Trump has continued to push claims of election fraud, even after a report he commissioned revealed they have been bogus.
Within the weeks after his 2020 election loss, former President Donald Trump and his marketing campaign workforce commissioned a analysis group to research allegations of election fraud. When the group reported that the claims weren’t primarily based in actuality, nevertheless, Trump’s marketing campaign dismissed the findings and continued to push lies about election fraud anyway.
According to four sources who spoke to The Washington Post, the Trump marketing campaign tasked the Berkeley Analysis Group (BRG) with investigating claims about election fraud within the 2020 presidential election. The marketing campaign requested BRG to look at alleged machine malfunctions that had supposedly elevated Biden’s vote totals, in addition to claims of deceased individuals voting for Biden.
The analysis delved into quite a few allegations of voter fraud, based on the sources, who spoke to The Submit on the situation of anonymity for worry of retribution from Trump or his loyalists.
“They checked out every little thing: change of addresses, unlawful immigrants, poll harvesting, individuals voting twice, machines being tampered with, ballots that have been despatched to vacant addresses that have been returned and voted,” one of the sources said. “Actually something you can consider. … If there was something beneath the solar that might be considered, they checked out it.”
However throughout the six states that BRG investigated — Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania — there was no proof that widespread fraud had affected the election’s consequence. Although a small variety of voting anomalies have been found, the group famous, there was nothing sizable sufficient to warrant the claims that Trump and others have been making.
“Identical to any election, there are all the time errors, omissions and irregularities,” a source with knowledge of the report’s findings said. “It was nowhere shut sufficient to what they wished to show, and it really went in each instructions.”
BRG offered its findings in a convention name with Trump and his advisers, together with then-chief of employees Mark Meadows. As BRG started to disprove every of the claims Trump had been pushing about election fraud, the decision grew contentious, the Submit reported, with the previous president and his advisers rejecting the findings.
The report wasn’t cited in any of the court docket instances that Trump or his loyalists introduced ahead searching for to overturn the 2020 presidential election. BRG itself by no means launched the report, as it goes against company policy to debate assignments requested by shoppers.
The reporting from the Submit is the newest instance of Trump and his advisers refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election despite overwhelming proof disproving their claims of election fraud. In a public listening to in June, the Home choose committee investigating the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol famous that quite a few White Home advisers had repeatedly advised Trump that there hadn’t been widespread election fraud.
“The election fraud claims have been false. Mr. Trump’s closest advisers knew it. Mr. Trump knew it,” January 6 committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) said, including that Trump nonetheless urged his supporters to “combat like hell” and descend on the Capitol through the certification of the Electoral School.
Audio recordings made public earlier this month showcase that Trump marketing campaign officers on the state stage have been additionally conscious that the fraud claims have been lies. Andrew Iverson, then the top of the Trump marketing campaign in Wisconsin, acknowledged Trump’s loss within the state however advised his employees they’d push fraud claims if requested to take action.
“Comms goes to proceed to fan the flame and get the phrase out about Democrats attempting to steal this election. We’ll do no matter they want,” Iverson mentioned within the recordings. “Simply be on standby if there’s any stunts we have to pull.”
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