Why Trump’s Phone Calls Could Be Focus of Potential Indictment in Georgia

Donald Trump, who has been hit with three indictments this year, could face a fourth as a grand jury in Georgia is considering whether he should be criminally charged for his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

If he is charged, the prosecution could rely at least in part on two phone calls Trump made, including one on Jan. 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who at the time was overseeing a forensic audit of mail-in ballots in a suburban Atlanta county. The U.S. Justice Department referred to the Raffensperger call in an indictment against Trump earlier this month, alleging he tried to push state officials around the country to contest election results. 

Trump may get hit with racketeering charges

Legal observers have suggested that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may charge Trump with a violation of Georgia’s RICO Act, which is modeled after the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970. While such laws were originally used to bring cases against the mafia, Willis has used the state RICO charge in prosecutions of gang members and teachers involved in cheating on test scores.

Under Georgia law, any conviction would carry a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in state prison.  

The first call, to Raffensperger’s chief investigator 

In late December 2020, after Raffensperger’s office launched the audit, Trump called the office’s chief investigator, telling her that he was the real winner of the Georgia election. He urged the investigator, Frances Watson, to look for fraud, especially in Fulton County. 

“Something bad happened,” Trump said during the six-minute recorded call, which can be heard here. 

The investigator said: “We are only interested in the truth and finding the information that is based on the facts.” 

“The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me,” Trump said. “They know I won, won by hundreds of thousands of votes, it wasn’t close.”

“When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” he told Watson.

Ultimately, the audit found no evidence of fraud.

The second call, to Raffensperger himself 

Trump continued to press for official intervention, calling Raffensperger and members of his office on Jan. 2, 2021, to urge him to overturn the election results. The roughly hourlong call, which was also recorded, came four days before Congress was to certify Biden’s election win. The recording can be heard here.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger.  

Trump also asserted that there was widespread voter fraud, including thousands of dead people voting in the election. Raffensperger responded by saying the claim was false. Trump also alleged in the call that ballots had been destroyed but hedged by saying “this may or may not be true.”

Trump is also accused in the federal indictment of insinuating to Raffensperger that the secretary of state and his counsel could face criminal prosecution if they failed to find election fraud. 

“It’s more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” Trump said during the call. 

The calls could carry significant weight 

Lawyers following the investigation said state prosecutors could allege that the recordings of the calls offer strong evidence of Trump pressuring Georgia officials and that he was trying to recruit them to join in a conspiracy to illegally overturn the election results. 

“I believe that they’ll try to say that Trump knew it was wrong, that he was trying to influence and overthrow the will of the people,” said Jerry Froelich, a former federal prosecutor and Atlanta-based criminal defense lawyer. 

Trump has said his phone calls were “perfect” and he had every right to challenge the Georgia election. He has attacked Willis as partisan and his lawyers have said her investigation was “tainted by improper influences.”  

“How can they charge me in Georgia?,” Trump wrote on his social-media network Saturday. “The phone call was PERFECT. WITCH HUNT!”

The federal indictment also mentioned the second call

The 45-page federal indictment devoted five pages to Trump’s alleged efforts in Georgia. Federal prosecutors say he lied to Raffensperger during the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to induce him to alter Georgia’s popular vote count. 

The indictment also alleges that Trump called the Georgia state attorney general to pressure him to support a lawsuit that another state’s attorney general had filed asking the Supreme Court to block four battleground states from casting electoral votes for Biden. The suit was later thrown out. The Georgia state attorney general told Trump during the call that officials had investigated election fraud in the state and didn’t see evidence to support the allegations, according to prosecutors. 

Trump has denied the charges in the Justice Department indictment and pleaded not guilty. He has said that he is being politically persecuted.  

The Georgia indictment could turn up evidence of other phone calls placed by Trump

It is possible that other evidence related to efforts to overturn the election, such as additional phone calls, could be detailed in any indictment.  

A potential indictment in Georgia may be harder for Trump to shake than the federal indictments

If Trump or one of his allies were to become president, that person could pardon only those convicted of federal crimes, not state ones. A future president also could attempt to throw a wrench in any Justice Department investigation or prosecution, but would likely have little power over Willis or proceedings in Georgia courts. And in Georgia, the power to pardon falls to a state board, not the governor. 

While Trump also faces an indictment in New York state court, a conviction wouldn’t necessarily carry any time in jail.

Write to James Fanelli at [email protected] and Corinne Ramey at [email protected]