In yet another Pennsylvania courtroom, after repeatedly asking direct questions and not getting back direct answers, Judge Richard P. Haaz finally pointedly asked Trump attorney Jonathan Goldstein if he was accusing electors or the Board of the County of fraud. Goldstein responded: “Your Honor, accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step. And it is rare that I call somebody a liar, and I am not calling the Board of the [Democratic National Committee] or anybody else involved in this a liar. Everybody is coming to this with good faith.  The DNC is coming with good faith. We’re all just trying to get an election done. We think these were a mistake, but we think they are a fatal mistake, and these ballots ought not be counted.”

 

Judge Haaz then asked: “I am asking you a specific question, and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?” Goldstein responded, “To my knowledge at present, no.” The judge again, “Are you claiming that there is any undue or improper influence upon the elector with respect to these 592 ballots?” Goldstein again responded, “To my knowledge at present, no.”

 

But Pennsylvania judges weren’t even close to being through. Judge Brann, a Republican and former member of the conservative Federalist Society, rejected a petition by the Trump campaign to block the certification of the state’s vote because certain counties allowed voters to correct errors on their ballots.

 

Judge Brann’s decision was 37-pages of scorched earth. Among other harsh words, Judge Brann said that the Trump campaign’s assertions “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.” He went on to say that “in the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state.” But Judge Brann saved the best for last: “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.”

 

Judge Stephanos Bibas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, who was appointed by Donald Trump, wrote for the unanimous majority after a complete rejection of an emergency injunction to overturn Pennsylvania’s vote certification: “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. Voters, not lawyers, choose the President. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”

 

At the end of November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a petition by the Trump campaign to invalidate over 2.5 million mail-in ballots. The decision said, in part, “The want of due diligence demonstrated in this matter is unmistakable,” and admonished the campaign for a “complete failure to act with due diligence in commencing their factual constitutional challenge.”

 

Of the case, Justice David N. Wecht said the Republicans “failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted…It is not our role to lend legitimacy to such transparent and untimely efforts to subvert the will of Pennsylvania voters. Courts should not decide elections when the will of the voters is clear.” The ruling was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the Trump campaign is prohibited from ever filing another petition on the same claim. The final nail in the Pennsylvania coffin was hammered when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a requested injunction in a one-sentence order, with no explanation and no noted dissenting votes.

 

But even a U.S. Supreme Court verdict didn’t stop Donald Trump, who called the Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Bryan Cutler, at least twice to see how Pennsylvania Republicans were going to “Stop the Steal” – to which Mr. Cutler made clear they had no power or intention to do so.

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One last thing before we leave Pennsylvania. After the 2020 election, a letter carrier named Richard Hopkins told federal investigators that he heard his supervisors at the Erie post office discussing a plan to backdate mail-in ballots – a claim that Republicans naturally jumped on. Even though the Erie postmaster immediately said the allegations were “100% false,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) used Hopkins’ statement as an example in a letter to the U.S. Justice Department demanding an investigation into the Pennsylvania election results. Donald Trump called Hopkins a “brave patriot” on Twitter.

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Unfortunately for Lindsey and Donald, Hopkins recanted his claim rather quickly when he was questioned by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. The Inspector General’s final report said that Hopkins “revised his initial claims, eventually stating that he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all – rather he saw the Postmaster and Supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot backdating.” Further, he “acknowledged that he had no evidence of any backdated presidential ballots and could not recall any specific words said by the postmaster or supervisor.” In the end, the Inspector General reached the conclusion that “both the interview of the Erie County Election Supervisor and the physical examination of ballots produced no evidence of any backdated presidential election ballots at the Erie, PA Post Office.”

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In Nevada, Trump ally and former Nevada lawmaker Sharron Angle petitioned the court to block vote certification in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located and by far the most populous county in the state. Angle essentially wanted to throw out the results of the entire election. After hearing the case, Judge Gloria Sturman wasn’t having it: “How do you get to that’s sufficient to throw out an entire election?”  Unsurprisingly, Judge Sturman denied the petition, calling the petition “a really extreme request” and saying that not only was there no evidence to support the charge of voter fraud, but that “as a matter of public policy, this is just a bad idea.”

