Trump pressured Georgia officials to "find votes", then sued Brad Raffensperger over the disclosure.

Find the Votes

The red hot story of the day just got hotter. First here is the background.

‘There is nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you recalculated,’ the president told Brad Raffensperger.

The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Pressured Georgia Secretary of State to ‘Find’ Votes

President Trump in a Saturday telephone call urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the November election results that delivered the state to President-elect Joe Biden. 

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” he told Mr. Raffensperger on the call, adding later, “It’s not a problem that is going away.” Mr. Biden won the state by 11,779 votes out of about 5 million cast.

Transcript and Audio

Kudos to Brad Raffensperger for recording the call and disclosing it. You can Listen to the Audio and Read a Full Transcript at the WSJ.

At the Phone Meeting

• President Trump
• Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State, State of Georgia
• Ryan Germany, General Counsel and Assistant Commissioner of Securities, State of Georgia
• Cleta Mitchell, partner, Foley & Lardner
• Jordan Fuchs, Deputy Secretary of State, State of Georgia
• Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff

Kurt R. Hilbert, managing member and founder, the Hilbert Law Firm

Partial Transcript With My Comments

Mish Comment: In the transcript Trump rambled on and on about various fraud allegations, all long ago disproved. Following the lengthy rambling, Meadows chimed in.

MR. MEADOWS: What I’m hopeful for is, is there some way that we can – we can find some kind of an agreement to look at this a little bit more fully?

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I’ve listened to what the president has just said. President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won and we don’t – I didn’t agree about the 200,000 number that you mentioned. But I could go through that point by point. .... we did a hand re-tally, a 100 percent re-tally of all the ballots and compared that to what the machine said, and it came up with virtually the same result. Then we did the recount and we got virtually the same result. So I guess we could probably take that off the table. I don’t think there’s an issue about that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Brad – Brad, not that there’s not an issue, but – because I – we have a big issue with Dominion in other states and perhaps in yours, but we haven’t felt we needed to go there. ... If you took – these are the most minimal numbers, the numbers that I gave you. Those are numbers that are certified: your absentee ballots sent to vacant addresses; your out-of-state voters, 4,925. You know, when you add them up, it’s many more – it’s many times the 11,779 number. ... And the people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that – you know, that you’ve recalculated because the 2,236 on absentee ballots, I mean, they’re all exact numbers that were done by accounting firms, law firms, et cetera. And even if you cut them in half, cut them in half, and cut them in half again, it’s more votes than we need.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised, but they – I guess there was a person named Mr. Braynard that came to these meetings and presented data. And he said that there was dead people – I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two – two. Two people that were dead that voted. And so that’s wrong. That was two.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Cleta, how do you respond to that? .... I mean, you tell me. we’re so far ahead of these numbers, even the phony ballots of Ruby Freeman – known scammer. You know the internet? You know what was trending on the internet? “Where’s Ruby,” because they thought she would be in jail. “Where’s Ruby.” It’s crazy. It’s crazy. That was – the minimum number is 18,000 for Ruby, but they think it’s probably about 56,000. But the minimum number is 18,000 on the Ruby Freeman night where she ran back in there when everybody was gone and stuffed – she stuffed the ballot boxes. Let’s face it, Brad. I mean, they did it in slow-motion replay magnified, right? She stuffed the ballot boxes. They were stuffed like nobody’s ever seen them stuffed before. ...And by the way, that one event – that one event is much more than the 11,000 votes that we’re talking about. It’s – you know, that one event was a disaster. It just – you know, but it was – it was something that – it can’t be disputed. And again, we have a version that you haven’t seen, but it’s magnified.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: You’re talking about the State Farm video. And I think it’s extremely unfortunate that Rudy Giuliani or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context. So the next day we brought in WSB-TV and we let them show – see the full run of tape. I mean, what you’ll see, the events that transpired are nowhere near what was projected by, you know –

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But where were the poll watchers, Brad? There were no poll watchers there. There were no Democrats or Republicans. There was no security there. It was late in the evening or late in the – early in the morning, and there was nobody else in the room. Where were the poll watchers? .... And, you know, I give everybody the benefit of the doubt, but that was – and, Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put them in three times.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Mr. President, they did not put that – we did an audit of that, and we’ve proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.

MR. GERMANY: We had our – this is Ryan Germany. We had our law enforcement officers talk to everyone who was – who was there after that event came to light. They GBI was with them, as well as FBI agents.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, there’s no way they could – then they’re incompetent. They’re either dishonest or incompetent, OK? There’s only two answers: dishonesty or incompetence.

MR. GERMANY: We’ve been going through each of those as well. And those numbers that we got, that Ms. Mitchell was just saying, they’re not accurate. Everyone we’ve been through are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state, but then moved back to Georgia legitimately. And in – and in many cases – (inaudible 38:45) – so far.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Really? How many people do that? You mean they moved out and then they said, ah, all the hell with it, I’ll move back in? You know, it doesn’t sound like a very normal – like you mean they moved out, and, what, they missed it so much that they wanted to move back in? You know, it’s like – (laughs) – it’s crazy.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And what about – what about the – what about the ballots, the shredding of the ballots? Have they been shredding ballots?

