President Donald Trump's extraordinary phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he attempts to persuade the secretary to "find 11,780 votes" in the state — has left pundits and legal analysts from across the political spectrum stunned and worried about what could happen next.

During the call, he urged Raffensperger to invalidate Biden's win, telling him that "there's nothing wrong with saying ... that you've recalculated."

So far, claims by the president and his Republican colleagues have been widely unsubstantiated in every legal forum they've been raised.

Georgia State University law professor Anthony Kreis said that the tape should be shocking to anyone familiar with the democratic norms of the American electoral process.

"What we witnessed, no matter what one could say about the criminality of it or the potential criminality of it, is that the president's browbeating of the secretary of state is undermining the rule of law and it's an attack on democracy," he said. "And frankly, you know, it is shocking."

PODCAST: Battleground: Ballot Box | Inside Trump's Call To Steal Georgia's Election

An NBC report has suggested that several Democrats in the House have asked the FBI to open a criminal probe.

"Georgia law prohibits the intentional requesting, demanding or attempting of an act that would otherwise constitute election fraud," he said. "We call this 'criminal solicitation of election fraud.' One type of election fraud under state law is the willful destruction or alteration of official documents by any member of the secretary of state's office or the secretary himself. So there seems to be an act here or a request here that falls within that zone."

Whether or not the president could actually face criminal charges in Georgia is murkier, Kreis argues.

"I'm not confident that the successful prosecution could be had here," he said. "But the president essentially violated the spirit of the law, if not the letter of it, because what the law is designed to insulate elected officials from the kind of undue coercion and undue influence that we saw in that phone call."

Kennesaw State University political science professor Andrew Pieper also believes the nature of the phone call was a broad step outside of political normalcy.

"We've known that President Trump's method of communication is abnormal for politicians," he said. "To hear the recording itself and to hear his seeming unacceptance of basic facts was very surprising."

Pieper also agrees that the chances of legal action being taken against Trump is unlikely, as Trump himself even mentioned on the call the risks Republicans face in primary challenges if they oppose him.

"It's interesting how nakedly transactional the president was about, for instance, Gov. Kemp's upcoming primary challenge," Pieper said. "And that's going to be true of almost any prosecutor. Most of them are elected in some meaningful way."

However, Pieper is quick to point out that the president made the phone call under the guise of his office, not as a candidate.



"He certainly broke numerous norms," he said. "Let's make clear that what he was doing was in his capacity as president, right? It wasn't his campaign manager who set up the phone call. It was his chief of staff."

With the runoff elections only one day away in Georgia, there seems to be a lingering question both in the state and across the nation about what could happen next in the ongoing political soap opera. Pieper echoed the feeling of many other political and legal experts.

"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," he said. "It was kind of painful in my heart to to know that there's a very powerful individual who is living in an alternate reality."

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