On January 2, 2021, during an hour-long
conference call
A conference call (sometimes called an audio teleconference or ATC) is a telephone call in which several people share a telephone line at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the cal ...
, then-
U.S. president
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
pressured
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" and overturn
the state's election results from the
2020 presidential election. Trump had been unequivocally defeated by
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
in the election, but refused to accept the outcome,
and made a
months-long effort to overturn the results. Prior to the call to Raffensperger, Trump and his campaign spoke repeatedly to state and local officials in at least three states in which he had lost, urging them to recount votes, throw out some ballots,
or replace the
Democratic slate of electors with a
Republican slate. Trump's call with Raffensperger was released by ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' and other media outlets the next day,
after Trump made a statement about the call on Twitter.
According to the publicly released recording of the call and reports made by multiple news agencies, Trump attempted to pressure Raffensperger into reinvestigating the election results, despite being repeatedly told that there was no electoral error. Trump's repeated efforts to convince Raffensperger to find some basis to overturn the election results were perceived as pleading and threatening. At one point on the call, Trump told Raffensperger, "What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state." During the call, Trump falsely suggested that Raffensperger could have committed a criminal offense by refusing to overturn the state's election results.
Legal experts have suggested that Trump's behavior and demands could have violated state and federal laws.
On January 11, the phone call was cited in the
article of impeachment in the
second impeachment of Donald Trump
Donald Trump, serving as the 45th president of the United States, was impeached for the second time on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. On that date, the House of Representatives adopted one article of impeachment again ...
introduced in the House of Representatives. Raffensperger's office opened a fact-finding and administrative investigation of potential election interference regarding Trump's efforts to overturn the results in Georgia, and
Fulton County prosecutors opened a criminal investigation in February of the same year.
On August 14, 2023, Trump, along with 18 co-defendants, was
indicted in Fulton County on charges including
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
and
fraud
In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
. The phone call was a central element of the indictment.
Background
In the
2020 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...
, former Vice President
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
defeated incumbent President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
. Trump and
his campaign falsely claimed that voting fraud had cost him electoral victory in several states, including Georgia. Trump's claims were rejected and found to be baseless by numerous state and federal judges, elected officials, governors, and government agencies, including his own administration's
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cyber ...
(CISA).
Trump's attempts to overturn the election cost taxpayers $519 million according to an analysis by ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
,'' including $488 million in security fees during and after the
U.S. Capitol attack, and $2.2 million in legal fees.
Trump's many legal challenges to the election results were unsuccessful, but he repeatedly refused to accept the outcome of the election. Audits and hand recounts revealed no evidence of fraud or any irregularity that would have changed the election results. Biden was officially confirmed the winner of Georgia on November 19.
In November and December, as his lawsuits were repeatedly rejected in court, Trump personally communicated with Republican local and state officials in at least three states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. He talked in person or via phone to state legislators, state attorneys general, and governors, pressuring them to recount the votes, throw out some of the ballots, or get the state legislature to replace the elected Democratic slate of Electoral College members with a Republican slate of electors chosen by the legislature in order to overturn the election results in their states. In December he spoke by phone to the governor of Georgia,
Brian Kemp
Brian Porter Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American politician serving as the 83rd governor of Georgia since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Kemp served as the state's 27th Georgia Secretary of Sta ...
, and made public demands on the secretary of state,
Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans who had supported Trump in the election. He demanded that they reverse the Georgia election results, threatened them with political retaliation when they did not, strongly criticized them in speeches and tweets, and tweeted that Kemp should resign.
December 23 phone call with chief elections investigator
On December 23, 2020, Trump called the chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state's office, who was then conducting a ballot audit in
Cobb County. Raffensperger had ordered the audit in response to allegations of fraud. Trump asked her to scrutinize the ballots and said she would find "dishonesty". ''The Washington Post'' reported on the telephone conversation with apparent quotations of Trump's comments to the chief investigator. It based these quotations on an anonymous source purportedly familiar with the call. At the time of its reporting, it emphasized that Trump had instructed the investigator to "find the fraud" and that she would be a "national hero" if she did so. Based on this reporting, some legal experts said that this phone call appeared to be bribery or obstruction on Trump's part. On December 29, the audit ended. Georgia officials concluded that there was no fraud. Trump was unhappy with those results.