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: No.

MR. GERMANY: The only investigation that we have into that, they have not been shredding any ballots. There was an issue in Cobb County where they were doing normal, you know, office shredding, getting rid of old stuff, and we investigated that. But this is stuff from, you know, past elections. And that’s – and that’s what it turned out to be.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: We believe that we do have an accurate election.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I – no, you don’t. No. No, you don’t. You don’t have – you don’t have – not even close. You got – you’re off by hundreds of thousands of votes. And just on the small numbers, you’re off on these numbers. ... OK, so you send us into Cobb County for signature verification, right? You send us into Cobb County, which we didn’t want to go into, and you said it would be open to the public and we could have our – so we had our experts there. They weren’t allowed into the room. But we didn’t want Cobb County. We wanted Fulton County, and you wouldn’t give it to us.

MR. GERMANY: We chose Cobb County because that was the only county where there’s been any evidence submitted that the signature verification was not properly done –

PRESIDENT TRUMP: ...Fulton County – look, Stacey – in my opinion, Stacey is as dishonest as they come. She has outplayed you at every – at everything. She got you to sign a totally unconstitutional agreement which is a disastrous agreement. You can’t check signatures, you can’t do – I can’t imagine – you’re allowed to do harvesting, I guess, in that – that agreement is a disaster for this country.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Ballot harvesting is still illegal in the state of Georgia, and that settlement agreement did not change that one iota.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s not a settlement agreement; it’s a consent decree. It even says consent decree on it, doesn’t it? It uses the term consent decree. It doesn’t say settlement agreement; it’s a consent decree. It’s a disaster. ... We could go through signature verification, and we’ll find hundreds of signatures – if you let us do it – and the only way you can do it, as you know, is to go to the past. ... And you will find – you will be at 11,779 within minutes because Fulton County is totally corrupt and so is she totally corrupt. And they’re going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, Brad. Whether you know it or not, they’re laughing at you. And you’ve taken a state that’s a Republican state and you’ve made it almost impossible for a Republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like nobody has ever cheated before. ... they are shredding ballots, in my opinion, based on what I’ve heard, and they are removing machinery, and they’re moving it as fast as they can, both of which are criminal fines, and you can’t let it happen, and you are letting it happen. You know, I mean, I’m notifying you that you are letting it happen.

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Well, we’re –

PRESIDENT TRUMP: – all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state, and flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, you know, there’s just – it’s a testament that they can admit to a mistake – or whatever you want to call it – if it was a mistake. I don’t know. .... In my opinion it’s never too late. In my opinion it’s never too late. So – oh, a little double – a little double sound there. ... So that’s the story, fellows. Look, we need only 11,000 votes. We have far more than that as it stands now. We’ll have more and more, and – do you have provisional ballots at all, Brad? Provisional ballots?

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Provisional ballots are allowed, you know, by state law.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: – you guys are so wrong and you’ve treated this – you’ve treated the population of Georgia so badly, between you and your governor, who wouldn’t – who was down at 21 – he was down 21 points and, like a schmuck, I endorsed him and he got elected. But I will tell you, he’s a disaster and he’ll never – I can’t imagine. The people are so angry in Georgia I can’t imagine he’s ever getting elected again, I’ll tell you that much right now. But why wouldn’t you want to find the right answer, Brad, instead of keep saying that the numbers are right? Because those numbers are so wrong and –

MR. RAFFENSPERGER: Mr. President, please –

PRESIDENT TRUMP: ... all we have to do, Cleta, is find 11,000-plus votes. So we don’t need that. I’m not looking to shake up the whole world. We won Georgia easily. We won it by hundreds of thousands of votes. But if you go by basic simple numbers we won it easily. Easily. So we’re not giving Dominion a pass, on the record. I will say that. .... But let the truth come out, and the truth – the real truth is I won by 400,000 votes at least. That’s the real truth. But we don’t need 400,000 votes. We need less than 2,000 votes. And, you know, are you guys able to meet tomorrow, Ryan?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: OK. Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

MR. MEADOWS: Thank you.

MS. MITCHELL: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Bye.

MR. GERMANY: Mr. President.

(END OF CALL)

Wow - Just Wow.

There is much more in the complete transcript.

Trump Files Suit

Here's the Entire Call

Who Broke the Law?

Trump Proves He is Delusional

In case you were wondering if Trump was just playing his fans or if he truly was delusional, you have your answer.

For starters, there was no way Raffensperger was going to partake in this mad scheme. He had already turned down Trump's overtures several times.

Even if Raffensperger agreed to look for votes, and managed to find them, Georgia would not swing the election.

Besides, Raffensperger already investigated all of Trump's false claims.

If anyone broke the law it's Trump and his team for election tampering. Violating state law in a federal election is a federal crime.

Once again, kudos to Brad Raffensperger for recording the call and disclosing it.

Georgia Senate Elections

Earlier today I noted Democrats are In the Lead in Both Georgia Senate Races

It would not surprise me in the least if this reckless move by Trump ultimately is the deciding factor in both races.