A recording of a December call from former President Donald Trump to the chief investigator of the Georgia secretary of state’s office has been released.
The call happened just before Christmas, as chief investigator Frances Watson was conducting an audit of voting results in Cobb County. In the six-minute recording, released on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, Trump urged Watson to continue digging for fraud, claiming he won the state by a large margin.
“I won Georgia by a lot, and the people know it,” Trump said. “Something bad happened.” The president told Watson that “when the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.”
Trump, who said she had “the most important job in the country” at the time of the call, urged Watson not to just look into Cobb County’s results but also investigate the returns in Fulton County, which contains Atlanta and is the Peach State’s most populous county.
GEORGIA OPENS FACT-FINDING INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP PHONE CALLS ABOUT ELECTION
“If you can get to Fulton, you’re going to be able to find things that are unbelievable,” the former president said. “Fulton is the motherlode, as the expression goes.”
Watson sounded shocked that she was receiving a call from the president and never asked Trump for clarification about his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
“I appreciate your comments, and 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,” she said.
“I do know that you are a very busy, very important man, and I am very honored that you called,” Watson said. “And quite frankly, I’m shocked that you would take time to do that, but I am very appreciative.”
The recording’s release comes after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Trump and his team unduly pressured state officials to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.
The investigation is predicated upon another phone call from Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, a general counsel in the secretary of state’s office. In the Jan. 2 call, Trump asked the officials to “find” votes.
“You should want to have an accurate election. And you’re a Republican,” Trump said on the call. “You know what they did, and you’re not reporting it. That’s a criminal offense, and you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk.”
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President Biden ended up defeating Trump in Georgia by about 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democrat since President Bill Clinton in 1992 to win the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.