Secretary of State Raffensperger acknowledged Trump's December 23 phone call to the chief investigator during a ''Good Morning America'' interview on January 4. ''The Washington Post'' revealed more details of the phone call on January 9, but did not reveal the name of the chief investigator to protect that person's safety.
Other news outlets published similar stories and stated that they had corroborated the story with their own investigations.
In the
second impeachment against Trump, House managers specifically cited the purported statements to the Georgia investigator as part of the evidence supporting the call for impeachment in their trial brief presented to the United States Senate.
In March 2021, in the course of the criminal investigation by Fulton County District Attorney
Fani Willis
Fani Taifa Willis (; , ; born October 27, 1971) is an American attorney. She is the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, which contains most of Atlanta, serving since 2021. She is the first woman to hold the office in Fulton County.
Wi ...
into Trump's attempt to overturn the November 3 election, investigators obtained the audio recording made by the individual Trump was speaking to, from her computer. In response to a public records request, officials made the audio recording available to the press. The transcript and recording revealed that the quotations in the original ''The Washington Post'' article were inaccurate. The recording indicated that Trump had encouraged the investigator to look into "dishonesty" in the Fulton vote count, but had never used the words "find the fraud". The recording also indicated that Trump said "you'll be praised", but not that the investigator would be a "national hero".
Following the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
's reporting of the discovery of the recording, ''The Washington Post'' issued a correction to its original article, as did other outlets such as ''
The Hill'' and the Associated Press. In its correction, the ''Post'' said that Trump had been "misquoted".
The quotes by Trump were corrected to "
ou wouldfind things that are gonna be unbelievable" and "when the right answer comes out, you'll be praised".
January 2 taped conversation with Raffensperger
On January 2, 2021, Trump held a one-hour phone call with Raffensperger.
Trump was joined by chief of staff
Mark Meadows
Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 under the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representat ...
, trade adviser
Peter Navarro, Justice Department official
John Lott, law professor
John C. Eastman, and attorneys
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
,
Cleta Mitchell,
Alex Kaufman, and
Kurt Hilbert. Raffensperger was joined by his general counsel Ryan Germany.
Jordan Fuchs, a Republican operative and chief of staff to Brad Raffensperger, while listening on mute, recorded the phone conversation, while visiting her grandparents in Florida.
On January 3, ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' and other media outlets obtained a recording of this phone conversation.
[
During the phone call, Trump maintained falsely that he had won Georgia by "hundreds of thousands of votes", insisting that the certified election results were wrong. He said that Raffensperger should "reevaluate" the election's results, citing a variety of different ]conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
...
regarding voting in the state. Raffensperger, in response, answered that the election results in that state were correct and legitimate, and that Trump "had got his data wrong". During his attempts to pressure Raffensperger into changing the election results, Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes", the minimum number needed to overcome Biden's advantage in Georgia. Trump also tried to intimidate Raffensperger, hinting that Raffensperger and his attorney could face a possible criminal investigation. Trump said, "You know, that's a criminal offense. And you know, you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you."
After the Georgia call, Trump and his team spoke on Zoom with officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Release of the tape
On January 3 Trump said on Twitter that he had spoken to Raffensperger and that Raffensperger was "unwilling or unable to answer questions" about alleged election fraud and that he "has no clue". Later that day, the recording of the conversation was released to ''The Washington Post'' and other media outlets; a local television station said they had obtained it from "government sources".
Raffensperger said he had not initially intended to release the tape, but felt compelled to respond after Trump misrepresented the call on Twitter. He added that the call had been hastily arranged after Trump saw Raffensperger say on Fox News that morning that the election had been fair and honest and that Trump had lost. It was later reported that the White House had made 18 attempts over the previous weeks to get the secretary of state's office on the phone. Raffensperger said he had preferred not to take such calls because his office was in "litigation mode" with the White House, and both sides would need to have their advisers present.
