ATLANTA — Events here in Georgia helped federal investigators build a case against former President Donald Trump.
Five pages of that federal indictment handed up in Washington on Tuesday are dedicated to what it says happened in Georgia.
It mentions Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as well as Rudy Giuliani’s false testimony before state lawmakers.
On Dec. 3, 2020, Giuliani and attorney John Eastman, identified as co-conspirators number one and number two in the latest federal indictment, led Trump’s legal team in testifying before Georgia lawmakers trying to convince them there was so much voter fraud that they had the constitutional authority to overturn the election.
The indictment states Giuliani testified “with the intention of misleading state senators into blocking the ascertainment of legitimate electors.”
Trump’s Georgia attorney Ray Smith threw out eye-popping numbers.
“10,315 or more individuals to vote who were deceased by the time of the election,” Smith told the committee.
“I’ve been consistent since day one that there weren’t thousands of dead people. We eventually found four,” Raffensperger said on Wednesday.
The indictment also points to his now infamous phone call with Trump and says Trump “lied to the Georgia Secretary of State to induce him to alter Georgia’s popular vote count and call into question the validity of the Biden electors.”
“So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break,” Trump said during the phone call.
Raffensperger held his ground even as the indictment states Trump insinuated he could face criminal charges if he didn’t do what Trump wanted.
“That’s criminal. That’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan your lawyer,” Trump told Raffensperger during the phone call.
“When I had that conversation with him, I didn’t know what he knew and didn’t know. So my job, I felt, was to give him the facts. I’m an engineer and facts are the darndest things. You may not like them, but facts are facts,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger said the indictment doesn’t feel like vindication for himself or his office. He said it just makes him sad.
“I feel more sorrow for our country that we’re going through this because in effect, what we’re doing is losing time and wasting time,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger confirms he did meet with federal investigators last month.
Meanwhile he, like the rest of Georgia, is waiting to see if and when indictments are handed up from the Fulton County grand jury that is currently meeting.