Clyburn suggests Georgia officials pursue 'criminal charges' against Trump for Raffensperger call

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn suggested Tuesday that Georgia officials pursue "criminal charges" against President Trump in connection with his call to Georgia's secretary of state about election results. 

"I do believe with only 14 or 15 days left in this presidency, it would be a waste of our time here in the House to pursue impeachment," Clyburn, the third highest-ranking Democrat in the Democratic-controlled chamber told CNN. "I suspect if all that I heard on this tape is to be investigated, there could very well be criminal charges brought by state and local governments down there in Georgia."

In the taped call Saturday leaked to CNN, Trump talks for about an hour to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about problems with the state’s Nov. 3 election results and urges state officials to find yet-to-be-counted votes in his favor.

Some Trump critics and legal experts suggest criminal charges could be brought against the president for the conversation. 

However, Alan Dershowitz, the lifelong liberal and Harvard law professor, says the news media took Trump's comments out of context and that there is no crime apparent on the tape recording.

"Well, every major media is taking it out of context," Dershowitz said during an interview Monday on the Just the News television show "The Watercooler with David Brody." "He's not saying I want you to create the vote. He's not saying I want you to manufacture or concoct the votes. He's saying, and he's been saying this for months, on Twitter and his statements and his campaign's, he thinks that people voted for him and those votes weren't counted.

"He's entitled as a citizen, as a candidate, to say, 'I want you to find those votes, I want you to find the votes that will pass for me and what weren't counted. I want you to find votes that were cast against me that shouldn't have been counted – by people who are dead people, who are out of state.' "