He’s also attacked his opponents: Comey is an “incompetent,” “shady,” “slippery,” “corrupt,” “sanctimonious,” “showboating” and “grandstanding” “slimeball,” who is “either very sick or very dumb.” And he’s branded Comey and others as “liars.” Giuliani falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are “prone to fraud.”įacts First: Election experts have told CNN time and time again that mail-in ballots are a safe form of voting and not subject to widespread fraud.Even so, he’s kept his distance, noting that Flynn got his security clearance under Obama, Manafort was only with the campaign for a short time and Cohen did only a fraction of his legal work. The judge ruled canvas watchers in Philadelphia cannot challenge ballots and don’t need to inspect each individual signature. The law allows the observers to be present, the judge wrote, but they do not have the right to inspect or look over the shoulders of the workers counting the ballots. Nothing is illegitimate about those ballots.Ī Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice decided that the Philadelphia County board of elections complied with the law in how it allowed observers access to the canvassing process. Giuliani claimed that more than 600,000 ballots in Pennsylvania “weren’t inspected which renders them ballots that are null and void.”įacts First: This is false. Thomas, who has built a decades-long career serving both Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State, told CNN that in general, through his many years of experience, an imbalance should be viewed as clerical mistakes and not fraud. There are many reasons a precinct could be out of balance and have a discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and the number of people registered into the poll book, according to Chris Thomas who served as a senior adviser to the Detroit City Clerk. And yet today, 42% were out of balance and yet it didn’t get certified, so clearly there is no valid point here,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said.īenson told CNN it’s “quite common” for precincts to be out of balance but “it doesn’t indicate there’s any malfeasance,” adding “it’s more of a bookkeeping, clerical issue.” “They certified the vote in 2016 with 80% of Detroit precincts out of balance. Past elections in Michigan with larger imbalances have been certified without issue, including in 2016 when Trump won the state, according the Michigan Secretary of State. What Giuliani called an over-vote is often referred to as an imbalance where the number of ballots tabulated does not equal the number of people signed in to vote at a specific polling location. He added, “what I’m describing to you is a massive fraud.” “One of the reasons why the Republicans did not certify in Wayne County, Michigan, was because the over-vote was so high,” Giuliani claimed. Since the deadline has passed, the certification still stands.ĭemocratic Vice Chair Jonathan Kinloch said Thursday that board members’ votes cannot be changed after the fact. They have since sent in affidavits to rescind their vote but have not filed any lawsuits to try to force the county to call a new meeting. Two Republican members of the Board initially deadlocked the vote but then reversed their decision and voted to certify Tuesday night. The county’s results were certified on Tuesday night. Here’s a look at some of the top claims made during the briefing and the facts around them.įacts First: This is false. Video: Giuliani presented evidence-free voter fraud case, Keilar says Many of their specific claims have already been refuted by federal election security experts and a wide, bipartisan array of election administrators across the country. Giuliani on multiple occasions made allegations citing individuals he said couldn’t be revealed for their own safety and wellbeing. Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser for the campaign, said the group was laying out an “introductory statement” with more to come, and called the team an “elite strike force.” Also working for the campaign, attorney Sidney Powell made extreme, baseless claims about communist Venezuela and George Soros supposedly interfering in the US election. The roughly 90-minute briefing was overflowing with falsehoods and conspiracy theories.Īt no point did Trump’s legal team offer any proof for their allegations of widespread fraud. In a wild, tangent-filled and often contentious press briefing led by President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Trump campaign’s legal team laid out its case for widespread voter fraud in the election. By Tara Subramanian, Holmes Lybrand and CNN staff | CNN
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