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As election officials in Georgia checked the signatures on envelopes of absentee voters in a metropolitan Atlanta county, US President Donald Trump pressured a principal investigator to “find the fraud” and said he would turn the investigator into a National hero.
The December call, described by a person familiar with her who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive nature of the discussion, is yet another link in the chain of Trump’s extraordinary lobbying campaign on state officials as he sought to annul the results of the November elections, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Evan Vucci / AP
The president of the United States, Donald Trump.
It’s one of at least three phone calls, made over the course of a month between early December and early January, where Trump sought the help of senior Georgia officials in subverting the election, only to be rejected each time. Trump lost to Biden in Georgia by 11,779 votes.
The call to the investigator preceded Trump’s Jan. 2 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where he asked election officials to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. It happened when elections officials were auditing absentee ballot envelope signatures in Cobb County.
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The audit, which reviewed more than 15,000 signatures, found no cases of fraud. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation assisted in conducting the signature audit.
Trump and his allies have for months made false claims about Georgia’s signature verification process for absentee ballots and the results of the November elections. Among other things, they demanded an audit of the signature matches.
The White House had no immediate comment. The call was first reported Saturday by The Washington Post, which said it was withholding the name of the investigator, who did not respond to requests for comment, due to the risk of threats and harassment directed at election officials.
Brynn Anderson / AP
Observers watch official work as ballots are counted for the Georgia Senate second round at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
Multiple election officials across the country and former Trump attorney general William Barr have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Raffensperger and other officials in Georgia have repeatedly disputed Trump’s false claims about the elections, saying they were conducted freely and fairly.
Congress certified the victory of the Biden Electoral College early Thursday, hours after a violent mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.
During another call in early December, Trump lobbied Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to order a special session of the state legislature to subvert Biden’s victory. Kemp refused.
Trump repeatedly lashed out at Raffensperger and Kemp, both fellow Republicans, and others he believed stood in his way to overturn his electoral defeat.
Ben Gray / AP
Workers at the Georgia Gwinnett County election site process absentee ballots for the Georgia Senate second round in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
In last week’s call with Raffensperger, Trump urged the Secretary of State to change the certified results.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, ”Trump said. “Because we won the state.”
Raffensperger said in response: “President Trump, we have had several lawsuits and we have had to respond to the lawsuits and arguments in court. We do not agree that you won. “
Legal experts said the call raised questions about possible violations of electoral law by Trump, and several Democrats in the state have called for an investigation to be opened.
