Officials Discover Donald Trump's Phone Recordings With Georgia Investigators In Recycle Bin Folder

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - Former President of the United States (US) Donald Trump's false claims entered a new chapter after officials of the Georgia State Ministry of Foreign Affairs discovered Donald Trump's telephone recordings with the state investigators.

This folder was found in the trash folder of his communication devices, a state official confirmed by CNN. Previously, state officials told CNN the footage did not exist.

The phone calls add to an example of Trump's extraordinary efforts to drive false claims about fraud in US elections, as well as attempts to influence Georgia's election officials ahead of the finalization of state election results.

The audio files of a December 23 call between former President Donald Trump and investigator Frances Watson were discovered as the Georgia Secretary of State's Office responded to a request for public records. This was conveyed by a source who asked to be anonymous to CNN.

The Washington Post first reported details of how the audio from the December phone call came about. Watson declined to give a comment to CNN via the Georgia State Secretary press secretary.

CNN previously said, in a December phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State's Office, Trump urged their top investigator, Watson, to find fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Trump told her he would be "lauded" for reversing a result in favor of President Joe Biden.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent letters to Georgia State officials in February, including the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State, asking them to keep documents relevant to election interference.

Willis is currently carrying out a criminal investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

The Secretary of the Georgia State Department of State Office is also separately investigating Trump for his attempts to overturn the state election results.

Earlier, an hour-long phone recording on January 2 that was leaked to the public revealed that Trump repeatedly pressured Georgia State Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the exact number of votes needed to overturn Biden's victory as soon as the call took place. However, the discussion in December only became public last week.

Watson told CNN-affiliated WSB-TV investigative reporter Mark Winne he had recorded Trump's December call for his grandchildren.

"Not every day, it might never happen again in my life", Watson told WSB.

It's still unclear why Watson moved the audio of the call to her trash folder, but Watson told Winne that although she was surprised Trump called her, she didn't feel any pressure from the call.

"This is something that is not expected, as I said in a phone call, you know I was surprised, he (Trump) would take the time to do that", said Watson.

Trump in a summons in December had prompted Watson to seek "dishonesty" in his signature check for ballots that were absent in Fulton County, the state's most populous county and one that houses most of Atlanta.

"But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you will find unbelievable things. The dishonesty we hear. But Fulton is the owner", Trump said.

Then over the phone call, Trump told Watson that he hoped, 'we' could win over Georgia and that 'you have the most important job in the country right now.'