Trump told him during a phone conversation that he needs him to “find” him 11,780 votes.
When the Secretary told him it’s a crime to rig an election, Trump threatened him that he’ll be criminally liable.
The conversation Saturday, Jan 2, was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of an election that he lost.
Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday, Jan 3, that he had spoken with Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, a day earlier.
Audio snippets of the conversation were posted online by The Washington Post. A recording of the call was later obtained by The Associated Press from a person who was on the call.
In it, Trump is heard saying: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11, 780 more votes, which is one more than we have.”
The release of the audio has led to the trend of the hashtag #TrumpTapes.
Americans are now calling for Trump to be prosecuted.
