HARRISBURG—Attorney General Josh Shapiro today submitted a memorandum to the United States Senate outlining the factual evidence regarding Pennsylvania’s fair and secure 2020 election despite the repeated lies former President Donald Trump and his enablers told to the American people before and after the election. Former President Trump is on trial before the Senate and could be convicted and barred from holding future office for his attacks on democracy and the rule of law, which culminated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The memorandum exposes President Trump’s fabrications about Pennsylvania’s election, through baseless conspiracy theories undermining our democracy, and how they led to the events of January 6.
“Pennsylvania bore the brunt of President Trump’s crusade to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election,” said AG Shapiro in his memo. “For months, President Trump attacked the integrity of the Commonwealth’s election, repeating lie after lie at every opportunity. In state and federal court, his attorneys laundered his lies as legal claims brought in increasingly frivolous lawsuits. One after another, they failed. The courts resoundingly confirmed what Pennsylvania already knew: The 2020 election in Pennsylvania was free and fair; it was conducted in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth and the United States; and the results of that election were accurate.”
The memo also discusses the meritless lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in state and federal courts trying to bolster his lies about Pennsylvania’s elections. The claims in his lawsuits were repeatedly shown to be unfounded, and the suits were dismissed by judges of both parties, including some who were appointed by Trump himself.
On the day of the insurrection, former President Trump told supporters several untrue claims in his speech, promoting his false narrative about stolen elections that he had made since Election Day:
- He falsely claimed that there were “205,000 more ballots than you had voters” in Pennsylvania.
- He falsely claimed that “thousands” of dead people voted in Pennsylvania.
- He falsely claimed that “[o]ver 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters.”
- He falsely claimed that “the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out … was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people.”
AG Shapiro also urged the Senate to consider the impact of President Trump’s lies on future elections: “The events of January 6 were shocking and unprecedented. But they were not wholly unexpected—at least not to election officials in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who had lived with President Trump’s lies on a nonstop basis for the previous two months… It is hoped that this information will set the record straight about the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 elections and help the Senate better understand the facts surrounding President Trump’s campaign of lies and why he must be held accountable for the tragic events of January 6.”
# # #