ATLANTA (AP) – A special jury investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia heard a recording of the former president urging top state lawmakers to call a special session to overturn losses in the state, according to newspaper reports.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that they spoke with five members of a special grand jury who said they heard tapes of a phone call between Trump and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston that had not previously been reported and had not been made public.
Ralston, who died in November, did not call a special session in the weeks after the November 2020 election.
The five chief justices – three men and two women – spoke to the newspaper but declined to be named because of security and privacy concerns.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the Georgia investigation in early 2021, shortly after another call recording between Trump and top state officials was made public. During a January 2, 2021 phone call, Trump suggested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to reverse a narrow loss in the state.
“All I want is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have,” Trump said during the call. “Because we won the state.”
In a separate recording made public in early 2021, Trump can be heard talking to the lead investigator in Raffensperger’s office in December 2020, urging him to look into Fulton County, saying he would “find unbelievable things.” Trump also said, “If the right answer comes out, you will be praised.”
The special jury, which sat in May, heard from about 75 witnesses and considered other evidence before concluding its work in December. It did not have the authority to issue an indictment but did make a report with recommendations for Willis.
The special grand jury foreperson said in a news interview last month that the panel had recommended multiple people be indicted, but he declined to say who. In the end, Willis decided whether to go to a grand jury to find one or more charges in the case. He said during a hearing in January that a decision on the case was “imminent.”