Washington (CNN) Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Monday her Republican opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, was abusing his power by investigating the Georgia Democratic Party over what his office describes as an attempt to hack the state's voter registration system.

Georgia Democrats have vehemently denied the claim. A series of email chains obtained by CNN late Sunday indicate that, rather than taking part in any alleged "hack," the Georgia Democrats had simply passed along information about security concerns from a voter to a private cybersecurity firm, which in turn shared the issue with Kemp's office.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Monday that its Georgia Cyber Crime Center had opened a criminal investigation at the request of Kemp's office.

As secretary of state, Kemp is overseeing an election in which he is also running, and he has resisted calls to step aside to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

"It's wrong to call it an investigation," Abrams told CNN's John Berman on "New Day." "It's a witch hunt that was created by someone who is abusing his power."

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