Former President Donald Trump says his Jan. 2, 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger, which he has referred to as the “perfect call,” has him privately worried, according to reports.
Trump sought to have Raffensperger disqualify ballots to give him the win. Rolling Stone reports that Trump has told his lawyers to seek to have the phone call suppressed as evidence in his upcoming Georgia state RICO case.
Trump demanded that Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes,” to push him over the top. He repeatedly insisted that he had won the state.
Donald Trump Claims Fraudulent Ballots Cast
The former president claimed widespread voter fraud in Fulton County had cost him the lead, which he wanted to be dealt with appropriately.
“We have at least 2 or 3 anywhere from 250 to 300,000 ballots that were dropped mysteriously into the rolls. Much of that had to do with Fulton County, which hasn’t been checked. We think that if you check the signatures, a real check of the signatures going back in Fulton County, you’ll find at least a couple of hundred thousand of forged signatures of people with that who have been forged,” Trump said. “And we are quite sure that’s going to happen. Another tremendous number. We’re going to have an accurate number over the next two days with certified accountants, but an accurate number will be given.”
Trump argued that 4,502 voters had voted who were not on the voter registration rolls and that there were “18,325 vacant address voters”.
“So all sorts of things could have happened to that box, including, you know, putting in the votes that you wanted. So there are many infractions. And the bottom line is many, many times the 11,779 margin that they said we lost by, we had vast — I mean, the state is in turmoil over this,” Trump said.
However, Trump failed to prove it in court. A Georgia court tossed Trump’s challenge in early November 2020.
“The court finds that there is no evidence that the ballots referenced in the petition were received after 7:00 p.m. on [Election Day], thereby making those ballots invalid,” Judge James F. Bass wrote in his November 2020 ruling.
The conversation appears among the indictment counts against the former president.
Trump’s Call to Toss Phone Call Questioned
Some of Trump’s closest advisers have dismissed the legal theories behind the suggestion.
“At the end of the day, that just wouldn’t work,” an unnamed Trump legal adviser told Rolling Stone under the condition of anonymity. “You must confront what’s on there, not try to wish it away.”
The former president’s defenders claim that Trump’s call intended to settle an election lawsuit that had yet to be resolved.
But Rolling Stone noted that not everyone is sold on that idea as a legal justification for tossing it from consideration at trial.
The “claim that the Georgia rules of evidence preclude the use of the Raffensperger tape because it was part of settlement negotiations seems likely to fail,” says former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner. “The Georgia version of the rule is much narrower than the federal rule, and only covers explicit ‘offers to compromise’ not general settlement negotiations.”
Trump Spokesperson Dismisses Reporting
A Trump spokesperson dismissed Rolling Stone’s reporting.
“President Trump’s defense team in the Fulton County, Georgia, case intends to utilize appropriate legal procedural and substantive vehicles which ensure the president is afforded due process of law,” a Trump spokesperson said. “However, since this particular Rolling Stone article is obviously designed to sensationalize inaccurate and misleading information, it is fully and completely denied by the legal team.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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