Raffensperger's legal rights
Some commentators raised legal concerns regarding Raffensperger's recording and disclosing his phone call with Trump; far right-wing media such as Gateway Pundit, a prominent conspiracy theory website, specifically wrote that Raffensperger might face an espionage charge. PolitiFact
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...
cited legal experts that the content of the phone call was not covered by the Espionage Act, as the conversation had nothing to do with national security.
While there were rumors about a possible lawsuit against Raffensperger for recording the conversation without Trump's consent, the telephone call recording laws
Telephone call recording laws are legislation enacted in many jurisdictions, such as countries, states, provinces, that regulate the practice of telephone call recording. Call recording or monitoring is permitted or restricted with various levels ...
for both locations where this conversation was held, namely the state of Georgia and District of Columbia
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
, only require "one-party consent", meaning any participant of a phone call can legally record it without another party's consent. As the conversation was hastily arranged, Raffensperger said that the parties did not establish any non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...
before or during the phone call.
Investigations
Legal experts said Trump's attempt to pressure Raffensperger could have violated election law,[ including federal and state laws against soliciting election fraud or interference in elections.] Election-law scholar Edward B. Foley called Trump's conduct "inappropriate and contemptible" while the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is a progressive nonprofit 501(c)(3) watchdog organization devoted to U.S. government ethics and accountability.''Washington Information Directory 2017-2018''; CQ Press; 2017; Pg. 327 ...
called Trump's attempt "to rig a presidential election ... a low point in American history and unquestionably impeachable conduct."[
According to '']The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', Trump might have committed a crime by attempting to pressure Raffensperger, as he might have been "knowingly attempting to coerce state officials into corrupting the integrity of the election", said professor of Constitutional Law Richard Pildes. According to Michael Bromwich, Trump might have violated Title 52 of the United States Code when he said "I just want to find 11,780 votes", as reported in ''The Guardian''. Raffensperger has said the calls from Trump to him and other officials could be reason for an investigation into possible conflicts of interest.
In March 2022, a federal judge cited the phone call when ruling that Trump ally John Eastman's emails could be turned over to the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack. Since Trump's request of Raffensperger had been "obvious" in its "illegality", the judge wrote, Eastman's correspondence related to this topic appears to discuss how to help Trump commit a crime, and therefore Eastman is not entitled to the privacy granted by attorney–client privilege
Attorney–client privilege or lawyer–client privilege is the common law doctrine of legal professional privilege in the United States. Attorney–client privilege is " client's right to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person fro ...
.
Federal
On January 4, 2021, Democratic congressional leaders, believing Trump "engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes", requested the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
to investigate the incident. In addition, while some House Republicans tried to defend Trump's Georgia call, Democrats began drafting a censure resolution. After the U.S. Capitol attack, Democrats launched a drive to impeach Trump for "Incitement of Insurrection".
The draft article of impeachment, as well as the final version, cited the January 2 phone call to Raffensperger:
President Trump's conduct on January 6, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Those prior efforts included a phone call on January 2, 2021, during which President Trump urged the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to "find" enough votes to overturn the Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if he failed to do so.
Trump's attorneys in the impeachment trial addressed the Georgia phone call as follows:
It is denied that the word "find" was inappropriate in context, as President Trump was expressing his opinion that if the evidence was carefully examined one would "find that you have many that aren't even signed and you have many that are forgeries."
Lacking sufficient support from Republican senators to meet the two-thirds majority threshold, the impeachment trial acquitted Trump on February 13.
State
In early January 2021, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis said that she found the phone call with Trump and Raffensperger "disturbing" and said a Democratic appointee from the State Election Board had requested that the Secretary's Elections Division investigate the call, after which the Board would refer the case to the office and the state Attorney General.
