In early January 2021, then-President Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanded that he "find 11,780 votes" to sway the state's 2020 election results in Trump's favor. Now, a Georgia district attorney is escalating her investigation into Trump's election meddling, requesting a special grand jury to compel witnesses--namely Raffensperger--to testify in the probe.

Since February, Fulton County DA Fani Willis has been looking into potential crimes in the effort to overturn the election. In a Thursday letter to the chief judge of the county's superior court, first obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Willis wrote that there was a "reasonable probability" that the state's 2020 presidential election had been "subject to criminal disruptions." She requested a special grand jury because multiple people, including Raffensperger--"an essential witness to the investigation"--have indicated they wouldn't cooperate without subpoenas.

A special grand jury would focus on the Trump investigation in particular, whereas a regular grand jury would handle multiple cases.