The phone call to Georgia

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President Donald J. Trump waves as he prepares to board Marine One at Dalton Municipal Airport in Dalton, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2021, after addressing a rally at the airport. Photo by Tia Dufour/Official White House.

On Saturday, President Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and urged him to revise Georgia’s presidential election result so he would be the winner. He told Raffensperger he only needed to find about 12,000 votes. The call went on for an hour with President Trump reciting conspiracy theories while Raffensperger and his lawyer Ryan Germany explained with remarkable patience that the problem with the president’s arguments is that they are wrong and made up. Did the president commit a crime during this call? Is it illegal to ask an election official to rig the election for you? Who else was on the call, and might they be in legal trouble too?

Josh Barro and Ken White catch up on President Trump’s pre-Christmas pardons and more.

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Producer:

Sara Fay