ‘America’s comeback starts right now.’

‘Three years ago when I left office, the United States stood ready for its golden age. Our nation was at the pinnacle of power, prosperity and prestige – towering above all rivals vanquishing all enemies and striding into the future confident, resourceful,’ Trump said.

He vowed to make his run about working people, restoring American energy independence, reforming elections to make sure there are ‘only paper ballots’ and restoring an ‘agenda of greatness’ with top Republicans and the media saying he should stay out of the race.

Trump peppered his speech with various campaign promises, some of which are similar to statements he’s made in campaign-style rallies this year. He said he would hand the death penalty to drug dealers, ban transgender women from playing female sports, plant an American flag on Mars, build a nuclear ‘missile shield’, and rehire service members who were fired for being unvaccinated.

‘This will not be my campaign. This will be our campaign all together. Because the only force strong enough to defeat the massive corruption we are up against is you, the American people,’ he said while celebrating the last six years of the MAGA movement, his midterm endorsements and his battle against Washington.

After months of speculation and with mounting legal battles, he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission just moments before he began his speech to fired-up supporters at Mar-a-Lago where he said America ‘can’t take’ four more years of Biden.

‘The decline of America is being forced upon us by Biden and the radical left lunatics running our government right into the ground,’ Trump said. 

In his stately ballroom with opulent gold trimmings and chandeliers, he was introduced as the ‘next president’ to chants of ‘USA’.

Speaking for just over an hour, Trump made defiant and sometimes somber remarks about the state of the country, hours after Mitch McConnell said independent voters  had the ‘impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that they are involved in chaos’.

The former president went on to attack Biden for record inflation, ‘falling asleep at global conferences’ and making the U.S. ‘detestable’ with the rest of the world. He celebrated Nancy Pelosi getting ‘fired’ with Republicans on the cusp of taking the House majority. 

But taking a page out of his White House successor’s 2020 playbook, Trump vowed to ‘unify people’ and claimed he did so during his last term.

‘It happened in the previous administration,’ Trump said. ‘And what was bringing them together was success.’

The crowd roared when he and Melania Trump arrived to the tune of his signature theme, Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA. 

Before that, applause rang out for the arrival of his family members – Eric Trump, his wife Lara, Trump’s youngest child Barron, 16, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Kushner, who served as a White House advisor during Trump’s last term, raised eyebrows by arriving without his wife Ivanka – who released a statement after the speech that she loved her father but was ‘choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family’ and would stay ‘out of the political arena.’

Tiffany Trump, who just got married at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, was also not present. Nor was Donald Trump Jr., who was on a hunting trip and could not catch a flight in time to attend the event due to bad weather, according to RealClearPolitics. 

Trump said Afghanistan was the most ’embarrassing moment in the history of our country’ and tore into the Biden administration border policies that have led to an ‘invasion’ and fentanyl ‘pouring’ into our country. 

‘We are here tonight to declare that it does not have to be this way – it does not have to be this way – two years ago we were a great nation and soon we will be a great nation again,’ he added.

‘The only force strong enough to defeat the massive corruption we are up against it’s you, the American people’, he went on. ‘It’s not about politics, it’s about love for this great nation’.

In a line he has used before, he told the audience: ‘I didn’t need this. I had an easy life’. 

‘This is something I didn’t need, and a lot of you people don’t need either, but we have to take care of our country. We love our country, we need to save our country,’ the former president said. 

Trump also threw his weight behind Herschel Walker ahead of his Georgia run-off on December 6 against Raphael Warnock for the final Senate seat up for grabs. 

‘We must all work very hard for a gentleman and a great person named Herschel Walker, he will be a great United States senator,’ the ex-president said. ‘Get out and vote for Herschel and he deserves it. He was an incredible athlete, he’ll be an even better senator.’

But he’ll be hitting the campaign trail without Ivanka as a surrogate, despite her being one of the more popular members of his last administration.

‘I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics,’ she wrote in a statement after the speech.

‘While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside of the political arena. I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and I will always be proud of many of our Administration’s accomplishments.’ 

South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham was among the first of Trump’s supporters to laud the announcement.

‘If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat. His speech tonight, contrasting his policies and results against the Biden Administration, charts a winning path for him in the primaries and general election,’ Graham wrote on Twitter. 

Trump’s announcement comes the same day as a new poll showed the ex-president with a commanding lead in a field of potential 2024 candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to rule out his own White House campaign against Trump.