On February 9, Raffensperger's office opened an investigation of potential election interference in Trump's efforts to overturn the results in Georgia, including the phone call, a step that could lead to a criminal investigation by state and local authorities.[
District Attorney Willis launched a criminal investigation on February 10 to enable her to decide whether to prosecute Trump.] Her team includes former Georgia special prosecutor John E. Floyd, considered a "national authority on racketeering". Willis said in February that no Georgia official was currently a target of the investigation, but in September, she announced that state election officials were among the witnesses her team was interviewing. Subpoenas, if needed to gain information from uncooperative witnesses, had not yet been issued by September.
On November 6, reporting emerged that Willis was likely to impanel a special grand jury, which would allow her to proceed with the investigation more efficiently, as those jurors would be dedicated to the case. However, even if she obtained subpoenas, she would still be required to return to a regular grand jury
A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
for an indictment. (There was a county-wide backlog of over 10,000 cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) On January 20, 2022, Willis sent a letter to Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Christopher S. Brasher to request permission to convene a special grand jury, stating that there was a "reasonable probability" Georgia's election process in 2020 "was subject to possible criminal disruptions". This request was subsequently granted on January 24 by a majority of judges on the court, and the grand jurors were selected on May 2. Raffensperger's office was subpoenaed for documents, and Raffensperger, five of his staff members, and State Attorney General Chris Carr were subpoenaed to appear in June.
Willis' investigation focuses on Trump's phone call to Raffensperger and other attempts by Trump to influence Georgia officials, including the attorney general of Georgia and the governor. The investigation is also examining a November 13, 2020, phone call by Senator Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (; born July 9, 1955) is an American politician and attorney serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A membe ...
to Raffensperger in which Graham tried to influence the election result. Trump himself may have provided additional incriminating information when he publicly said at a September 25, 2021, rally in Perry, Georgia
Perry is a city in Houston County, Georgia, Houston and Peach County, Georgia, Peach counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat of Houston County. The population was 13,839 at the 2010 census, up from 9,60 ...
, that he had asked Governor Kemp to "help us out and call a special election". On May 2, 2022, an updated overview of the related legal details and circumstances was reported in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
On July 5, 2022, the special grand jury issued subpoenas for Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis.
On January 9, 2023, the grand jury completed its investigation giving District Attorney Fani Willis the decision to file any criminal charges. A hearing was scheduled for January 24 to address if any portions of the report will be released to the public by an order dissolving the grand jury by Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney.
Reactions
The day after the Trump call was disclosed, Republican Georgia voting system implementation manager Gabriel Sterling sharply refuted Trump's claims of election fraud during a press conference with Raffensperger, listing and debunking several allegations made by Trump and his allies that thousands of teenagers, dead people, and unregistered citizens had voted, and a misleading video that had been distributed supposedly showing fake ballots being secretly retrieved from suitcases. Sterling said, "The president's legal team had the entire tape, they watched the entire tape, and from our point of view, intentionally misled the state's senate, voters and the people of the United States about this. It was intentional. It was obvious. And anybody watching this knows that."
Carl Bernstein
Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original ne ...
, one of the investigative journalists who revealed the Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
, said the allegations were "far worse than Watergate" and called the recording of the phone call "the ultimate smoking gun tape". U.S. Representative Hank Johnson
Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, inclu ...
has called it "a violation of state and federal law", while Senator Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Dem ...
has said it "merits nothing less than a criminal investigation." House Democrats were reported to be drafting a censure resolution. ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called it "extraordinary" that a sitting U.S. president would attempt to pressure a Secretary of a U.S. state into changing the votes of a state. David Worley, the Democratic appointee to the State Elections Board and a former Democratic Party of Georgia chairman, called for a criminal probe into Trump's actions, stating that Trump had solicited election fraud, constituting a violation of state law.
Democrats condemned Trump's conduct.[ Vice President-elect ]Kamala Harris
Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...
, as well as Representative Adam Schiff
Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024. A m ...
