The investigation comes after Trump was recorded in a January 2 phone call pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the results based on false voter fraud claims.

"The Secretary of State's office investigates complaints it receives," said Walter Jones, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, describing the investigation as "fact finding and administrative".

"Any further legal efforts will be left to the attorney general," he said.

Legal experts said Trump's phone calls may have violated at least three state election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

The felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment.

In the January 2 phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to "find" enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss.

The transcript quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: "All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes," which is the number Trump needed to win.

Trump made another call in December to Georgia's chief elections investigator, Raffensperger's office said.

Additionally, two Democratic members of the US Congress - Kathleen Rice, of New York and Ted Lieu of California - have asked in a January 4 letter to the FBI for a criminal probe into Trump's call to Raffensperger.

On January 6 - the day of the Capitol riots - Trump bragged about the call in a speech to supporters: "People love that conversation because it says what's going on," he said. "These people are crooked."

The push for investigations are one illustration of the legal perils facing Trump since he lost the constitutional protections that shield sitting presidents from prosecution.

Trump now faces nearly a dozen legal battles.

Australian Associated Press