HOME / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Did Trump record his call with Brad Raffensperger and leak it HIMSELF? Former Nixon aide makes bombshell claim

Meanwhile, Trump is suing Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger for allegedly leaking the one-hour recording to the Washington Post

John Dean, former White House counsel to then-President Richard Nixon, speculated on January 3 that the bombshell recording of a conversation between President Donald J Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger might have been leaked by the outgoing commander-in-chief himself.

Taking to Twitter on Sunday, Dean claimed that the audio of the recording made Trump sound the loudest and clearest, and concluded it was proof because the person recording it must be the clearer one. According to Dean, the recording also sounded as if others on the call were on speakerphone, and so one of the president's staff might have been recording it near his phone.

This comes shortly after it emerged that Trump is suing Raffensperger for allegedly leaking the one-hour recording to the Washington Post. Republican Party chair David Shafer revealed on Twitter that Trump "has filed two lawsuits — federal and state — against @GaSecofState," claiming the conversation was recorded and published without his consent, WXIA-TV reported. "The telephone conference call @GaSecofState secretly recorded was a ‘confidential settlement discussion’ of that litigation, which is still pending," Shafer added.

According to a report by The Sun, both Georgia and Washington DC have one-party consent laws. This means anyone partaking in a conversation does not need consent from other participants of a phone call to record them. Nonetheless, Shafer argued that the audio published by the Washington Post was heavily edited and “omits the stipulation that all discussions were for the purpose of settling litigation and confidential under federal and state law.”

That said, it is still unclear who is responsible for recording the audio and how The Post was able to obtain the footage before its publication. Trump appears to be steadfast in his quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. The president and his allies have filed a barrage of lawsuits across the country claiming the election was tainted by widespread voter fraud perpetrated by Democrats that led to Biden's victory. However, the campaign has found little success in the courts.

That said, the controversial recording shows Trump urging Raffensperger and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to "find 11,780 votes" that were allegedly fraudulently stolen from 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," he said. "The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry," the president continued. "And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated."

But Raffensperger responded saying, "Well, Mr President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong." Trump later claimed the secretary of state was “unwilling" to address his claims of a fraudulent election. "I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia," he tweeted. "He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters', dead voters, and more. He has no clue!"