The former president has responded by calling the governor ‘disloyal,’ ‘average’ and ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ amid a flurry of other insults.

Asked about that criticism on Tuesday, DeSantis suggested he was unfazed – but went out of his way to target ‘the corporate media’ more directly than the former president.

‘When you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, yeah you take incoming fire – that’s just the nature of it,’ DeSantis said.

‘I roll out of bed in the morning, I’ve got corporate media outlets just having a spasm over the fact that I’m getting up in the morning. And it’s constantly attacking, and this is just what’s happened.’

He continued, ‘I think what you learn is, all that’s just noise. And really what matters is – are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people and are you standing up for folks? And if you do that, then none of that stuff matters.’

But DeSantis added as a final jab, ‘At the end of the day, I would just tell people to check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night.’

Hours before the former president took the stage, advisers and allies like Jason Miller, Boris Epshteyn and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell milled about the room.

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich was also present.

Jason Miller told reporters that Trump would be laying out ‘all the campaign mechanics’ on Tuesday night.

‘Right now this is his vision, this is what his message is,’ Miller said. ‘Tonight and this week is really about his message.’

He added that President Joe Biden, who is assumed to be running for re-election but has not yet declared, is not making a splash among his own party with the idea of another campaign.

‘Democrats aren’t too excited about his prospects, and you have President Trump with a strong clear vision to get the economy back on track,’ Miller said.

Lindell fielded questions from outlets including DailyMail.com just before 6pm on Tuesday – three hours before the show was set to start.

‘If he said now – announces he’s running, 70 percent of America wants him to run for president because he’s still our real president,’ the entrepreneur said.

Asked about DeSantis’ potential challenge to Trump, Lindell scoffed, ‘Are you for real?’

‘If says he’s running – 100% even DeSantis, I believe, will say yes, I endorse him, because it’s a waste of time for anybody to run against the greatest president we’ve ever had,’ he later said.

Lindell, a prominent promoter of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, called Republicans’ failure to clinch a red wave in the 2022 midterm elections ‘a joke’ and a ‘set up’ when asked by DailyMail.com.

Lindell expressed that he believed the Democratic sweep of the Senate was evidence of another rigged election.

The GOP’s lackluster performance in the 2022 midterm elections gave some in the party pause about Trump’s Tuesday announcement even before the event started.

Establishment figures, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, turned against the former president for endorsing fringe-right candidates who failed to gain traction with Independent and moderate voters in key races across the country.

But 47 percent of likely Republican voters still want Trump at the top of the ticket, according to a new post-election poll from Politico/Morning Consult taken between November 10 and 14.

DeSantis comes in second, trailing Trump by double-digits with 33 percent of the hypothetical vote.

Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence was polling at just 5 percent – with a number of prominent Republicans hovering around 1 percent.

Outside Mar-a-Lago supporters gathered in anticipation, while foes of the ex-president paid to have airplanes fly over the private club trolling Trump with banners including ‘You Lost Again Donald! #DeSantis2014’ and ‘3X BIGLY LOSER.’

The Republicans in line to take on Trump in 2024: Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Nikki Haley lead list of favorites to run for the GOP (but what will they do now he has entered the race?) 

Donald Trump is once again running for president, setting off the 2024 campaign cycle with a flourish even before the last ballots of the 2022 election have been counted.

The former president announced his intent to run for the 2024 GOP nomination on Tuesday night in a lavish reception at his Mar-a-Lago retreat with invited guests, lawmakers and members of the press.

But while Trump lays out his campaign trail at his Florida estate, his polarizing status even within his own party has election-watchers buzzing about who in the Republican Party would step up to challenge him.

Furthermore, a poor GOP performance in the midterms has many establishment figures pointing the finger at Trump for endorsing fringe-right candidates against moderate opponents in Republican primaries all over the country. 

DailyMail.com has compiled a list of eight likely Republican 2024 candidates who could potentially challenge Trump for leadership of the party in 2024.

Mike Pence: Former VP who has distanced himself from Trump and said there were ‘better choices’ for 2024 

Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, told ABC News in a Monday night interview that there were ‘better choices’ than his old running mate in 2024 and that he was giving his own White House bid ‘prayerful consideration.’

But he demurred when asked about his odds of beating Trump in a primary, emphasizing that it would be up to the voters.

Still, Pence has dropped numerous hints that he’s surveying the 2024 field. Pence also blasted Trump for his conduct on January 6, calling the angry tweets he published while his supporters were storming the US Capitol ‘reckless.’

