Despite Trump’s insistence, his own administration and state election officials across the country have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.
The phone call with the investigator happened in December more than a week before Trump’s January 2 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to the source. The Post reported that the “lengthy” phone call was on December 23, citing a person familiar with the call.
Raffensperger confirmed to the Post that Trump had placed the call, but said he wasn’t familiar with the specifics of the conversation between his office’s chief investigator and the President.
He added that it would be inappropriate for the President to have attempted to intervene in the audit, the Post reported.
The newspaper withheld the name of the investigator, explaining its decision to do so is “because of the risk of threats and harassment directed at election officials.” The individual did not reply to the Post’s requests for comment.
The White House declined CNN’s request for comment. CNN has reached out to the Georgia secretary of state’s office for comment.
The timing of Trump’s call came as the investigator was leading an audit started in December into allegations that Cobb County election workers had inadequately performed signature matches ahead of the June primary, according to the source.
Raffensperger, a Republican who supported the President for election, has been the target of Trump’s attacks after refuting the President’s claims of voter fraud.
In another part, he said, “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.”
In another phone call in early December, first reported by the Post, Trump had tried convincing Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to get state legislators to overturn Biden’s win in the state.
CNN’s Jason Hoffman, Chandelis Duster, Devan Cole, Ryan Nobles and Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
