More Politics Stories»
Trump Probe Into Russia Investigation Yields Little
Screenshots Live Forever, as Santos Is Now Finding Out
Take Another Look, Archives Asks Former Presidents
MTG Has Her Committees, but Her Real Aim Is VP: Report
Another Big Name Joins Race for Feinstein's Seat
Students Threaten to Sue After DeSantis Blocks AP Course
Woman Who Mailed Ricin to Trump Expected to Get Nearly 22 Years
Meta Decides to Welcome Trump Back
Politics /
Pence's Legal Team Rebuffed Trump's Claims of Voter Fraud
According to Jan. 1, 2021, memo from former VP's legal team obtained by Politico
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a luncheon on May 26, 2022, in Bedford, NH. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Relations have seemed, well, strained between former President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who served as his vice president, ever since Pence refused to go along with Trump's plan to block the certification of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, perhaps some more context behind that refusal, courtesy of a memorandum obtained by Politico. In the previously unseen 10-page memo—entitled "Unlawful Election Conduct in Six States" and dated Jan. 1, 2021, five days before the Capitol riot—Pence's legal team lays out the accusations by the "GOP and related plaintiffs" on supposed instances of election fraud and procedural violations by elections officials on the state or local level, in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
After examining those allegations—which included claims that thousands of cast ballots were from underage or deceased voters, and that other voters had cast votes in more than one state—Pence's team did find "strong evidence" for "numerous procedural violations" that they say ended up favoring Democratic candidates. But as for those "allegations of substantive voter fraud—defined to mean the casting of illegal ballots in violation of prevailing election laws," Pence's team came to the conclusion that they were "either relatively small in number, or cannot be verified." The memo has also reportedly been provided by the National Archives and Records Administration to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Trump's effort to overturn the last presidential election.
Insider reports that Trump re-upped his false claims of voter fraud during his Friday response on social media to the televised Jan. 6 hearing the night before. "So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and Irregularities that took place on a massive scale," he wrote on Truth Social. However, Marc Short, who served as chief of staff for VP Pence in the White House, confirms the accuracy of the memo to Politico, noting that although Pence's camp believed "Democrats effectively weaponized election changes that were the result of COVID," it was still "important to catalog the various allegations and where there was hard evidence, or lack thereof, of actual theft." (Read more Mike Pence stories.)