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In another Nevada courtroom, District Judge James T. Russell dismissed all voter fraud claims made by the Trump campaign with prejudice, writing that the campaign “did not prove under any standard of proof that illegal votes were cast and counted, or legal votes were not counted at all, due to voter fraud, nor in an amount equal to or greater than” Joe Biden’s margin of victory. The judge also dismissed witness declarations that had been put into evidence by the Trump campaign, describing them as “self-serving statements of little or no evidentiary value.”

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In Wisconsin, U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Pepper wrote this in her opinion to dismiss a bid to overturn the election results: “Federal judges do not appoint the president in this country. One wonders why the plaintiffs came to federal court and asked a federal judge to do so.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the Trump campaign’s case to challenge the election results in their state, saying it first had to be heard by lower courts.

 

Conservative member Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote in the opinion, “We do well as a judicial body to abide by time-tested judicial norms, even – and maybe especially – in high-profile cases.  Following the law governing challenges to election results is no threat to the rule of law.”​ Justice Hagedorn continued, “It can be easy to blithely move on to the next case with a petition so obviously lacking, but this is sobering.  The relief being sought by the petitioners is the most dramatic invocation of judicial power I have ever seen. Judicial acquiescence to such entreaties built on so flimsy a foundation would do indelible damage to every future election. This is a dangerous path we are being asked to tread.”

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Next, the Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit in the state, asking that the lawsuit be “remanded” back to the state legislature, a request U.S. District Judge Brett H. Ludwig – who was appointed by Donald J. Trump himself – called “bizarre” and “very odd.” Judge Ludwig wrote, “This court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits,” then he threw the case right out… but not before he added: “This is an extraordinary case. A sitting president who did not prevail in his bid for re-election has asked for federal court help in setting aside the popular vote based on disputed election administration issues he plainly could have raised before the vote occurred.” Judge Ludwig continued, “In his reply brief, plaintiff ‘asks that the Rule of Law be followed.’ It has been.”

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Things weren’t going much better in Georgia, where another Trump ally brought a suit claiming that his company had uncovered evidence of inconsistencies in electronic voting machines. The judge, who was appointed by Donald Trump, finally got around to the million-dollar question: “I understand that’s your argument, but what’s your evidence?” Then he too threw the case right out.

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Another Trump campaign attempt centered around a charge that 53 Georgia ballots were possibly backdated. Problem was, when the two people who could supposedly speak to this were called to testify, they both said they had no idea if the ballots were received after the deadline.

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Superior Court Judge James Bass dismissed the case right then with one sentence: “I’m denying the request and dismissing the petition.” Later, in his written opinion, Judge Bass was more circumspect: “The Court finds that there is no evidence that the ballots referenced in the petition were received after 7:00 p.m. on election day, thereby making those ballots invalid. Additionally, there is no evidence that the Chatham County Board of Elections or the Chatham County Board of Registrars has failed to comply with the law.”

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Eight months after the election – after three audits of the election results, including a hand recount – Georgia Superior Court Judge Brian Amero dismissed seven of the nine claims in one of the last remaining lawsuits, this one involving claim of fraudulent mail-in ballots in Fulton County. The other two counts were not dismissed because they sought records from Georgia’s open records law. This came as a blow to the plaintiffs, who had planned to inspect the ballots with high-powered microscopes.

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At the same time, Donald Trump & Co. was instigating a ton of other shenanigans in Georgia. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who voted for Donald Trump, revealed he was being pressured by other Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham, to unethically intervene in the electoral process, and that he and his wife were receiving death threats (his wife, sexually explicit ones) – to the point that he had to enlist a security detail. One text sent to Raffensperger said, “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.” In response, Raffensperger simply said, “Numbers don’t lie.”

