Trump Suing Brad Raffensperger Over Leaked Audio Call

News of President Donald Trump suing Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, surfaced hours after the media release of a leaked audio conversation between the two men. A recorded phone conversation between Trump, Raffensperger, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and State counsel Ryan Germany, is now making its way into court. 

RELATED: Trump Demands Georgia Gov. Kemp to Resign

“Confidential Settlement Discussion”

According to Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer, the President plans to sue Raffensperger. He tweeted: “President @realDonaldTrump has filed two lawsuits – federal and state – against @GaSecofState. The telephone conference call @GaSecofState secretly recorded was a ‘confidential settlement discussion' of that litigation, which is still pending.”

He called the recording “mind-boggling” and said the leak came from Raffensperger and his lawyers. Media outlets that posted the audio call have not disclosed where the audio originated. The Washington Post first broke the news about the phone conversation on Sunday.  

Georgia is a one-party consent state when it comes to recording conversations. At least one party needs to give consent before a person can record a private conversation. For videos, Georgia requires all parties involved in the video must give their consent. 

“The People of Georgia Are Angry”

In a phone recording released to the media Sunday, Trump appeared to ask Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes he believed were stolen from him. The call was made on Saturday and included White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Raffensperger’s lawyer, Ryan Germany.  

During the hour-long call, President Trump wanted Raffensperger to look into the election results yet again, strongly insisting that he won the elections in Georgia. Trump told Raffensperger that given the results, “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you've recalculated.” Trump added that he just wants to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”  

Trump believed that Georgia made a mistake during the elections, which he claims “no way I lost Georgia.” He suggested Raffensperger acknowledge the mistake and overturn the results, this will solve the problem. “Flipping the state is a great testament to our country; it’s a testament that they can admit to a mistake. A lot of people think it wasn’t a mistake, it was much more criminal than that. But it’s a big problem in Georgia and it’s not a problem that’s going away.

Hundreds of Thousands of Votes

The President also claimed that they won by “hundreds of thousands of votes,” and that Raffensperger should “be careful of political corruption” in places like Fulton County. The Republicans alluded to alleged voter irregularities in the county. They accused voting machine systems provider manufacturer Dominion of “moving fast to get rid of their machinery.” Dominion denies involvement in all allegations of voting fraud. 

In the audio call, Raffensperger repeatedly challenged Trump’s allegations, insisting he possessed the wrong data. Raffensperger and his office's general counsel, Ryan Germany, reiterated that President-elect Joe Biden won the state by more than 12,700 votes out of 5 million votes cast. “The people of Georgia know that this was a scam, and because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote [in the Tuesday runoff elections],” the President said, “A lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president.” “Everyone’s going to look very good if the truth comes out,” he added. “And the real truth is I won by 400,000 votes at least. That’s the real truth.” Then, he also suggested that his party mate Raffensperger faces criminal consequences if he didn’t act on the request.

“He Has No Clue” 

The president himself referenced the call in his tweets Sunday morning. He said Raffensperger refused to look into the corruption happening before his eyes. “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” the president said on social media. Then, he also called out the governor, Brian Kemp, also a Republican, for not intervening.  “The Governor, @BrianKempGA, and his puppet Lt. Governor, @GeoffDuncanGA, have done less than nothing,” Trump tweeted.

During the phone call, Trump admonished Raffensperger for ignoring the reports of voter fraud in Atlanta. He called him “a child” and “either “dishonest or incompetent” for not acting on his complaint. Also, Trump berated and called himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp.

Watch and listen to the CNBC full audio call of President Trump’s conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last Saturday:

Do you agree with President Trump suing Brad Raffensperger for allegedly leaking a confidential call? Given Georgia’s one-party consent law on audio, do you think this will prosper? Let us know what you think about this, and about the conversation between the two men as well. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.