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A group of prominent conservatives released a new report Thursday outlining their investigation into the 2020 election and concluded that former President Trump’s claims of a stolen election are without merit.
The report, LOST, NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, was compiled by three former federal judges and eight conservative leaders who investigated Trump’s claims.
Over the course of a year, the group reviewed all 64 cases of fraudulent claims by the Trump campaign in six key states and concluded that there were no significant cases of fraud that would have changed the election results. The report goes state by state and claim by claim, taking the time to investigate each legal case.
Fears of further damage to the electoral process led to the report as allegations of fraud continue. Investigators said they fear Trump supporters’ reluctance to see the election as lost could come back to haunt them if they flip majorities in the House and Senate this cycle.
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Supporters of President Trump at a rally in Washington, DC, November 14, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
“I think there’s a lack of recognition that it goes both ways, and that if Republicans take over, you open the door for Democrats to say the same thing, and that erodes a major fundamental part of our democracy,” Benjamin Ginsburg, an election attorney who works at Republican politics for decades, told FOX News.
Ginsburg, along with former senators John Danforth and Gordon H. Smith and longtime Republican congressional chief of staff David Hoppe, as well as former solicitor general Ted Olson and former federal appeals court judges Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell and Thomas Griffith concluded that there are no substantial allegations of fraud to alter the election.
Griffith told Fox that he thought it was important for a group of conservatives to do an investigation rather than relying on outside sources to investigate.
“I contacted Ben and a number of other long-time political conservatives to say, ‘Let’s look at this ourselves. Let’s not rely on what The New York Times or our other publications tell us. Let’s look at this for ourselves. Let’s spend the time. Let’s dive deep into each of the contested states,” Griffith said.
The report acknowledged that voting changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic could have created an opportunity for more fraud, but found that this was not the case.
Rudy Giuliani, left, with President Trump (Reuters)
“The performance of the system in 2020 was all the more remarkable due to the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused changes of unprecedented scope and timeline,” according to the report.
“Some of these changes may have created opportunities for fraud, but there is no evidence that these risks have actually materialized; nor did they lead to a decrease in voter participation. Exactly the opposite. However, moving forward, states must redouble their efforts to strengthen the integrity of our voting systems and make voting as easy as possible and as difficult to cheat as possible for people of all circumstances.”
Claims that the 2020 election was stolen have continued to surface on the campaign trail from both Trump and potential voters. Recently at a rally in Alaska, Trump said the ballot count should be watched.
“Democrats have proven, unfortunately, that the vote counter is far more important than the candidate,” Trump said.
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This is exactly the kind of rhetoric that Ginsburg, Griffith and their fellow authors insist is harmful to both the country and the Republican Party.
“One of the effects that allegations of fraudulent elections have is that they will lower Republican turnout — that if voters start to think that their votes don’t matter because the results are rigged, they’ll stay home,” Ginsburg said. .
Supporters of President Trump attend a rally to protest the victory of President-elect Joe Biden on November 7, 2020 in Salem, Oregon. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)
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The November midterm elections are just months away, and Republicans’ chances of flipping the majority in their favor remain high, according to the survey.
Mike Emanuel is currently the chief Washington correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined FNC in 1997 as a Los Angeles correspondent and currently serves as co-anchor of FOX News Live.
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