Added Context to the Secretary of State’s Investigation of President Trump

Headlines sent the Twitterverse buzzing yesterday as as it was reported in multiple media outlets that Secretary of State Brad RaffensPerger had launched an investigation into President Trump’s January phone call where the President argued about various aspects of the election in Georgia.

Different outlets left out a detail here or there and there are a few things the headlines left out.

First, the Secretary of State investigates complaints. It may take time, it may be prioritized over or after other complaints, but on a long enough timeline all complaints are investigated. And in this case, they had received no fewer than 4 complaints from John F. Banzhaf III, a George Washington University Law School professor whose bio page is something Karens everywhere can aspire to.

But I digress.

The Democrat member of the State Elections Board (SEB), David Worley, has also filed a complaint about President Trump’s phone call. Mr. Worley has publicly stated that he had planned to file a motion to recommend that a criminal investigation be initiated by Attorney General Chris Carr and Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis. Mr. Worley went on to say that because the SoS is investigating that his motion is no longer necessary.

Well that depends on what the complainants are trying to accomplish. The Secretary of State is not the final arbiter of what is criminal activity. His investigation is administrative. Which means that once this investigation has been concluded, Secretary RaffensPerger will then present his findings to the SEB. It would then be up to the SEB to take the next action, which is either to vote to dismiss, levy a fine, or refer to the DA for prosecution.

But if their mission was to keep the story alive and in the headlines, they accomplished that with flying colors. Even if the headlines didn’t tell the whole story.