New recording reveals Trump called Georgia investigator leading signature match audit

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has obtained a copy of a new phone call between former President Donald Trump and a lead investigator at the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

The call gives a new look at the outside pressure that Georgia investigators faced while investigating allegations of election fraud in 2020.

“I won Georgia, I know that, by a lot. And the people know it and something happened. Something bad happened,” Trump can be heard saying in the call.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne spoke exclusively with Frances Watson, the chief investigator for the Georgia’s Secretary of State’s Office.

The call between Watson and Trump took place on Dec. 23, one week before the now-famous phone call between Trump, Raffensperger, his attorney Ryan Germany and White House senior staff members.

“It is something that is not expected, and as I mentioned in the call, I was shocked that he would take the time to do that,” she said.

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In the call recording, Trump mentions other states in the South where he defeated President Joe Biden, including Florida and Alabama and questions how he didn’t win Georgia. He also urges investigators to check signatures on ballots going back several years to verify their accuracy.

“If you go back two years or four years, you’ll see it’s a totally different signature. But, but hopefully, you know, I will, when the right answer comes down, you’ll be praised,” Trump said.

“You know, you have the most important job in the country right now. Because if we win Georgia, first of all if we win you’re gonna have two wins. They’re not gonna win right now, you know they’re down,” Trump said.

Watson said her call from Trump came after a conversation with his chief of staff Mark Meadows about the signature audit her team and the GBI were conducting in Cobb County.

“Even prior to the audit, we were working extremely long days. And during the audit, we had a team of over 50 that were working again 12-16 hour days, trying to complete the audit,” Watson said.

The investigation found there were only two mismatched signatures among the more than 15,000 votes in the audit.

Watson was surprised a president called her, but pressed on with her job investigating the 2020 election. She said she found nothing to change the fact that Trump lost Georgia.

Watson told Winne that she did not perceive any pressure from the president’s call and the phone call has not been requested from any investigative agency.

“You won’t be surprised if that happens after today?” Winne asked.

“No, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was requested and I wouldn’t mind sharing it,” Watson replied.

RAW VIDEO: President Trump's call to Georgia Secretary of State investigator about signature audit Channel 2 Action News has obtained a copy of a new phone call between former President Donald Trump and a lead investigator at the Georgia Secretary of State’s

This is not the first phone call that the former president made to Georgia election officials and investigators.

Channel 2 Action News previously reported on another phone call that lasted more than an hour on Jan. 2 between Trump, Raffensperger, his attorney Ryan Germany and White House senior staff members.

During the call, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” him 11,000 more votes and to overturn his defeat in the state.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened an investigation into the phone call. Willis said she will look at all the evidence before making a decision about whether to file charges against Trump, and what those charges would be.

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