Out of desperation to find voter fraud, President Donald Trump's campaign created a hotline where people could call and report inconsistencies and witch-hunt-like election fraud allegations against their neighbors. Writing in his new book Betrayal, Jonathan Karl revealed that all the line did was traumatize the young staffers answering the phones.
There were hundreds of calls, but the overwhelming majority had nothing to do with voter fraud.
"Pranksters flooded the lines with fake reports as well as vile, threatening, and pornographic messages," Karl wrote. "The material sent in through the web portal consisted almost entirely of pornographic images.'
At the time, TikTok videos were posted showing people calling the number and giving fake voter fraud claims just to record what the Trump staff said. Those videos were then shared all over Twitter.
READ: Trump and his supporters can't prove election fraud — so they're trying to redefine it
He noted that one young woman, after working a shift in the call center, begged never to answer another call again. He doesn't say what happened to her.
"We are spending our final days answering prank calls and don't know if we will have jobs by next week," said one campaign aide.
It took just a week before the Trump campaign disabled the toll-free number and closed down the call center.
Fake voter fraud claims weren't merely part of the hotline, Trump's lawyers were trying to use them to justify stopping the election certification. CNN posted a video of a deposition Rudy Giuliani gave in the lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.
READ: Trump-loving sheriff's big 'election fraud' reveal ends with a whimper as no criminal charges filed
"Sometimes I go and look myself when stuff comes up," Giuliani said in the video. "This time I didn't have the time to do it. It's not my job, in a fast-moving case, to go out and investigate every piece of evidence that was given to me. Otherwise, you're never going to write a story. You'll never come to a conclusion."
Betrayal is on sale now and you can read more about it here.
IN OTHER NEWS: Bannon attorney stumbles when asked if his client had 'foreknowledge' of Capitol riot
Steve Bannon comes unhinged on podcast after surrender to FBI www.youtube.com
Report typos and corrections to corrections@rawstory.com.
For customer support contact support@rawstory.com.
