Watchdog group calls from Trump's criminal investigation over call pressuring Georgia's secretary of state to overturn election results

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a center-left watchdog group, is asking prosecutors to conduct a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump.
• The request came in a letter sent Monday to the Department of Justice and Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis.
• It comes after audio revealed that President Trump pressured Georgia elections officials to take away President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state.

Prosecutors should open a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump over his "conspiracy" to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Monday.

The call comes after audio was released that shows Trump and his associates pressured Georgia elections officials, threatening criminal consequences if they declined, to "find" thousands of ballots in order to steal the victory from President-elect Joe Biden, who won the state more than 11,000 votes.

In a January 4 letter to the US Department of Justice and the Fulton County District Attorney's office in Georgia, CREW alleges that the call is evidence of a criminal conspiracy to deny Americans "their constitutional rights to vote in a free and fair election and to have their votes fairly counted." On Sunday, the group called on Congress to once again impeach the president.

"This is some of the most egregious conduct we've ever seen from a US president, raising the question of whether this country is to continue as a democracy," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

Earlier in the day, however, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis said she was prepared to conduct such a probe.

"Like many Americans, I have found the news reports about the president's telephone call with the Georgia Secretary of State disturbing," she said in a statement to NBC News.

During the call, President Trump repeatedly charged that the county, home to Atlanta, was the scene of rampant fraud. Georgia's Republican elections officials have repeatedly and systematically debunked such "ridiculous claims."

On Sunday, a Democratic member of Georgia's elections board called on the state to investigate Trump's intervention; under Georgia law, it is illegal to solicit or command someone to alter a certified election results. Willis said she's prepared to take it from there.

"I will enforce the law without fear or favor," Willis said. "Anyone who commits a felony violation of Georgia law in my jurisdiction will be held accountable."

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