Atlanta jurors heard another Trump call about 2020 vote

​Members of a special Atlanta grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged meddling in Georgia’s 2020 election say they heard another recording of Trump pressing a top Republican lawmaker to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the Peach State, according to a report.

The phone call between Trump and the late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, which had not been previously reported, is the third time the former president demanded a state official override the election outcome, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In the call, weeks after voting day, Trump insisted that Ralston convene a special session of the legislature to reverse Biden’s win in Georgia, ​the first time a Democrat picked up the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1992.

But Ralston refused.

One of the five jurors ​- three men and two women – ​on the 23-member panel interviewed by the AJC said Ralston, who died last November, “basically cut the president off.”


Former President Donald Trump speaks on June 27, 2017, with the Irish prime minister. Members of a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating the 2020 election say they heard a recording of Trump's call with the later Georgia House speaker seeking a special election to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state.
Former President Donald Trump speaks on June 27, 2017, with the Irish prime minister. Members of a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating the 2020 election say they heard a recording of Trump’s call with the late Georgia House speaker seeking a special election to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.
AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump called David Ralston, speaking to the media in February 2019, after the 2020 election seeking his help to reverse the vote for Joe Biden in Georgia.
Former President Donald Trump called David Ralston, seen speaking to reporters in February 2019, after the 2020 election seeking his help to reverse the vote for Joe Biden in Georgia. Ralston died last November.
AP

“He said, ‘I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.’ … He just basically took the wind out of the sails,” the juror told the newspaper. “‘Well, thank you,’ you know, is all the president could say.”

Trump called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, claiming that the results were fraudulent and seeking his help to throw the election for him.

“So look. 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,” Trump said on the leaked call. “There’s no way I lost Georgia. There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”​

Audio ​has also surfaced of Trump’s December 2020 call with Frances Watson, then the state’s top elections investigator, asking her to examine absentee ballots in Cobb County.​

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis convened the jury shortly after the Raffensperger call was revealed and it first met in May 2022. 

The panel heard testimony from about 75 witnesses, including many allies and associates of the former president. 

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani testified, as did Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) , as well as Georgia republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger himself.

The jurors who talked to the newspaper were not identified and would not discuss the grand jury’s final report, which is under seal. ​

Emily Kohrs, the forewoman of the jury, caused a stir in February when she embarked on a whirlwind media tour and ​told reporters “it’s not a short list” in response to questions about who could be indicted in connection with the probe.