President Donald Trump called Georgia's elections investigator shortly before Christmas to ask her to look into 'dropped ballot...
President Donald Trump called Georgia's elections investigator shortly before Christmas to ask her to look into 'dropped ballots' and say he was the rightful winner of the November 3 vote in her state - telling her she would be 'praised' when the 'right answer comes out.'
Trump made the call two days before Christmas as part of a doomed effort to overturn the election result in the state.
It came just days before his infamous call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom he asked to 'find' 11,780 votes that would make him the winner.
Trump, seen on Wednesday, phoned a top election investigator in Georgia to tell her he 'won'
The conversation is filled with cryptic comments where Trump claims 'something bad happened' while the state was in the midst of recount and examination efforts that would ultimately result in Joe Biden being certified as the winner.
In the newly revealed audio tape, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Trump appears to be trying to court the state's top elections investigator, Frances Watson - both flattering her and alluding to claims of fraud.
It was a move Raffensperger would later call inappropriate.
'That was an ongoing investigation,” he told the Washington Post on January 9.
'I don’t believe that an elected official should be involved in that process.'
Trump on the call made repeated claims that he 'won' the state – and mentioned other southern states that he did, in fact, carry.
He called vote-rich Fulton County - in which Atlanta sits - the 'mother lode.'
'I won everything but Georgia. And I won Georgia, I know that,' he told Watson.
He complements Watson at the start of the call, and she reveals that Mark Meadows, who at the time was the White House Chief of Staff, had met her the day before.
'Something happened. Something bad happened,' he said of the election – echoing claims by his election lawyers, as well as 'Kraken' lawsuits claiming massive fraud in the state.
Multiple recounts, however, determined that Biden won the state. Two Democrats were subsequently elected to the Senate from Georgia in runoff elections on January 5.
Trump told Watson that Meadows 'thinks you've been great.'
He continued: 'And you know, this country is counting on it because it's very interesting.
'So I won Florida in a record number, Ohio in a record, Texas in a record, Alabama by 40 – 40 points. And I won everything but Georgia.
'I won Georgia, I know that, by a lot, and the people know it.'
Fulton County officials conduct a machine recount of the result on November 30
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called Trump's call to the investigator inappropriate
The Watson call came days before Trump rang Raffensperger and asked him to 'find' votes
'Something happened. Something bad happened,' he said.
He did not offer an explanation, but alluded to his own repeated public comments of widespread voter fraud.
'I hope you're going back two years,' he told the investigator, urging more than a 'signature check' that verifies a signed ballot matches the signature on files with state election officials.
'You're going to find things that are going to be unbelievable. The dishonesty, That we've heard from – just good sources. Really good sources,' Trump said, without naming them.
'Fulton is the mother lode, you know as the expression goes, Fulton County.'
The appeal appeared to catch Watson off guard.
She told him she was 'shocked' that he called.
'I appreciate your comment,' she told him, without making any promises.
She told him: 'We are only interested in the truth and finding the information that is based on the facts.'
Trump told the investigator she had 'the most important job in the country right now,' he told her.
He told her Georgia residents were 'so angry' and claimed he won by 'hundreds of thousands of votes.'
'They dropped ballots. They dropped all these ballots,' he said.
'When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised,' he told her.
He also told her at the end of the call: 'Whatever you can do, Frances, it's a great thing.'
He also referenced January 6 – the date Congress met to count the certified votes.
It was also the date of the MAGA riot in the Capitol that would result in five deaths.
'We have that date of the 6th, which is a very important date,' Trump told her.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has launched a criminal investigation into election overturn efforts.
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