How Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State landed him in legal jeopardy

A single phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State has played a huge part in the cases against former President Trump.

During the now-infamous phone call, Trump asked Raffensperger to find nearly 12,000 votes following the 2020 election, after Trump lost the state to President Joe Biden.

“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said on the call. “Because we won the state.”

The call lasted more than an hour between Trump, Raffensperger, his attorney Ryan Germany and White House senior staff members.

A federal indictment handed up on Aug. 1 alleges that Trump lied to the Secretary of State.

“During the call, (Trump) lied to the Georgia Secretary of State to induce him to alter Georgia’s popular vote count and call into question the validity of the Biden electors’ votes,” the indictment said.

The first 12 minutes of the call is Trump talking without interruption, going through debunked conspiracy theories about what he repeatedly calls “certified numbers” showing that he won Georgia, not President-elect Joe Biden.

Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by an 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”

RELATED STORIES:

• Georgia takes center stage in Trump federal indictment alleging election interference

• TIMELINE: Fulton County grand jury investigation into potential interference in Georgia elections

• Grand juries seated in case to consider charges against former President Donald Trump

• Grand jury selection to start in Georgia election interference case tied to Trump

Raffensperger pushed back against Trump who insisted he won Georgia.

“You should want to have an accurate election, and you’re a Republican,” Trump says in one exchange.

“We believe we have an accurate election,” Raffensperger says.

And later: “Well, Mr. President... the data that you have is wrong,” Raffensperger said.

At one point, Trump warns Raffensperger and his lawyer, Ryan Germany, could be at risk for criminal charges if they don’t change the election’s outcome.

“It’s more illegal for you than it is for them,” Trump says. “Because you know what they did, and you’re not reporting it. That’s it, you know, that’s a criminal. That’s a criminal offense. And you know you can’t let that happen. That’s, that’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyers. That’s a big risk.”

Trump also accused Raffensperger of hurting Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue’s chances of holding on to their Senate seats.

“Because of what you’ve done to the President, a lot of people are going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are gonna go negative because they hate what you did to the President,” Trump said.

Trump repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger ran Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden.

Trump also repeatedly talked about the surveillance video at State Farm Arena where Trump and his allies said “suitcases of ballots” were being counted in the middle of the night.

“I think it’s extremely unfortunate that [Co-Conspirator 1] or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context,” Raffensperger told Trump, according to the August federal indictment.

The Secretary of State’s Office walked Channel 2 Action News through that video frame-by-frame, showing that no fraud occurred.

During the call, Trump also continued his criticism of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for not doing more to help him win the state.

The conversation would be the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud by the first president to lose reelection in almost 30 years came nearly two weeks before Trump left office and two days before the twin runoffs in Georgia that ultimately determined control of the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

RELATED NEWS: