The report is the latest example of Trump’s extraordinary efforts to influence Georgia election officials as they certified the results, even though there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. Trump’s actions have drawn the attention of Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, as well as a Fulton County prosecutor who has launched a criminal investigation.
“When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Trump tells Frances Watson, the chief investigator at the Georgia secretary of state’s office, in a six-minute conversation on December 23, according to the Journal.
“I won everything but Georgia. And I won Georgia, I know that. By a lot. And the people know it. And something happened there. Something bad happened,” Trump reportedly told Watson during the phone call.
At the time, Watson was investigating the secretary of state’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s audit of more than 15,000 signatures in Cobb County, outside Atlanta. Results of the audit found no evidence of fraudulent mail-in ballots and Biden was declared winner of Georgia in the election.
“I hope you are going back two years as opposed to checking one against the other,” Trump can be heard saying on the call. “Because that would just be a signature check that didn’t mean anything.”
Trump went on to tell Watson to also look at Fulton County, the most populous county in the state and the one that houses most of Atlanta.
“But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you are going to find things that are going to be unbelievable,” the then-President said. “The dishonesty that we’ve heard from. But Fulton is the mother lode.”
Watson responded: “I can assure you that our team and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, that we are only interested in the truth and finding the 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 Secretary Raffensperger’s office’s public comments also reflect what was said in 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 accurate final vote tally.”
A spokesman for Trump did not respond to a CNN request for comment regarding the call…
Read the full article at rss.cnn.com
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