A recently released call recording of former US president Donald Trump to Georgia’s chief elections investigator was found in the trash folder of the official’s device, according to CNN. Last week, the Georgia secretary of state’s office, while responding to a public records request, released a six-minute-long audio recording from December 23 in which Trump was heard encouraging the lead elections investigator, Frances Watson, to uncover “dishonesty” in her probe.
“The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me. They know I won, won by hundreds of thousands of votes. It wasn’t close,” Trump told Watson, according to the call recording.
“When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.” he said, later telling the investigator that she had the “most important job” in the country at that time. “Whatever you can do, Frances, it would be – it’s a great thing. It’s an important thing for the country. So important. You’ve no idea. So important. And I very much appreciate it,” Trump added.
The Washington Post had first reported on the substance of the call in January, detailing how the then-president pressured Watson to help him overturn the results of the presidential election. Georgia officials had earlier said that they didn’t believe a recording of the call existed. The Washington Post and CNN, citing people familiar with the matter, have now reported that the recording was located on a trash folder on Watson’s device while the officials were responding to a public records request.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis had sent letters to state officials last month, asking them to preserve all relevant documents related to alleged election interference. The call recording could form a part of Willis’ investigation. While it is not clear why Watson moved the recording to the trash folder, the investigator told a WSB-TV reporter that she didn’t perceive any pressure from the phone call.
Georgia officials are also investigating Trump for his attempts to overturn state election results, particularly his phone call to secretary of state Brad Raffensperger. Trump was caught on tape pressurising Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win. During the phone call, Trump repeatedly argued that the state official could change the certified results.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” said Trump. “Because we won the state.”