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Sufficiently fed-up and understandably furious, Gabriel Sterling, a top Georgia election official, held a press conference and said, “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. It’s not right.” Sterling used as an example “a 20-something tech in Gwinnett County” who had received “death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS (Enterprise Management System) to a county computer so he could read it.” Sterling continued, “His family is getting harassed now. There’s a noose out there with his name on it. And it’s not right. I've got police protection outside my house.  Fine.  You know, I took a higher-profile job. I get it, the secretary ran for office; his wife knew that, too. This kid took a job. He just took a job, and it’s just wrong.”

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Amid the chaos, Donald Trump called Georgia’s governor, Republican Brian Kemp, and pressured him to call a special session of the legislature to override the state’s election result and send an entirely new slate of electors to the Electoral College. < We literally cannot believe we am writing this about an American election. Honduras, maybe. Philippines, sure. But the United States of America? No way. It feels surreal. >

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Thankfully, after the ballots had been counted three separate times, Governor Kemp certified his states election results, saying: “As governor, I have a solemn responsibility to follow the law, and that is what I will continue to do. We must all work together to ensure citizens have confidence in future elections in our state.”

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But wait! If poor Governor Kemp thought that formally certifying the results was going to get Georgia out of Donald’s crosshairs, he was dead wrong. Weeks later – three days before the Electoral College was constitutionally required to meet, to be exact – Donald made his now infamous recorded phone call to Secretary of State Raffensperger, saying, “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” A few minutes later, Donald Trump said again, “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

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In October 2021, the Brookings Institution – a nonprofit think tank that conducts research – released a report called Fulton County, Georgia’s Trump Investigation: An Analysis of the Reported Facts and Applicable Law. The report said, in part, that “President Trump lost the 2020 election in Georgia by a margin of nearly 12,000 votes, and that outcome was confirmed and certified by the duly designated election officials in the state, with Republican Secretary of State Raffensperger and Republican Governor Kemp at the top of the process." The report continued, “Notwithstanding the absence of any facts suggesting irregularity or any reason to question the result thus certified, the Georgia electoral process and vote count was subjected to sustained assault by the ex-president and his supporters.”

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The report set forth several civil and criminal charges that could be pursued because of Donald Trump’s conduct, including “solicitation of conduct by officials that would amount to election fraud; intentional interference with an election official’s performance of election-related duties; and conspiracy, meaning an agreement among multiple people, to engage in electoral fraud. Other possible statutory violations include an array of general prohibitions not limited to conduct impacting on elections, but rather focused on more broadly applicable duties encompassing election misconduct of the kind here alleged, such as false statements in connections with official matters, attempts to influence government officials in improper ways, solicitation of action violative of public officer oaths, and several other provisions. Finally, it is possible, as mentioned in a public statement by the Fulton County District Attorney, that consideration might be given to action under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, since violation of a number of the statutes referenced above constitute predicate acts that are the essential building blocks in developing a prosecution under that statute.”

 

In February 2021, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election (Atlanta is in Fulton County). The probe eventually led to a Special Purpose Grand Jury to investigate the former president and several of his allies. After interviewing 75 witnesses, the 23 members of the Grand Jury issued a report to the Fulton County DA’s office, a portion of which was released to the public. The report said, in part, “We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.” The report went on to say that a “majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it.” It concluded by recommending the District Attorney issue “appropriate indictments” for offences where the “evidence is compelling.”

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In August 2022, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. indicted Donald Trump on racketeering, conspiracy and other charges. Eighteen Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, were also indicted for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. Prior to the 2024 election, 4 of the 18 co-defendants pled guilty to misdemeanor charges in exchange for testifying against the 14 other defendants. The remining cases are now in limbo after Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024.

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Meanwhile, in Arizona, the Trump campaign was claiming that Maricopa County poll workers had “overridden” ballots, essentially changing people’s votes. However, Trump campaign attorney Kory Langhofer finally acknowledged that the case was “not a fraud case.” He continued, “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. We are not alleging anyone is stealing the election. It is not a stealing-the-election case.” Langhofer also shut down the idea that a limited number of glitches in voting machines happened because of intentional fraud, saying they were “good-faith errors in operating machines.”

