reporter: about 200 miles southeast of metro atlanta sits coffee county. it s a rural area with a population of about 43,000. in the 2020 election, donald trump captured about 70% of the vote in this conservative county. it s also the site of a major data breach at the county s election offices involving some of the most vocal conspiracy theorists in the trump orbit. the story of coffee county is really under the radar. there was this effort to gain access to voting systems specifically in georgia. trump wanted to find evidence of fraud, to find evidence that would support some of his baseless conspiracy theories that he was pushing. and the idea was once you get a copy of the voting system, then you produce the evidence that there was widespread fraud. reporter: coffee county, seen as a trump-friendly area, became a target for those looking to access voting systems. january 7th, 2021 was the day that they finally were let in
ongoing. did you have any sense this was tied to maybe other operatives in the trump campaign, that it was anything beyond sort of lower-level people in coffee county? not initially. but there are allegations, and as you dig down deep more is revealed, and then you realize that that wasn t truthful. sidney powell was the one who ended up commissioning the services of sullivan strickler. her involvement is really what exposes the broader trump team s involvement in coffee county. reporter: powell advocated seizing voting machines with an executive order from trump. at an explosive white house meeting in december 2020. another idea that was pitched during that meeting was raised by rudy giuliani, and he thought that they could coerce or convince local election officials to voluntarily give their investigators access to voting systems. reporter: in other words, exactly what happened in coffee county on january 7th, 2021. do you feel like the longer this
trump campaign that was beyond lower-level people in coffee county? not initially. there were allegations. as you dig down deep, more is revealed. sydney powell was the one who ended up commissioning the services of sullivan strickler. it is the broader trump s team involvement in coffee county. reporter: powell advocated season voting machines from executive order from trump at an expose of meeting in december 2020. another idea that was pitched was raised by rudy giuliani. he thought they could coerce or convince local election officials to voluntarily give their investigators access to the voting system. reporter: in other words, exactly what happened in coffee county on january 7th, 2021. do you feel like the longer it goes on, it feels like this is bigger than even we realized
start tonight by how the indictments lays this out. first of, all as i mentioned, it is unequivocally clear, this is not new territory for us as a country, the indictment is very clear that it is about conduct that happened while trump was president. all four felony counts in the indictment have specific dates on them. overall while trump was president. they all start on november 14th, 2020. the significance of that date, according to the indictment, according to the special counsel s allegations against the president, is that november 14th is the day the indictment says trump knew he lost the election. so all four felonies are alleged to have started to be committed as of november 14th, 2020, and the conduct described in the indictments that it ends on a couple of accounts on january 7th, 2021, the day after the attack on congress, and the other two counts of conduct ends on january 20th,
president. they all start on november 14th, 2020. the significance of that date, according to the indictment, according to the special counsel s allegations against the president, is that november 14th is the day the indictment says trump knew he lost the election. so, all four felonies are alleged to have started to be committed as of november 14th, 2020, and the conduct described in the indictments then ends on a couple of the counts on january 7th, 2021, the day after the attack on congress, and the other two counts, the conduct ends on january 20th, 2021, at the inauguration of joe biden. this is all conduct that took place while trump was president. now, whatever national agita we may have had about whether a sitting president can be held accountable for his crimes and now as of today, we know by this action from the u.s. justice department that even if the u.s. justice department does think a sitting president can t have charges brought