(the chief prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
at Trump's first impeachment trial) said that Trump's attempt to pressure Raffensperger was an abuse of power
Abuse of power or abuse of authority, in the form of "malfeasance in office" or "official abuse of power", is the commission of an Crime, unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. Malfeasan ...
. Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Dem ...
, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, called for a criminal investigation.[ On January 4, 2021, Democratic U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to open a criminal investigation of the incident, writing that they believed Trump had solicited, or conspired to commit, "a number of election crimes."] More than 90 House Democrats support a formal censure resolution, introduced by Representative Hank Johnson
Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, inclu ...
of Georgia, to "censure and condemn" Trump for having "misused the power of his office by threatening an elected official with vague criminal consequences if he failed to pursue the president's false claims" and for attempting "to willfully deprive the citizens of Georgia of a fair and impartial election process in direct contravention" of state and federal law. Some congressional Democrats called Trump's conduct an impeachable offense.
Several House and Senate Republicans also condemned Trump's conduct, although no Republican described the conduct as criminal or an impeachable offense.[ Republican Senator ]Pat Toomey
Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms as the U.S. represen ...
called it a "new low in this whole futile and sorry episode" and commended "Republican election officials across the country who have discharged their duties with integrity over the past two months while weathering relentless pressure, disinformation, and attacks from the president and his campaign."[ Other congressional Republicans defended Trump's Georgia call, including House Minority Leader ]Kevin McCarthy
Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January until he was Remova ...
and Georgia Senator David Perdue
David Alfred Perdue Jr. (born December 10, 1949) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman serving as the List of ambassadors of the United States to China, United States ambassador to China since 2025. A member of the Republican Pa ...
, who told Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
in an interview that he thinks releasing the tape of the call was "disgusting."
Raffensperger tweeted that "the truth will come out" regarding the incident. On January 4, Raffensperger confirmed the phone conversation during an interview that aired on ''Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
''. He said, "I'm not a lawyer. All I know is that we're going to follow the law, follow the process. Truth matters. And we've been fighting these rumors for the last two months."
Republican legislators within the Georgia State Senate
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The Georgia State Senate and the lower house of the General Assembly, the Georgia House of Representatives, comprise the bicameral leg ...
attempted to interfere in the Fulton County District Attorney's investigation of the phone call by introducing a constitutional amendment which would have mandated the calling of a state-wide grand jury to investigate election crimes instead of a regular county-wide grand jury. According to numerous reports, this would force the District Attorney to summon grand jurors from more conservative, rural counties as well as dilute the diversity of the members present. However, due to the Republicans lacking a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directl ...
, the resolution was considered unlikely to pass. In April 2022, the legislative session ended without the resolution having been enacted.
Graham phone call to Raffensperger
During the hand recount of all ballots of the state of Georgia between November 11 and 20, 2020, Republican Senator of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (; born July 9, 1955) is an American politician and attorney serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A membe ...
, privately called Raffensperger about the audit. Raffensperger concluded that Graham intended to ask him to throw out all legal mail-in ballots and described that he felt "threatened" during the conversation, which Graham denied. ''The Washington Post'' reported in February 2021 that the Fulton County district attorney was examining Graham's phone call to Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into possible efforts to overturn the Georgia election results.
See also
* Hello Garci scandal, a similar scandal in the Philippines that took place in 2005
*
References
External links
Full audio sources of the call
*
*
* (Requires subscription)
Official responses
Full press conference
(begins at about 30 minutes) from Guardian News
Posterboard with summary of rebuttal
on CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
.com
Full videos of State Farm Arena incident (archived)
on Vimeo from Secure The Vote GA
*
{{Authority control
2021 controversies in the United States
2021 in American politics
2021 scandals
2021 in Georgia (U.S. state)
January 2021 in the United States
Controversies of the 2020 United States presidential election
Political corruption scandals in the United States
Political scandals in Georgia (U.S. state)
Presidential scandals in the United States
Raffensperger phone call
Raffensperger phone call
History of the telephone