The Washington Post has admitted that it falsely attributed quotes to former President Donald Trump in a story on a phone call made to Georgia's head elections investigator about alleged election fraud.
The article quoted Trump in the December 23 conversation instructing the state official to "find the fraud" and saying that she would be a "national hero" if she uncovered malfeasance.
The newspaper's retraction admits that “the headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump."
“Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source."
“Trump did not tell the investigator to ‘find the fraud’ or say she would be ‘a national hero’ if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find ‘dishonesty’ there. He also told her that she had ‘the most important job in the country right now.'”
The Washington Post's story did not name the Georgia elections investigator, citing threats made to the state's election officials. However, the Wall Street Journal published an article including the audio of the six-minute phone call and stated that the official in question was Frances Watson.
During the phone call Trump urged Watson to make Fulton Country, Georgia's most populous area which includes Atlanta, the focal point of the investigation, stating "something bad" occurred there during the 2020 election.