Topline
President Donald Trump called Friday for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate former President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election, as Trump has continued to push baseless evidence of fraud in the election despite still facing criminal charges for his post-election efforts.
Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden attend Trump’s inauguration at the U.S. Capitol building on … More
Key Facts
Trump railed against the 2020 election results on Truth Social Friday morning, claiming the election was a “total FRAUD.”
The president said a “Special Prosecutor must be appointed” to investigate the election results, adding, “Let the work begin!”
Independent investigations have repeatedly determined there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, with experts debunking Trump’s allegations of wrongdoing, and every legal case Trump and his allies have previously brought alleging fraud has failed in court.
Special prosecutors are independent third-party counsel that the attorney general appoints to oversee investigations about issues where the Justice Department might have a conflict of interest in prosecuting the case themselves, such as Jack Smith overseeing the federal government’s criminal cases against Trump when he was out of office.
Trump could not order a special prosecutor investigation himself, but Attorney General Pam Bondi, a close ally who has so far acted in line with the president’s agenda, could decide to appoint one in response to his request.
The Justice Department has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Does Trump Believe His Voter Fraud Claims?
Trump’s continued claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” come after Smith and the Biden-era DOJ alleged Trump has pushed his fraud claims despite knowing they were false. In court filings for the federal criminal case over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results—which has since been dropped—prosecutors alleged Trump was repeatedly told by top advisors that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. Smith alleged Trump and his team made up fraud allegations “out of whole cloth” and his own advisors never believed their claims, quoting Trump advisor Jason Miller as allegedly saying, “It’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s–t beamed down from the mothership.” Prosecutors allege Trump himself similarly did not appear to believe the fraud claims, with the president allegedly telling an aide that the “details don’t matter” after the aide said his evidence of fraud wouldn’t hold up in court. Trump allegedly “mocked” ex-attorney Sidney Powell’s claims about voting machines changing results, comparing them to “Star Trek.” “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell,” Trump was overheard allegedly telling his family, according to prosecutors, who also claim Trump hired ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani because he “was willing to falsely claim victory and spread knowingly false claims of election fraud.” Trump has denied prosecutors’ claims and all allegations of wrongdoing, and since the case was dropped before it went to trial, prosecutors’ allegations were never given the chance to be held up or struck down in court. The Washington Post also reported in 2023 that Trump’s 2020 campaign commissioned a report into whether there was widespread election fraud, which determined there was no such fraud.
Trump Still Faces Consequences For 2020 Election Fraud Claims
Trump was indicted twice for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, including by allegedly pressuring state officials and lawmakers to reject the results based on his fraud allegations. Trump was indicted in federal court and in Georgia state court over the alleged post-election conspiracy, part of four criminal cases brought against him after his first term. (The president has pleaded not guilty in every case.) The federal 2020 election case was ultimately dropped after Trump’s reelection in November, given the DOJ’s policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents. His Georgia case remains ongoing, though its future is in doubt after a state court ruling that declared Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the case over her romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade. The Georgia Supreme Court still has to weigh in on the issue, but if it upholds Willis’ disqualification, the case would then have to be taken up by a new prosecutor in order to move forward, and it’s unclear when or if that could happen.
Key Background
Trump and his allies pushed widespread claims of election fraud in the aftermath of Biden’s 2020 election win, part of a wide-ranging effort to overturn the election results that overwhelmingly failed both in and out of court. The fraud claims have persisted over the years and remain widely accepted by many Republicans, despite there being no credible evidence to support them, with polling in recent years suggesting approximately 30% of Americans don’t believe Biden was legitimately elected. The fraud claims and efforts to overturn the 2020 election have also resulted in numerous consequences for the president’s allies who helped him push the fraud claims, with former lawyers like Giuliani, Powell and John Eastman facing criminal charges, law license suspensions and hefty defamation cases against them.
