Trump called Georgia Secretary of State investigator, urged her to find fraudulent votes
ATLANTA - In the 6-minute phone call, then-President Donald Trump got right to the point.
"And, you know, and I won Georgia. I know that. By a lot. And the people know it," said then-President Donald Trump on a secretly recorded phone call.
He repeatedly told Georgia Secretary of State chief investigator Frances Watson, he won Georgia and the election was stolen from him.
"Something happened. Something bad happened," Trump told her.
The call came on December 23, 2020. One day after White House chief of staff Mark Meadows came to Cobb County to ask questions about Georgia's ongoing audit of signature matches.
While in Cobb, Meadows met Frances Watson and got her phone number.
The next day, President Trump called and urged Frances Watson to find the fraud by comparing and checking voter's signatures dating back two years or longer and to turn her attention to Fulton County.
"You’re going to find things that are going to be unbelievable. The dishonesty that we’ve heard from them," said Trump.
President Trump's phone call to Frances Watson was followed a week later by a second call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump urged the Secretary of State to find enough votes to overturn the results.
Those calls are now at the center of a Fulton County criminal investigation into alleged efforts by Trump to overturn the state’s election.
Reporter: "You plan on issuing grand jury subpoenas?"
Willis: Well, that's the way a proper investigation is done, so yes, we will issue grand jury subpoenas.
In his call to Frances Watson, President Trump urged her to closely examine signature matches and look for any signs of voter fraud.
"When the right answer comes out you'll be praised," said Trump.
The chief investigator of the Secretary of State's office responded.
"I can assure you, our team, the GBI, are only interested in the truth. Finding information based on the facts," Watson told the president.
Jessica Cino is a criminal justice law professor at Georgia State. She said the phone calls by Trump to the Secretary of State and his chief investigator show a long timeline in which the then-president was attempting to undermine the election process.
"It does seem to clearly violate the state law and the federal law in terms of trying to tamper, influence, or otherwise do something to change the votes in an election," said Cino.
In the end, Secretary of State Raffensperger found no evidence of voter fraud in Georgia.
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