State officials initially told CNN that they do not believe the audio of the cell exists. The call added to Trump’s widespread allegations of widespread voter fraud and extraordinary attempts to influence Georgia election officials as they certified state election results.
An audiotape of the December 23 call between former president and investigator Francis Watson was found as Georgia’s secretary of state responded to a request for public records. Spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity to describe the internal process.
Watts declined to comment to CNN through the press secretary of Georgia’s secretary of state.
An audiotape of a January 2 phone call in which Trump repeatedly pressured Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffinsperger to come out after the exact number of votes needed to reverse Byan’s victory. But the December call was only announced last week.
“It’s not every day, maybe it will never happen again in my lifetime,” Watson told WSB.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. But Watson told Winn that she was surprised when Trump called her, although she did not feel pressured by his phone call.
“It’s not an expectation that isn’t expected, as I mentioned to you in the column that I know I was shocked that it would take time to do that,” Watson said.
In a December call, Trump encouraged Watson to be “dishonest” in his signature examination of absentee ballots in Fulton County, the state’s most populous county and one of Atlanta’s most populous.
“But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you’ll find things that are unbelievable,” the former president said. “The dishonesty we’ve heard. But Fulton is a mother’s instinct.”
Trump later told Watson over the phone that he hoped “we” could win Georgia and that “you have the most important job in the country right now.”
.
