Grand jury in Georgia heard recording of Trump call to state House
speaker -report
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[March 16, 2023]
By Eric Beech
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Atlanta grand jury that probed ex-President
Donald Trump's 2020 election meddling heard a taped telephone call he
placed to Georgia's Republican House leader seeking to reverse Democrat
Joe Biden's victory in that swing state, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reported on Wednesday.
The existence of such a recording, or that it was played for the
23-member special grand jury during the course of its eight-month
investigation, has not been previously reported.
Then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, since deceased, told local
media in December 2020 that Trump had called him the day before asking
him to convene a special session of the state legislature to overturn
the presidential election results in Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said it learned that a recording of the
Trump-Ralston call existed from the newspaper's own recent exclusive
interview of five of the grand jurors who said they had heard it.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/16/images/ads/current/heartland_lda_020123.png)
The newspaper quoted one of the panelists it interviewed as saying that
Ralston "basically cut the president off" without making any specific
promises, telling Trump, "'I will do everything in my power that I think
is appropriate.'"
"He just basically took the wind of the sails," the juror told the
newspaper, recounting that Trump then thanked Ralston, which at that
point was "all the president could say."
Ralston and other state legislative leaders never called a special
session, and the Georgia House speaker himself testified before the
special Fulton County grand jury in July 2022, according to local media
accounts. Ralston died about four months later, in November.
Unlike evidence and testimony examined in open court by trial juries in
the United States, the proceedings of grand juries, which play a role in
bringing criminal charges through indictments, are generally closed to
the public.
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![](../images/031623PIX/news_a27.jpg)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump
delivers remarks on education as he holds a campaign rally with
supporters, in Davenport, Iowa, U.S. March 13, 2023.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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The George elections grand jury also is known to have examined a
previously disclosed call Trump made on Jan. 2, 2021, to
then-Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger falsely claiming
that the November election results were fraudulent.
In a recording of that call, which has been widely available to the
public, Trump is heard asking Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes,
which is one more than we have, because we won the state."
The Wall Street Journal has posted a recording of yet another phone
conversation Trump had with Raffensperger's chief investigator at
the time, Frances Watson, who was conducting an audit of about
15,000 ballot signatures, urging her to find the "dishonesty" that
he claimed without evidence had cost him the election.
The Journal-Constitution said the five grand jurors it interviewed -
three men and two women - spoke on condition of anonymity to protect
their safety and privacy, and declined to discuss parts of its final
report that remain under seal.
That report, submitted to the Fulton County district attorney in
January before the panel was dissolved, included who the grand jury
recommended should be indicted.
In a previous interview with the Journal-Constitution, the jury
foreperson, Emily Kohrs, said, "it's not a short list" when asked
how many individuals the panel recommended be criminally charged.
The special grand jury, unlike a regular grand jury, was not
empowered to issue indictments, only recommendations, and the
decision on whether to press charges ultimately rests with the
district attorney, Fani Willis.
(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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