Asked whether he’d support Trump in 2024 during a speech at Georgetown University last month, Pence said: ‘There might be somebody else I’d prefer more.’

He’s also addressing American voters directly in a CNN town hall on Wednesday night. 

Early GOP voters polls, however, indicate that there may not be enough support for Pence. Most surveys show the ex-veep trailing Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Ron DeSantis: The Republican’s rising star after his emphatic Florida win – who is already in a war of words with Trump

Ron DeSantis cruised to a commanding victory last Tuesday, winning a second term against House Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist despite only a narrow victory for the Tallahassee governor’s mansion in 2018.

Overall, his state of Florida saw Republicans over-perform compared to the rest of the country – and some pundits are crediting DeSantis’ influence on the GOP.

DeSantis has embraced Trump’s ‘America First,’ combative style of politics that’s seen him and his deputies make headline for clashes with the Biden administration, LGBTQ activists and the press.

But mainstream Republicans also see him as a more sanitized and calculated version of the former president, able to appeal to Trump’s MAGA base while not turning off moderates in the party and independent voters. At 44, he’s also more than three decades younger than Trump.

DeSantis has landed at a close second to Trump in early Republican primary polls, and even overtakes him in some smaller-scale state surveys.

He also has refused to rule out his own 2024 bid, even if it means challenging Trump – much to the former president’s fury. 

Trump reluctantly endorsed DeSantis’ re-election bid on the Sunday before Election Day after being publicly called out for mocking him as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ the night before.

Nikki Haley: Former South Carolina Governor who was one of first to criticize Trump after January 6

Before becoming the Trump administration’s United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley was seen as a rising GOP star in her own right. 

Haley, whose parents are originally from India, was the first female Asian American governor and the first woman elected to South Carolina’s governors mansion.

She was among the first Republican officials and former Trump officials to criticize him in the wake of the US Capitol riot, though much of that has since dissipated. 

Haley said in April 2021 during a press conference at South Carolina State University that she would support Trump if he ran in 2024 and would not run against him.

But lately the former UN ambassador has been dropping hints of her possible White House ambitions once again.

If President Joe Biden signs an Iran Nuclear Deal-type agreement, she told a crowd at Christians United for Israel’s (CUFI) Washington Summit in July 2022, ‘I’ll make you a promise: The next president will shred it on her first day in office.’

She spoke out against Trump with action rather than words in late September when Haley endorsed Colorado Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who was running an anti-Trump GOP platform and pledged to ‘actively’ campaign against him in 2024. O’Dea wound up losing to incumbent Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet.

Mike Pompeo: Trump Cabinet official and foreign policy heavyweight who has defended his old boss… until now

Another former Trump Cabinet official, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also appears to be putting the feelers out for his own presidential bid.

He’s long avoided weighing in on Trump personally and has defended his White House record whenever asked by the press, but a pair of recent tweets fired off by Pompeo appear to be veiled criticisms of his old boss.

‘Conservatives are elected when we deliver. Not when we just rail on social media. That’s how we can win. We fight for families and a strong America,’ Pompeo wrote on November 10, two days after a slew of Trump-endorsed midterm candidates were either struggling or outright lost in key races.

After Trump attacked Florida’s governor as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ days before the midterms, Pompeo wrote on the platform: ‘Not tired of winning. [Ron DeSantis] you’ve proven conservative policies work. Florida is better for it.’

Further fueling speculation, Pompeo is reaching out to residents of key red and battleground states via digital ads by his Champion American Values PAC less than a week before Trump’s Tuesday 2024 announcement..

The ads in Nevada, New Hampshire, Kansas, Iowa and Florida began running the day after Election Day, according to Business Insider.

Liz Cheney: The Republican outcast from a political dynasty who could win voters from both sides of the aisle 

Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is facing her final days in the House of Representatives after being defeated by a Trump-backed primary challenger in August.

The conservative daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has earned bipartisan accolades for her vocal criticism of Trump and efforts to hold him to account as vice chair of the January 6 select committee.

It’s also brought backlash from fellow Republicans still aligned with the former president – making Cheney’s chances of survival in a GOP primary – that’s still dominated by MAGA politics – slim at best. 

Still, there have been reports of a left-wing push to vote for Cheney as House Speaker as an act of defiance in the new Congress, even despite the likely narrow GOP majority. So it’s not hard to see her making waves as an Independent or other third-party candidate.

