ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he will discuss the phone call he received from President Donald Trump last weekend with the Fulton County District Attorney and state election board to determine if the president broke any laws when he asked Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn the results of November’s election.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray independently obtained a copy of the call over the weekend. During it, the president does the vast majority of the talking, pressuring Raffensperger to change the results of the election.
Fani Willis, Fulton County’s newly installed district attorney, said she is ready to investigate whether Trump broke state laws if the secretary of state refers the case to her.
[FULL AUDIO: Call between President Trump, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on election]
“Did you think the president did anything improper or even possibly illegal in his conversation with you on that call?” Gray asked Raffensperger in a one-on-one interview on Monday.
“I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, so I’ll leave all that to the lawyers,” Raffensperger said.
During the hour-long call, Trump urged Raffensperger to find more votes and flip Georgia back for him.
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“So, look, all I want to do is just, I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said during the phone call.
“Are you glad that the recording is out there for the American people to see?” Gray asked Raffensperger.
“It’s out there in the public domain. People can listen to it as much as they want to and make their own decisions,” Raffensperger said.
“So, what are we going to do here, fellas? I only need 11,000 votes, fellas. I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break,” Trump said during the call.
“What I was very clear on is (that) he has bad data,” Raffensperger said.
[READ: Trump pressured Raffensperger to overturn election results in phone call, recordings reveal]
“Anyone who commits a felony violation of Georgia law in my jurisdiction will be held accountable,” Willis said in a statement. “Once the investigation is complete, this matter, like all matters, will be handled by our office based on the facts and the law.”
“So will your office reach out to the DA’s office or have some sort of conversation?” Gray asked Raffensperger.
“We’ll have discussions. We’ll also reach out to members of our board,” Raffensperger said.
At the state Capitol on Monday, Raffensperger had his staff refute the claims of fraud Trump has made, one by one.
[READ: Georgia Secretary of State on Trump phone call: ‘The data he has is just plain wrong’]
“This is all easily provably false, yet the president persists, and by doing so undermines Georgians’ faith in the election system,” said Gabriel Sterling.
Raffensperger confirmed to Gray that Trump has repeatedly tried to call him since the election—as many as 18 times—and he refused to take those calls until this weekend.
The secretary said he thought taking the calls was inappropriate while the Trump campaign was taking legal action against his office.
Cox Media Group
