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"I JUST WANT TO FIND 11,780 VOTES"
In a now infamous telephone call on January 2, 2021, President Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for more than an hour. The President confronted him with multiple conspiracy theories about the election—none of which were true. Raffensperger and other Georgia officials debunked these allegations, one after another, during their call. Under Raffensperger's leadership, Georgia had, by that time, already conducted a statewide hand recount of all ballots. That recount and other post-election reviews proved that there was no widespread fraud, and that voting machines didn't alter the outcome of the election.[1] This should have put President Trump's allegations to rest. But, undeterred by the facts, the President badgered Raffensperger to overturn the Georgia results.
President Trump insisted that "the ballots are corrupt" and someone was "shredding" them.[2] He issued a thinly veiled threat, telling Raffensperger, "it is more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you're not reporting it."[3] Of course, the Georgia officials weren't doing anything "illegal," and there was nothing to "report." Even so, President Trump suggested that both Raffensperger and his general counsel, Ryan Germany, could face criminal jeopardy.[4] "That's a criminal, that's a criminal offense. And you can't let that happen," the President said.[5] "That's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer … I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen."[6]
And then the President made his demand. "So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," President Trump told Raffensperger.[7]
It was a stunning moment. The President of the United States was asking a State's chief election officer to "find" enough votes to declare him the winner of an election he lost.
Raffensperger saw the President's warning to him on January 2nd as a threat. "I felt then—and I still believe today—that this was a threat," Raffensperger wrote in his book.[8] And this threat was multifaceted: first,
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