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After extreme pressure from the Trump campaign to disregard the popular vote and declare Trump the winner of Arizona’s electoral votes, Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, finally had to make a definitive statement: “As a conservative Republican, I don’t like the results of the presidential election. I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.”

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The Republican-led Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County, Arizona – the second largest voting jurisdiction in the United States –unanimously voted to certify the county’s election results, with the board chairman saying definitively there was no evidence of fraud or misconduct “and that is with a big zero.”

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But believe it or not, it didn’t end there. Six months after the 2020 election, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors was still dealing with the 2020 election.  In late April 2021, Arizona Republicans hired a private company named Cyber Ninjas (seriously?) to start a hand recount of the almost 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. This included the Cyber Ninjas using UV lights and microscopes to investigate whether the ballots were made of bamboo…which, of course, would prove that the ballots had been illegally smuggled into Arizona from Asia. (This story is 100% true, we promise. We could not possibly make this s#@# up. It would actually be funny if it wasn’t undermining our democracy).

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Weeks into the bogus recount, the four Republicans and one Democrat on the Board of Supervisors finally had enough. Calling the recount “a sham process,” “circus,” and “a grift disguised as an audit” in a letter to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, the Board called for the “spectacle that is harming all of us” to end because “our state has become a laughingstock. Worse, this ‘audit’ is encouraging our citizens to distrust elections, which weakens our democratic republic.” They continued, “It is time to make a choice to defend the Constitution and the Republic. We stand united together to defend the Constitution and the Republic in our opposition to the Big Lie. We ask everyone to join us in standing for the truth.”

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In January 2022, the Maricopa County Elections Department released a report called Correcting the Record: Maricopa County’s In-Depth Analysis of the Senate Inquiry. The report, in part, said: “The November 2020 General Election was administered with integrity and the results were accurate and reliable. This has been proven through statutorily required accuracy tests, court cases, hand counts performed by the political parties, and post-election audits.” The report continued, “After an in-depth analysis and review of the reports and presentations issued by the Senate’s contractors, we determined that nearly every finding included faulty analysis, inaccurate claims, misleading conclusions, and a lack of understanding of federal and state election laws.” And then, “Our review of the claims made by Cyber Ninjas, CyFIR, EchoMail, and the Senate’s Audit Liaisons, found: 1) 22 were misleading. The claims lead the reader to assume a conclusion that is not supported by the evidence, 2) 41 were inaccurate. The claims include flawed or misstated analysis, and 13 were false. The claims are demonstrably false and can be proven false using materials provided to the Senate.”

 

The same day that Correcting the Record was released, a superior court judge declared Cyber Ninjas in contempt of court for not releasing their records to The Arizona Republic newspaper, which requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The judge imposed a $50,000-a-day fine for every day the records were not produced.  Within the week, attorneys for the Cyber Ninjas reported the firm insolvent.

 

Finally, on August 1, 2022, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, sent a letter to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, also a Republican, that said his office was officially closing its criminal investigation into allegations that 282 dead people voted in the 2020 election. His letter said, in part: “After spending hundreds of hours reviewing these allegations, our investigators were able to determine that only ONE of the 282 individuals on the list was deceased at the time of the election.” He continued, “Once again, these claims were thoroughly investigated and resulted in only a handful of potential cases. Some were so absurd the names and birthdates didn’t even match the deceased, and others included dates of death after the election.”  The allegations of “widespread deceased voters from the Senate Audit and other complaints … are insufficient and not corroborated.”

 

Things in Michigan were downright painful to watch at times, and not just because armed, Trump-supporting, American-flag-waving protestors surrounded the home of Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson when she was decorating for Christmas with her 4-year-old son. One of the protesters at Benson’s home, Genevieve Peters, said, “We are over here in the fricking dead of night, man. We are letting her know that we’re not taking this bullshit election, we are not standing down, we are not giving up you are not going to take this election from a man that has earned it completely 100% by a freaking landslide. Let me tell you: This ain’t over.”

