In the American system of law, not unlike Canada’s, the courts have the final say about challenges to election integrity. Candidates have the right to challenge official votes. The Trump campaign made dozens of such court challenges.
The Select Committee heard from a renowned legal expert Ben Ginsberg who had represented Republican George W. Bush in successfully resisting the challenge of his election for president by Al Gore that went to the US Supreme Court and led to the election of Bush. Ginsburg had represented numerous other Republicans in election litigation. He served as the national counsel to Republican presidential campaigns of 2000, 2004, and 2012. He also represented George W. Bush in the most famous election case in America and won.
As Ms Lofgren of the Select Committee said, “it is fair to say that you are the most prominent Republican lawyer who has litigated elections.” Ginsburg had analyzed the Trump’s litigation. He pointed out to the House Select committee how the Trump campaign had major legal problems in pursuing their legal cases. The elections were not close. The narrowest margin was more than 10,000 votes. In 2000 there had been 500 votes apart. As he said, “you just don’t make up those sorts of numbers in recounts.” He also pointed out how the Trump campaign did not have evidence to support their claims. After all, courts always demand evidence. That is just what they do. Unlike the American public who are often swayed by wild allegations without supporting evidence, American courts are much more circumspect.
Ginsburg said there was not one case in which an American court found a Trump allegation was proved. “There was never that instance. The simple fact is that the Trump campaign did not make its case.”
He looked at more than 60 cases with more than a 180 counts. Not one was made out in court!
The House of Representatives Select Committee found that after the election and before January 6th, the Trump campaign brought 62 cases to court and it lost 61. The 1 case they “won” did not actually affect the outcome of that election. The Trump campaign said the courts did not give them an opportunity to make their cases in court. Ginsburg denied this. As Ginsburg said,
“They did have their day in court. About half of those cases were dismissed at the procedural stage. For lack of standing, the proper people didn’t bring the case, or there wasn’t sufficient evidence and it got dismissed on a motion to dismiss. But in the others, there were discussions of the merits of cases made in the complaints. In no instances did the court find that the charges of fraud were real.”
It is also worth noting that even if the Trump campaign complained that it did not have its day in court, there were post election reviews in each of the 6 battleground states that could have made a difference, and those cases ranged from the somewhat farcical Cyber Ninjas case in Arizona, to the Michigan Senate report to the hand recount case in Georgia that Mr. Pak addressed, in each of those instances there was no credible evidence of fraud produced by the Trump campaign or his supporters.
In other words, Bill Barr was right. All of Trump’s claims of fraudulent elections were bullshit. Yet for 4 years since then Trump and the Trumpsters have been trying to use claims of a stolen election to persuade their fellow Republicans that Biden was not legitimately elected. Surprisingly, many of those Republicans support the former President on these issues. But the claims are all bullshit.
Trump and the Trumpsters are simply out of touch with reality.