After losing her primary Cheney fueled 2024 speculation with the launch of her own PAC, The Great Task, dedicated to taking down Trump and other election denier candidates. 

Cheney’s endorsements of vulnerable moderate Democrats through the country proved effective, with Reps. Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger defeating more fringe-right rivals. 

She also actively campaigned against Trump-backed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who narrowly lost the race on Monday night. 

Cheney has not ruled out a 2024 bid when asked in multiple interviews, but she made one thing certain at the The Texas Tribune Festival this year – that if Trump is the party nominee, she would leave the Republican Party. 

Tim Scott: The Republican who has made himself into a key figure in Congress – but would he run against Trump? 

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott is the only black Republican in Congress’ upper chamber, and is known for reaching across the aisle on racially-charged issues such as police reform.

He said this new coming term will be his last in the Senate, but Scott has not ruled out a wider political future for himself. 

Scott did drop a hint about his future ambitions when claiming victory on Election Day last Tuesday, remarking on how his grandfather voted for Barack Obama in 2012.

‘I wish he had lived long enough to see perhaps another man of color elected president of the United States,’ Scott said according to USA Today. ‘But this time let it be a Republican.’

Both Scott and outside groups aligned with him have also attracted cash and attention from big GOP donors, particularly this year, further fueling buzz around his possible presidential ambitions.

However it’s not clear if Scott, who has not been known for ruffling party leaders’ feathers, would mount a challenge to Trump. 

Larry Hogan: Trump’s ‘RINO’ nemesis who has frequently criticized his leadership 

Maryland’s term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has been a frequent critic of Donald Trump’s on the airwaves since the former president left office last year.

The criticism has grown sharper against the backdrop of suggestions that Hogan could run for president himself, after months of advocating for ‘commonsense conservative’ leadership.

He actively acted against Trump-backed Republican Dan Cox’s campaign for Maryland governor while posing for pictures with Wes Moore, the Democrat who ended up winning.

Hogan blamed Trump for the party’s losses in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and said continuing to follow him as leader is ‘the definition of insanity’ in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

‘Donald Trump kept saying, we’re going to be winning so much, we will get tired of winning. I’m tired of losing. I mean, that’s all he’s done,’ he said.

He also did not shy away from – but would not directly confirm – suggestions that he is eyeing the White House in the next election cycle.

‘I have been saying since 2020 that we have to get back to a party that appeals to more people, that can win in tough places, like I have done in Maryland. And I think that lane is much wider now than it was a week ago,’ he said.

Glenn Youngkin: The Republican governor who burst onto the scene with his victory in Virginia – while distancing himself from Trump 

Glenn Youngkin made a splash on the political scene last year when he scored an upset victory against Virginia Democratic powerhouse Terry McAuliffe to win the Commonwealth’s governors mansion.

He’s carefully toed the line between both factions of the GOP, appearing with and promoting Donald Trump-backed election deniers like Kari Lake while himself largely avoiding the former president on his own campaign trail.

His successful political formula has caught the eye of Republicans looking for a future past Trump.

After Youngkin refused to rule out a potential presidential bid in 2024, Trump launched a racially tinged attack against him on Truth Social.

‘Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me. I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia – But he’ll get it done!’ Trump wrote.

List of legal issues Trump is STILL facing as he announces his 2024 run – from the January 6 probe to the classified documents investigation and E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit 

Donald Trump is still facing a list of legal woes after formally announcing he will run for president for the third time in 2024.

Since he left office in January 2021, probes into his family business, his role in the Capitol Riot, and the trove of documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago have piled up.

The former president has claimed the cases are politically-motivated witch hunts to try and take him down.  

He chose now to announce his third run for the Oval Office to potentially clear out the list of Republican primary rivals – with Ron DeSantis hotly favored to join the race and others like Mike Pence and Glenn Youngkin in the list of possible candidates.

But it could also have been to get ahead of an indictment by the Department of Justice.

The DOJ could still charge Trump in one of the probes, but it is likely he will fire up his supporters by claiming President Biden is using law enforcement to go after his opponents. 

However, he is still facing criminal and civil cases with his family business that could create financial obstacles during the campaign. 

Earlier this month, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the committee would stop paying his legal fees if he announced a 2024 run. 

DailyMail.com has broken down the legal issues Trump is facing as he launches his presidential run.

The documents Trump took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago when he left office  

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump for retaining government records, including some marked as classified, after leaving office in January 2021. 