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Early on, a Michigan Republican poll watcher reported that someone told her that someone had backdated mail-in ballots so they would be counted. While introducing this allegation in court, the attorney for Trump kept insisting this testimony was not hearsay (i.e., information that someone received from another person that can’t be substantiated). After going round and round about testimony that is the very definition of hearsay, Judge Cynthia D. Stephens was incredulous.  She not only declared the testimony hearsay, but she said it was “inadmissible hearsay within hearsay.”

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In another Michigan courtroom, Judge Timothy M. Kenny rejected the Trump campaign’s effort to delay the certification of votes in Detroit, saying that allegations of misconduct were “not credible.”  “It would be an unprecedented exercise of judicial activism for this court to stop the certification process,” not to mention it would “undermine faith in the electoral system.” Judge Kenny also said in his ruling that one of the Republican affidavits in particular was “rife with speculation and guess-work about sinister motives.”

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In Wayne County, Michigan’s largest, Donald Trump personally called a member of the board of canvassers who, after the call, tried to take back her vote to certify Joe Biden’s victory (which is not possible).  Donald then invited Michigan’s Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, to the White House for a chat.

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One can only imagine the conversation that went on in that meeting but, nevertheless, afterward the Michigan legislators issued a joint statement saying: “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election. Michigan’s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation. Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan's electoral votes. These are simple truths that should provide confidence in our elections.”

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A spokesman for Michigan’s secretary of state Jocelyn Benson concurred: “We have not seen any evidence of fraud or foul play in the actual administration of the election. What we have seen is that it was smooth, transparent, secure and accurate.”

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Michigan U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker ordered sanctions against nine lawyers affiliated with Donald Trump’s legal team, including Sidney Powell, who was ordered to pay a hefty fine for “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” Judge Parker went on to say that the fine was an “appropriate sanction” that was “needed to deter Plaintiff’s counsel and others from engaging in similar misconduct in the future.” She continued, “This case was never about fraud. It was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.” It is “one thing,” she wrote, “to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” but quite another to deceive “a federal court and the American people into believing those rights were infringed. This is what happened here.”

 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel agreed wholeheartedly with the ruling: “The awarding of fees further holds accountable the attorneys who worked to distort our democracy in favor of lining their own pockets. These attorneys demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the law and attempted to use the courts to further a false and destructive narrative.”

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In the end – eight months after the election – a Republican-led Michigan Senate Oversight Committee released a report putting voter fraud claims to rest for good. The report said, in part: “This Committee found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election” and that citizens of Michigan should watch out for “those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”

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Committee Chairman, Republican Senator Edward McBroom, started his personal letter that accompanied the report this way: “When I agreed to begin investigating the election, rumors and uncertainty were rampant. Allegations of markers bleeding through ballots, voter intimidation, dead voters, mystery ballot dumps, foreign interference, and ballot harvesting were just a few of the issues during the first days following the November 2020 election. Emotions and confusion were running wild across the country. Fears and hopes were had by every person, including myself.”

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Then he made this extraordinary statement: “All politicians lie’ is the popular axiom. Unfortunately, lies and deceit are not exclusive to politicians. Throughout our investigation, members have been actively following and engaged with various persons and reports. We have collectively spent innumerable hours watching and listening and reading. Some of these people and reports are true. Unfortunately, many of them are not, either because of a misunderstanding or an outright deception. As is often the case, the truth is not as attractive or as immediately desirable as the lies and the lies contain elements of truth.”

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He then concluded with: “At this point, I feel confident to assert the results of the Michigan election are accurately represented by the certified and audited results. While the Committee was unable to exhaust every possibility, we were able to delve thoroughly into enough to reasonably reach this conclusion. The strongest conclusion comes in regard to Antrim County < note: this involved false claims about voting machines. > All compelling theories that sprang forth from the rumors surrounding Antrim County are diminished so significantly as for it to be a complete waste of time to consider them further.”