“Most corrupt election ever,” says Trump as he pursues 2020 election allegations

Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020 But for more than five years hes been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud Now that hes president again Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claimsOn Wednesday the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County Georgia which includes most of Atlanta seeking ballots from the 2020 election That follows Trumps comments earlier this month when he suggested during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland that charges related to the election were imminentThe man has obsessions as do a fair number of people but hes the only one who has the full power of the United States behind him said Rick Hasen a UCLA law professor Hasen and many others noted that Trumps use of the FBI to pursue his obsession with the 2020 election is part of a pattern of the president transforming the federal government into his personal tool of vengeanceSen Jon Ossoff a Georgia Democrat compared the search to the Minnesota immigration crackdown that has killed two US citizen protesters launched by Trump as his latest blow against the states governor who ran against him as Vice President Kamala Harris running mate in 2024 From Minnesota to Georgia on display to the whole world is a President spiraling out of control wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge Ossoff said in a statementIt also comes as election officials across the country are starting to rev up for the 2026 midterms where Trump is struggling to help his party maintain its control of Congress Noting that in 2020 Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his loss some worry hes laying the groundwork for a similar maneuver in the fall Georgias a blueprint said Kristin Nabers of the leftleaning group All Voting Is Local If they can get away with taking election materials here whats to stop them from taking election materials or machines from some other state after they loseGeorgia has been at the heart of Trumps 2020 obsession He infamously called Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan 2 2021 asking that Raffensperger find 11780 more votes for Trump so he could be declared the winner of the state Raffensperger refused noting that repeated reviews confirmed Democrat Joe Biden had narrowly won GeorgiaThose were part of a series of reviews in battleground states often led by Republicans that affirmed Bidens win including in Michigan Wisconsin and Nevada Trump also lost dozens of court cases challenging the election results and his own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraudHis allies who repeated his lies have been successfully sued for defamation That includes former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who settled with two Georgia election workers after a court ruled he owed them USD 148 million for defaming them after the 2020 electionVoting machine companies also have brought defamation cases against some conservativeleaning news sites that aired unsubstantiated claims about their equipment being linked to fraud in 2020 Fox News settled one such case by agreeing to pay USD 787 million after the judge ruled it was CRYSTAL clear that none of the allegations were trueTrumps campaign to move Georgia into his column also sparked an illfated attempt to prosecute him and some of his allies by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis a Democrat The case collapsed amid conflictofinterest charges against the prosecutor and Trump has since sued Willis for the prosecutionOn his first day in office Trump rewarded some of those who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election results by pardoning commuting or vowing to dismiss the cases of about 1500 people charged in the Jan 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol He later signed an executive order trying to set new rules for state election systems and voting procedures although that has been repeatedly blocked by judges who have ruled that the Constitution gives states and in some instances Congress control of elections rather than the presidentAs part of his campaign of retribution Trump also has spoken about wanting to criminally charge lawmakers who sat on the House committee investigating the Jan 6 attack suggesting protective pardons of them from Biden are legally invalid Hes targeted a former cybersecurity appointee who assured the public in 2020 that the election was secureDuring a year of presidential duties from dealing with wars in Gaza and Ukraine to shepherding sweeping tax and spending legislation through Congress Trump has reliably found time to turn the subject to 2020 He has falsely called the election rigged said Democrats cheated and even installed a White House plaque claiming Biden took office after the most corrupt election everDavid Becker a former Department of Justice voting rights attorney and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation amp Research said he was skeptical the FBI search in Georgia would lead to any successful prosecutions Trump has demanded charges against several enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey and New Yorks Democratic Attorney General Letitia James that have stalled in court So much this administration has done is to make claims in social media rather than go to court Becker said I suspect this is more about poisoning the well for 2026This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever