在一个12月电话前总统，国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格办公室的首席调查员唐纳德·特朗普坚称自己赢得了格鲁吉亚总统大选选举，告诉调查人员“国家正在依靠”一项审计，该审计是为了确定邮件投票的签名验证过程是否在该州第三大县正确进行，根据一份新发布的录音，该录音是由《华尔街日报》。

“这个国家指望它，因为它非常有趣。...我赢得了一切，除了佐治亚，你知道，我赢得了佐治亚——我知道——很多人都知道，你知道，那里发生了一些事情。根据六分钟通话的录音，特朗普告诉首席调查员弗朗西斯·沃森(Frances Watson)。

这位前总统继续告诉沃森，“当正确的答案出来时，你会受到表扬。...人们会说，太好了，因为这就是——这就是它的意义所在，检查它的能力，纠正它的能力，因为每个人都知道它是错的。”

这种新录音的出现在刑事调查中特朗普试图推翻11月格鲁吉亚选举的结果，他以11779票的优势输掉了选举。这项由富尔顿县发起的调查的中心地区检察官办公室上个月，是一个小时的电话特朗普和拉芬伯格有过1月2日。在那次电话中，特朗普散布了关于选举的毫无根据的阴谋论和谎言，并恳求拉芬伯格“找到”赢得格鲁吉亚所需的确切票数。特朗普否认有不当行为，他的弹劾律师质疑他“在那个电话中以任何方式表现不当”。

特朗普的发言人没有回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。

詹姆斯·德瓦尼/格蒂图像公司

2021年3月9日，前总统唐纳德·特朗普离开纽约曼哈顿区的特朗普大厦。

拉芬伯格在12月14日宣布，他办公室的调查人员将与佐治亚州调查局(GBI)合作，对缺席选票信封进行签名匹配审计，称有具体可信的指控称，选举官员在6月的初选中没有正确进行签名匹配。总共有15，118个缺席投票宣誓信封被随机挑选出来进行审核，这些信封是选民签名的地方。

审计于12月29日完成，调查人员只发现了两张不应被接受的选票，它们本来应该经历“治愈”过程。但这位GBI导演也明确表示，这两次投票都不是欺诈性的。

根据录音，沃森向特朗普保证，她的团队和GBI“只对真相感兴趣，并找到，你知道，找到基于事实的信息。”

美国广播公司新闻先前报告一月份这个电话的存在。当时，一位知情人士表示，特朗普已经告诉沃森“找到欺诈行为”，她将因此成为“民族英雄”。通话录音中没有说这些确切的话。在随后的对话中，该消息来源告诉美国广播公司新闻，这就是沃森如何解释总统的话，以及她如何描述对该消息来源的呼吁。

当电话首次被报道时，美国广播公司新闻部没有透露调查人员的身份，因为分享电话细节的消息来源要求沃森保持匿名，因为选举官员面临威胁环境。然而，在这段录音中，特朗普通过名字来识别她。

美国广播公司新闻部已联系沃森，就该电话和录音发表评论，但尚未收到回复。然而，美国广播公司的亚特兰大分公司，WSB，也获得了录音与...单独交谈华生。

“这是出乎意料的，正如我在电话中提到的，我很震惊他会花时间这么做，”沃森告诉WSB的马克·韦恩。

她还说，她不觉得自己受到了压力，调查机构已经要求打电话。

拉芬伯格的发言人阿里·谢弗(Ari Schaffer)在一份声明中表示:“这个电话只是拉芬伯格部长办公室的公开评论如何反映一对一谈话中所说的话的又一个例子:我们将遵守法律，清点每一次合法投票，并调查任何欺诈指控。这正是我们所做的，也是我们如何得出准确的最终票数的。”

彭博通过盖蒂图像，文件

佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格在佐治亚州的新闻发布会上发表讲话

在电话录音中，特朗普提到沃森与他的参谋长马克·梅多斯的会面，沃森表示这发生在电话前一天。美国广播公司新闻此前证实，梅多斯在科布县试图观察12月22日进行的审计。拉芬伯格的副手乔丹·福克斯(Jordan Fuchs)当时表示，她不允许梅多斯进入调查人员工作的房间，但允许他站在门口。

特朗普在整个通话中做了大量的发言，不时漫无边际地谈论他在佛罗里达州、俄亥俄州、阿拉巴马州和德克萨斯州等其他州的选举胜利，暗示这些胜利证明他在佐治亚州的失败是不可能的。

“无论你能做什么，弗朗西丝，那都是——这是一件了不起的事情。这对国家很重要，很重要。你不知道，这么重要。根据录音，他说。

通话快结束时，特朗普问沃森调查人员是否会一直工作到圣诞节，他说，“因为你知道我们有6号的日期，这是一个非常重要的日子。”

1月6日是国会计算选举票数的日子，这是乔·拜登总统和副总统贺锦丽获胜的最后一步。

那天早上，特朗普告诉一群人我知道这里的每个人都将很快走向国会大厦，以和平和爱国的方式让你们的声音被听到。...我们拼命战斗。如果你不拼命战斗，你就不会有一个国家了。”

不久之后，一群特朗普的支持者和暴力极端分子突然发现美国国会大厦，克服警察渗透到国家的政府所在地，迫使立法者和当时的副总统迈克·彭斯寻求安全，因为叛乱分子试图阻止国会和彭斯履行他们的宪法义务，确认拜登的胜利。

Trump insists 'something bad happened' with Ga. election in call with investigator: WSJ

In aDecember phone callwith the chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office, former PresidentDonald Trumpinsisted he won Georgia's presidentialelection, telling the investigator "the country is counting on" an audit that was launched to determine whether the signature verification process for mail ballots was done properly in the state's third largest county, according to a newly published audio recording obtained byThe Wall Street Journal.

"This country is counting on it because it's very interesting. ... I won everything but Georgia, you know, and I won Georgia -- I know that -- by a lot, and the people know it, and you know, something happened there. I mean, something bad happened," Trump told the chief investigator, Frances Watson, according to the recording of the six-minute call.

The former president goes on to tell Watson, "When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised. ... People will say, great, because that's -- that's what it's about, that ability to check it, and to make it right because everyone knows it's wrong."

The existence of this new audio recording comesamid a criminal probeof Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the November election in Georgia, which he lost by 11,779 votes. At the center of that investigation, which was launched by the Fulton Countydistrict attorney's officelast month, is an hour-long phone callTrump had with Raffenspergeron Jan. 2. In that call, Trump spewed baseless conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the election and pleaded with Raffensperger to "find" the exact number of votes he needed to win Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing, and his impeachment attorneys disputed he "acted improperly in that telephone call in any way."

A spokesperson for Trump has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Raffensperger announced on Dec. 14 that investigators in his office, in coordination with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), would conduct a signature match audit of absentee ballot envelopes, saying there were specific and credible allegations that signature matching wasn't done properly by election officials in the June primary. A total of 15,118 absentee ballot oath envelopes, which is where voters sign, were randomly selected to be audited.

The audit was completed on Dec. 29, and investigators only discovered two ballots that should not have been accepted as they were and should have undergone the "cure" process. But the GBI director also made clear that neither of those two ballots were fraudulently cast.

According to the recording, Watson assured Trump that her team and the GBI are "only interested in the truth and finding, you know, finding the information that's based on the facts."

ABC Newspreviously reportedon this call's existence in January. At that time, a source familiar with the matter said Trump had told Watson to "find the fraud" and that she would be a "national hero" for it. Those exact words are not spoken in the audio recording of the call. In a follow-up conversation, that source told ABC News that that was how Watson had interpreted the president's words and how she described the call to this source.

When the call was first reported on, ABC News did not identify the investigator because the source sharing the call's details asked Watson remain unnamed due to the threat environment election officials were facing. In this recording, however, Trump identifies her by name.

ABC News has reached out to Watson for comment about the call and audio recording, but has not heard back. However, ABC's Atlanta affiliate, WSB, also obtained the recording andspoke exclusively withWatson.

"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," Watson told WSB's Mark Winne.

She also said she didn't feel she was being pressured and that the investigative agency had requested the phone call.

In a statement, Raffensperger's spokesperson, Ari Schaffer, said, "This phone call is just one more example of how Secretary Raffensperger's office's public comments also reflect what was said in one-on-one conversations: We would follow the law, count every legal vote and investigate any allegations of fraud. That's exactly what we did, and how we arrived at the accurate final vote tally."

In the recording of the call, Trump references Watson meeting with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Watson indicates that happened a day prior to the call. ABC News previously confirmed Meadows was in Cobb County attempting to observe the audit taking place on Dec. 22. Raffensperger's deputy, Jordan Fuchs, said at the time that she did not allow Meadows to enter the room where investigators were working, but did allow him to stand in the doorway.

Trump does much of the talking throughout this call, rambling at times about his electoral victories in other states, like Florida, Ohio, Alabama and Texas, implying those wins are evidence that his loss in Georgia was impossible.

"Whatever you can do, Frances, it would be -- it's a great thing. It's an important thing for the country, so important. You have no idea, so important. And I very much appreciate it," he said, according to the recording.

Near the end of the call, Trump asked Watson whether investigators will be working through Christmas, saying, "Because you know we have that date of the 6th, which is a very important day."

Jan. 6 was the day Congress counted the electoral votes, the last step in the certification process of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris's victory.

That morning,Trump told a crowdof supporters at a rally, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. ... We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

It wasn't long after that when a mob of Trump supporters and violent extremistsdescended uponthe U.S. Capitol, overcoming police to infiltrate the nation's seat of government, forcing lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to seek safety as insurrectionists attempted to obstruct Congress and Pence from following through with their constitutional duty to affirm Biden's win.