The FBI seized 11,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in a court-approved August 8 search, including about 100 marked as classified. 

Some were designated top secret, the highest level of classified information.

The department began its investigation after the National Archives, the U.S. agency responsible for preserving government records, tried to get Trump to return missing government property and received 15 boxes with classified documents mixed in.

Trump has accused the Justice Department of engaging in a partisan witch hunt and claims the documents he took were part of his personal records and were declassified when he left office.

A so-called special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is reviewing the seized documents to determine whether any are protected by attorney-client privilege or by executive privilege, a legal doctrine under which a president can keep certain documents or information secret.

The Justice Department is also asking a federal appeals court to end that review and to let them access unclassified materials taken in the search, arguing that both measures are hindering their criminal investigation.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250million civil suit claiming Trump inflated property values to mislead banks and investors

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a civil lawsuit filed last month that her office uncovered more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations by Trump and the Trump Organization between 2011 and 2021. 

James accused Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to satisfy loan terms and get better insurance coverage.

Mar-a-Lago was valued as high as $739 million when it should have been closed to $75 million, the 200-page lawsuit against the Trump Organization claims. 

James is seeking to permanently bar Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump from running companies in New York state, and to prevent them and his company from buying new properties and taking out new loans in the state for five years. 

James is also seeking to have the defendants disgorge around $250 million that she described as obtained through fraud.

After James announced the lawsuit, Trump in a social media post called the action ‘Another Witch Hunt.’ 

A lawyer for Trump called the lawsuit’s claims ‘meritless.’

James said her probe also uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing, which she referred to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service for investigation.

New York criminal probe into Trump Organization’s ‘tax-free perks’ to top executives  

The Trump Organization is on trial in New York on criminal tax fraud charges. 

The Manhattan district attorney’s office last year accused the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. of giving executives tax-free perks such as rent-free apartments, school tuition feeds and leased luxury cars. 

Its former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, also named as a defendant in the James lawsuit, has pleaded guilty and is required to testify against the company as part of his agreement with prosecutors.

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has also been investigating whether Trump misled lenders and others about asset valuations. 

Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the probe politically motivated.

E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case over rape allegations from the 1990s  

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York City department store. 

Trump accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.

Trump appeared on Wednesday for a deposition in the case, according to his and Carroll’s lawyers.

In a letter made public on Sept. 20, a lawyer for Carroll said she also plans to sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under a new state law in New York giving adult accusers a one-year window to bring civil claims over alleged civil misconduct regardless of when it occurred.

A lawyer for Trump has argued that he is protected by a federal law that makes government employees immune from defamation claims. Trump was president at the time the lawsuit was filed.

The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last month that Trump was a federal employee when he called Carroll a liar, but left open the question of whether he was acting as president when he made the statement to a Washington, D.C., appeals court.

The January 6 committee’s investigation into the Capitol Riot 

A House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol is investigating whether he broke the law in actions taken to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat. 

The rioters sought to block Congress from certifying the election results.

The committee unanimously voted in October to subpoena Trump as part of its probe. 

Trump sued the committee on November 11 to challenge the subpoena by questioning the legitimacy of the committee and suggesting he has immunity from testifying about his conduct while he was president.  

On Monday night the committee said Trump had ‘failed to comply’ with the subpoena for documents and testimony from that day.

‘In the days ahead, the committee will evaluate next steps in the litigation and regarding the former President’s noncompliance,’ Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who serve as chair and vice chair of the committee respectively, said in a statement.

Trump could face a misdemeanor charge if he does not comply. The former president could also challenge it in court, as he has done with other subpoenas, which would likely tie the matter up in litigation until the committee concludes its work.

Committee vice chair Liz Cheney has said the committee could make multiple referrals to the Justice Department seeking criminal charges against Trump, who has accused the panel of conducting a politically motivated sham investigation.

The committee cannot charge Trump with federal crimes. That decision must be made by the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The panel is expected to issue a written report on its findings in the coming weeks.

Georgia’s criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election  

A special grand jury was selected in May to consider evidence in a Georgia prosecutor’s inquiry into Trump’s alleged efforts to influence that state’s 2020 election results.

The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021. Trump asked Raffensperger to ‘find’ the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss.

Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

Trump could argue he was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech.

A California federal judge said in October in a separate lawsuit that Trump had knowingly made false voter fraud claims in a Georgia election lawsuit, according to emails the judge reviewed. It is not immediately clear what ramifications Trump could face from the ruling.