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Then-President Trump was "threatening" him and asking him to "fudge" the numbers for the Georgia’s 2020 presidential election last year, Georgia's secretary of state claims in a new book.
Brad Raffensperger writes in "Integrity Counts" that Trump asked him to "find" enough votes for him to overtake Joe Biden, who squeaked out a win in the state with 11,779 more votes than Trump.
"For the office of the secretary of state to ‘recalculate’ would mean we would somehow have to fudge the numbers," Raffensperger, a Republican, writes in the book, which came out Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The president was asking me to do something that I knew was wrong, and I was not going to do that."
In the book, Raffensperger describes himself as a Reagan-style Republican who chose to do the right thing over what would help him politically – while also settling a score against the former president.
TRUMP BACKS CHALLENGER TO GEORGIA'S GOP SECRETARY OF STATE
"President Trump is using what he believes is the power of his position to threaten Ryan [Germany, general counsel for the secretary of state’s office] and me with prosecution if we don’t do what he tells us to do," he writes, according to FOX 5 of Atlanta. "It was nothing but an attempt at manipulation."
Trump said they would be taking a "big risk" if they didn't report alleged fraud.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discusses his new book, "Integrity Counts," during an interview on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in Atlanta. (Associated Press)
Raffensperger took heat from Republicans for refusing Trump's request and faces a reelection battle next year against several pro-Trump challengers -- including U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who has Trump’s endorsement.
Raffensperger criticizes Hice in the book, writing, "Ironically, Hice accepted the results of his own race, which he won, but objected to the results of the presidential race. Same voters. Same ballots. One, presumably, was honest. The other was 'faulty and fraudulent.' He’s a double-minded person. How can you hold two opposing views at one time?"
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discusses his new book, "Integrity Counts," during an interview on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in Atlanta. (Associated Press)
Trump endorsed Hice in March, calling him "one of our most outstanding congressmen."
"Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity," he added, referring to Raffensperger, according to The New York Times.
An engineer who grew wealthy before running for office, Raffensperger recounts in his book the struggle in Georgia that followed Biden's narrow victory, including death threats texted to his wife, an encounter with men who he says may have been staking out his suburban Atlanta home, and being escorted out of the Georgia Statehouse in Atlanta on Jan. 6 as a handful of protesters entered the building on the same day many more protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The phone call is part of an investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, that could potentially involve criminal charges. Raffensperger’s account in his book could be part of the investigation, FOX 5 reported.
Trump hasn’t yet commented on the book.
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"You believe in your heart that you did a good job, and if you never lack self-doubt, it must be doubly debilitating — and confusing," Raffensperger writes of how he perceived Trump’s defeat in the state. "Instead of accepting defeat, you look for scapegoats, shift blame, or seek alternative theories."
Raffensperger also goes after Democrat Stacey Abrams in the book, accusing her of shirking her "distinct obligation to avoid slandering our electoral system" when she acknowledged but refused to concede her narrow 2018 gubernatorial loss to Republican Brian Kemp.
He claimed there is an "all-too-bipartisan willingness to undermine the integrity of our democracy," the Journal-Constitution reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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