Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was sitting in his kitchen on the afternoon of Jan. 2, 2021, when he received a phone call from the White House.
President Donald Trump, his chief of staff and some of his lawyers were on the line. During the conversation, Trump told Raffensperger to “find” him 11,780 votes to overturn the election results. That was one more than the 11,779-vote margin that gave Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes to President Joe Biden and turned Georgia Democratic for the first time since 1992.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s award-winning Breakdown podcast returns for its ninth season – The Trump Grand Jury – to cover an investigation into that hourlong phone call as well as other events in Georgia that happened in the weeks following Election Day.
A special-purpose grand jury has been convened in Fulton County by District Attorney Fani Willis. It will hear testimony in the coming months and ultimately recommend whether Willis should seek criminal charges against Trump and his allies.
No former president has ever been indicted for a crime, so this case is almost certainly one for the history books.
Episode One explores what happened during the phone call between Trump and Raffensperger as well as another call made to Frances Watson, the secretary of state’s lead elections investigator. Both conversations were recorded.
The AJC’s legal affairs reporter, Bill Rankin, returns as the host of Season 9 of the Breakdown podcast. He is joined by senior reporter Tamar Hallerman, who covered the Trump White House when she was the newspaper’s Washington correspondent.
You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer in the player above.
