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The report is the latest example of Trump’s extraordinary efforts to influence Georgian election officials when they certified the results, even though there is no evidence of widespread election fraud. Trump’s actions caught the attention of Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as well as a Fulton County prosecutor who has launched a criminal investigation.
“When the correct answer comes out, you will be congratulated,” Trump told Frances Watson, the chief investigator in the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, in a six-minute conversation on Dec. 23, according to the Journal.
“I won everything except Georgia. And I won Georgia, I know it. A lot. And people know it. And something happened there. Something bad happened. Trump allegedly told Watson on the phone call.
At the time, Watson was investigating the Secretary of State’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation audit of more than 15,000 signatures in Cobb County, outside of Atlanta. The results of the audit did not reveal any evidence of fraudulent ballots and Biden was declared the winner of Georgia in the election.
“I hope you go back two years instead of checking each other out,” Trump can be heard on the call. “Because it would just be a signature check that meant nothing.”
Trump then asked Watson to also look at Fulton County, the most populous county in the state and home to most of Atlanta.
“But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you’re going to find things that are going to be amazing,” said the then president. “The dishonesty we’ve heard about. But Fulton is the mother lode.”
Watson replied, “I can assure you, our team and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, that we are only interested in the truth and finding information that is based on the facts.”
Ari Schaffer, spokesperson for Raffensperger’s office, told CNN: “This phone call is just one more example of how the public comments from Secretary Raffensperger’s office also reflect what was said during one-on-one conversations: We would follow the law, count every legal vote. and investigate any allegations of fraud. That’s exactly what we did and how we arrived at the exact final vote count. ”
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a CNN request for comment regarding the call between Trump and Watson.
Investigators from both probes are interested in Trump’s call to Watson, according to sources close to the probes.
Willis made her investigative intentions clear with a series of letters to Georgia state officials in February, asking them to keep records of election interference as she investigated potential state crimes, including solicitation of electoral fraud, conspiracy and racketeering.
A source close to the Georgian Secretary of State’s investigation confirmed that officials were examining two phone calls Trump made to their office. One is the January phone call where Trump pressured Raffensperger to “find” votes to overturn the election results after his loss to Biden. The other concerns the appeal that Trump made on December 23 to Watson.
In a previous statement to CNN on February 9, Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller said there was nothing “inappropriate or untoward” about the call between Trump and Raffensperger.
“If Mr. Raffensperger did not want to receive calls about the election, he should not have been running for secretary of state,” Miller said in the statement.
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